CIO Personal Branding
The recent Harvey Nash / CIO survey on CIO attitudes to personal branding makes interesting reading.
The IT industry does not have a positive brand image so it was heartening to read that two thirds of the respondents believed that having a strong personal brand is important to helping the IT function achieve its broad objectives. Over a third of respondents have actively sought the views of others in respect of how they are perceived.
The vast majority believe that their personal brand is of equal if not better than that of other senior executives such as the Marketing Director or CFO. For me this is worrying, as it suggests that at least some of the CIOs don't fully understand personal branding. If the above were indeed true then we would have many more CIOs on the board and not reporting into their 'peers'.
CIO personal branding will drive the branding of the IT function, which in turn drives the branding of the IT industry. If these CIOs think they have 'personal branding' covered, then those of us that support/influence CIOs need to highlight the gap between perception and reality for the sake of the IT industry.
