How much IT is valued in an organization largely depends on the CIO’s ability to demonstrate it.

One of the topics I am most frequently asked to speak about is the need for CIOs to effectively market the value of IT. Despite its importance, this is a topic that is often treated with a certain degree of disdain by CIOs. First of all, many IT executives are introverts by nature and the thought of marketing and bragging about anything is extremely distasteful. Furthermore, many of us were raised to believe that good work is automatically recognized and that bragging about our accomplishments is gauche. This mindset is very naive.

Often when I present on this topic at a conference, I will play a little game with my audience. First, I mention that marketing is critical to the success of a CIO. This often gets me the proverbial “eyeball roll” from at least 20 percent of the audience. I proceed to ask the following questions:

• “How many of you consider yourself to be experienced at marketing?” Normally, in a room of 200 people, 10 hands might be raised. I then proceed to the next question …
• “How many of you are in long-term committed relationships?” This question usually gets about 80 to 90 percent of the hands raised. Now for the coupe de grâce …
• “So let me ask the first question again: How many of you consider yourself experienced at marketing?”

This usually gets a chuckle from the crowd, but they get my meaning!

I share with the audience that my wife is a beautiful and intelligent woman who could have had her pick of suitors. Of all the people she could have chosen to marry, I convinced her to marry me. If you don’t think marketing played a role in this effort, you are sadly mistaken!

All kidding aside, one of the main reasons that IT executives are uncomfortable with the idea of marketing is because they misinterpret what it is really all about. Many CIOs equate marketing with being a slick “snake oil” salesman. The word conjures up the need for $3,000 suits and “schmoozing” over a bottle of Dom Pérignon at the local steakhouse. This is not my version of marketing.

Follow the Money

To me, marketing is simply educating people about how the money they are investing in you and your IT team is paying dividends. It is explaining the value that your services and efforts bring to topline revenue, lowering bottom-line costs, and finding innovative ways to engage customers in more effective and value-added ways.

For example, at the U.S. Tennis Association where I am CIO, we implemented a consumer-facing website that allows parents of young children to access everything they need to get their kids started playing age- and equipment-appropriate tennis. Any Web-hosting organization could have developed and hosted this content, but knowing what my business was trying to accomplish and understanding the unique calls to action to make this site happen — that’s the value IT added above the technical deployment of a solution.

Your unique understanding of your business, your clients and your processes is what distinguishes you as a valuable internal partner, not just another “everything as a service” cloud or network services provider. At a time when these one-size-fits-all services abound, it’s critical that you prove the ROI on the capital projects you are driving.

And knowing how to target your budget requests will go a long way as well. When I needed funding to strengthen our access-control security solution, for instance, I didn’t ask for a large sum. Instead, I asked for a one-time investment that would allow us to better secure one tournament while at the same time providing a real-time headcount of fans at the event. As a result, we increased ticket sales by about $1.5 million each and every year! I was able to demonstrate that a small, one-time investment of X dollars reaped a return of 8X dollars each year.

The value derived through other parts of your organization is easily understood. The board understands what the sales team is contributing. They know the value of research and development. But how many people intuitively understand the real business value of IT? It’s your job as a CIO to communicate this value proposition and educate this audience. Squander the opportunity at your own risk.

Editors Note: Read more about communications skills in an excerpt from Larry's new book, “Lessons in IT Transformation,” published by John Wiley & Sons. Read the chapter and download here.

Larry is also a member of the Smart Enterprise Exchange and can be contacted on the site.

So much has been written in the last few weeks, both pro and con, about raising children in the so-called “Chinese” Tiger Mom method. Included in this method is having high expectations, practicing behaviors that give rise to success, and being totally committed to that success. (I am not going to discuss what success means in this blog posting nor go into Amy Chua’s book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother).

One of the underlying assumptions in this Tiger Mom-philosophy is that intelligence is the most important factor, and that focusing on skills that enhance academic accomplishment, will lead to success. What is not stressed is the importance of what I call, Emotional Intelligence, and how self-awareness and being socially savvy leads to higher levels of success.

From MSNBC’s Morning Joe host Willie Geist (no, this is not sarcasm on my part), who has said that the best leaders are those who can build strategic relationships, to David Brooks of the New York Times who wrote, “They (kids raised this way) grow up skilled and compliant but without audacity to be great”, the notion is that there is more to happiness, success and greatness than academic excellence, highly refined technical aptitude or high IQ.

So what does all this have to do with Executive Coaching and the CIO? Over the years, I would say that the majority of coaching I have done is to enhance and build on executives’ Emotional Intelligence. Executive coaching is, first and foremost, about believing that the executive will succeed, similar to the Tiger Moms’ belief that the child will succeed. Both the coach and the Tiger Mom look at building new skills as practicing new behaviors. One of the major differences in the way I approach coaching, and there are many, is that my executive coaching stresses the importance of Emotional Intelligence. These skills are as important, if not, more important than the technical and scientific skills that got the executive to their current position.

Many executives reach a level where leadership is required, and that means knowing yourself  (self awareness) and how to motivate others to reach a specific goal (social awareness). This is where Emotional IQ comes in. Often, a technology expert has been rewarded for skills possessed in mastering technology (similar to those high-IQ 'Tiger' children), and not necessarily for understanding the culture of the organization, the people they work with, or how their behavior impacts the world of work. However, it is the CIO who has the ability to communicate the message, understand the organization, and is self-aware, who is usually the most successful.

I have found that those at the top are not always the smartest in terms of traditional IQ, but most have superb Emotional Intelligence—and that’s something that may be overlooked by Tiger Moms who are grooming future leaders.