IT Management Slideshow: Five Must-Have Skills for CIOs

Business acumen

Know how money flows in and out of a company, and the critical levers that your tech team can push to increase positive impact here.

Online tutorials can serve as a primer on financial statements, so you can work in synch with your CFO.

(Stevens recommends this one:click here.

Human capital management

This requires talent evaluation, development, goal-setting and performance management.

Sharpen evaluation skills by volunteering to help your HR department screen job candidates.

Offer to train or mentor new hires to boost your coaching skills.

Strategic-value creation

Gather with customers and marketing department execs to understand how needs create revenue-generating opportunities - and how tech can play a role.

The Gartner Hype Cycle can assist you with the value-based evaluation of emerging technologies, as well as strategic analysis and critical thinking.

Find it here: click here.

Leadership

Influence others through consensus building, storytelling, communications, modeling.

Push yourself out there on company presentations.

Represent IT on cross-functioning teams. Increase company visibility by taking on high-profile roles.

Political savvy

Key components are networking, self-promotion, negotiating, empathy.

Pursue professional associations to find mentors, promote accomplishments, build your network.

Use interactions within and outside of work to practice empathy.