What motivates CIOs to come into work each day?

Computing speaks to a host of the UK's top CIOs to find out what makes them get out of bed in the morning

There's the old adage that CIO stands for Career Is Over. Whilst the position is undoubtedly demanding, many of the UK's leading technology professionals remain excited and motivated about their roles, despite the pressure.

Computing spoke to ten CIOs to find out what motivates them about their roles.

Making a difference

The most common theme to emerge was the idea of making a difference. Whether that's changing the fortunes of the company, or the wider world, many CIOs cite this trait above all as helping them spring out of bed each morning.

"For me it's the desire to make a difference," said Duncan Stott, CIO of engineering firm Kier. "The world is going through a digital revolution, and the CIO is right in the middle with the best job of all," he added.

Charles Ewen, CIO of the Met Office, said that he feels motivated by the essential role his organisation plays for society.

"I'm privileged to work for a fantastic organisation that makes a genuine difference. That's it for me, I'm not doing it for any other reason. I just want to make a difference, and the Met Office allows me to make a bigger difference than I could anywhere else. It makes a difference for society in the face of a demonstrably changing environment, one of mankind's' core risks. Anything I can do to make that better is a good thing," he said.

Mark Holt, CTO at the Trainline also feels motivated by the difference his organisation makes to people's lives.

"Every morning hundreds of thousands of people open our app to get to work, and every evening the same number use us to get home. Every day 127,000 people travel on a ticket bought through us. Those are enormous numbers, and we're making a difference to people's actual lives. If you can make someone's life just that little bit better, that's an amazing thing.

"Sometimes I'll tell people where I work and they say ‘I love your app, I use it every day!' That's as good as it gets," he added.

Jane Deal, CIO of the Law Society emphasised the difference she feels she makes to her organisation.

"It's about taking the organisation to a different level successfully.

"Last year I joined the Law Society, and it was on Windows 7 and Office 2007. I thought the IT team was winding me up when they told me that. Over the course of the next year I moved them onto Windows 10, Office 365, Microsoft Azure. We also gave everyone new Surface Pro devices and introduced flexible working.

"They haven't had a good history of change here, but even now people refer back to that year of change saying it was the best they've experienced. We said what we were going to do, promised what we'd deliver, and delivered on those promises. So it's the buzz from doing it well, and involving the staff.

"Business change really drives me, coming in knowing I've done a good job and can do more," said Deal.

Nick Folkes, CIO at G4S sounded a similar note, describing his satisfaction managing the transformation of his organisation.

"I love a challenge, making a difference, and the idea of making world a little bit better each day. What we're doing at G4S is fascinating; taking 100 year old company through a fundamental shift in how it operates, and trying to transform a services business through digital technology. It's a very different way of working and presents itself a significant change challenge.

"Being given the honour to lead that change within the group is a fantastic challenge, and keeps me motivated.

Learning and development

Other CIOs cited the desire to keep learning as the main reason they stay in the role. Mark Ridley, until recently group CTO at scale up accelerator Blenheim Chalcot went as far as to say that it's more important to him than his salary.

"My top motivation is learning. I now gauge my career not by my salary, or by how big my team is, but by how much I'm learning. So I seek out new and novel opportunities.

"The other thing is I love fixing things, or building something new. I've been fortunate enough to be able to turn down CEO roles because in the start up the world the CEO job is mostly selling, and I don't want to get away from building and fixing, I want to be responsible for delivering something."

Tom Clark, CIO at Leeds Building Society agreed that learning is key, adding that the variety of the role is also critical.

"It's about delivering positive change, not just managing the status quo. It's about having the opportunity to problem solve, shape, direct, and create something better than what you started with, not just the grind of doing the same thing every day.

"I look at each role as being personal preparation for your next. It's important to continually learn and experience something new," said Clark.

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What motivates CIOs to come into work each day?

Computing speaks to a host of the UK's top CIOs to find out what makes them get out of bed in the morning

Seeking a challenge

Richard Warner, COO of insurer LV= echoed Folkes' view of enjoying the challenge.

"I enjoy a good intellectual challenge. Most CIOs in this space are transformational people, so you need a transformation challenge; how the hell do I navigate the business from here to there.

"It has to be in a team environment where the weight of the team is committed to change, and they want to change and work together. You'll always have pockets of friction, but you need environment where people will work with you.

"Seeing what your team achieves and, creating an environment where you see teams achieve, and you see people facing into a challenge and doing well. Seeing your teams excited and rising to the challenge, whilst developing and learning new skills is incredibly rewarding."

Ian Penny, CIO at Hiscox agreed with Warner, adding that being able to have an impact at a business level, and outside of pure technology concerns, is also a motivation.

"I report directly to the CEO, and I can genuinely have a conversation about anything we're doing in the business and get traction on it. Sometimes it's not technology-related. We recently talked about a new building in York, my input for that is where this building should be.

"It's my concern isn't limited to wanting to be where I can find the right number of technologists. Operational resilience is about business process resilience. When it floods, what are they alternatives? These are not technology questions, but genuine business questions."

Doing it for love

Laura Meyer, CIO at publisher Harper Collins added that her motivation comes from her love of the industry, and the output of her organisation.

"I'm privileged to work for company which publishes amazing content. It's great to work in technology role within a creative company, you get to enjoy the content you're surrounded by," she said.

Computing also asked the group about their thoughts on the differences between good and great CIOs.

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