The CIO Professional Network, the private CIO, CISO, and CTO community for The National CIO Review, gathered for a Learning Series event hosted by Chris Caruso on what it means to be an impactful technology leader. From his career as a retired global CIO and the research behind his book, The Impactful Technology Leader, Chris shared lessons from interviews with accomplished CIOs and survey data from more than 1,600 technology leaders across more than 60 countries.
The discussion centered on how technology leaders can create meaningful impact across the firm, the team, and the profession’s future.
Chris described technology leadership as something deeper than title or career advancement. The most impactful leaders, he argued, are driven by purpose. They want to help their organizations create workplaces where people can thrive and give back in ways that strengthen the next generation of technology talent.
Through personal stories and practical examples, the conversation examined how technology executives can lead with thoughtful execution and human impact.
Why It Matters: With AI changing how organizations think about work, leaders cannot afford to focus only on delivery. They also have to protect the human systems that make progress sustainable. The takeaway was that impactful technology leadership is about creating conditions where innovation, people, and purpose can grow together.
- Impactful Leaders Are Driven by Purpose: The discussion opened with a story about Chris asking his young grandson what he wanted to be when he grew up to highlight that the “why” behind a role often matters more than the role itself. He explained that technology leaders rarely grow up dreaming of becoming CIOs, but the best leaders develop a clear sense of purpose around the impact they want to have. From his interviews with technology executives, Chris found that impactful leaders tend to focus on impacting the firm through innovation, impacting the team through culture and motivation, and impacting the profession by helping develop future talent.
- Innovation Can Be Learned and Practiced: Chris challenged the assumption that technology professionals are too analytical or “left-brained” to be innovative. Drawing on the five discovery skills of experimenting, questioning, observing, networking, and associating, he explained that innovation is not limited to naturally creative people. These behaviors can be practiced and built into the way organizations operate. His survey data showed that while many technology leaders emphasize questioning, CIO 100 award-winning leaders were more likely to apply the full set of skills, particularly experimenting and associating. His point was that innovation is rarely the result of one breakthrough moment. More often, it comes from the consistent practice of challenging assumptions, testing ideas, and connecting problems to new possibilities.
- Observation Is One of the Most Powerful Innovation Tools: Observing was mentioned as one of Chris’s favorite discovery skills because it forces technology leaders to leave their assumptions behind and watch how customers or employees actually behave. He shared an example from PPG, where he saw a customer in a home improvement store holding a bath rug up against paint samples to find a matching color. That moment showed that customers were looking something bigger than just paint, they were trying to complete a larger decorating project. From that insight came a patented home décor color-matching concept that connected paint colors with related design elements, offering a practical example of how observation can reveal the real problem a customer is trying to solve.
- Better Questions Help Teams Solve the Right Problems: The group discussed the importance of questioning and the importance of asking simple “why” questions that challenge existing processes. One member noted that leaders should sometimes question processes like a five-year-old, asking why something is done or why a handoff goes to one person instead of another. Chris agreed that “why” questions are critical because they help teams uncover whether they are solving the right problem rather than simply fulfilling a request. He shared that one CIO in his book gathered IT leaders in a room and required them to spend 90 minutes asking only questions about a major business problem before offering solutions.
- Great Technology Workplaces Depend on Quality Supervisors: Chris shifted to team culture by discussing Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation. He distinguished between hygiene factors, such as salaries or working conditions, and motivators, such as meaningful work or recognition. His survey data showed that many technology leaders ranked recognition as the most important factor in creating a great workplace. However, leaders from organizations repeatedly recognized as best places to work placed more emphasis on fair compensation, employee development, and the quality of supervisors. Chris explained that strong supervisors are what turn workplace priorities into daily employee experience. When supervisors understand an employee’s goals and recognize success, culture becomes part of how the organization operates.
- AI May Create a New Inflection Point for Technology Talent: Concerns were raised that technology may be approaching another talent inflection point. Chris shared historical context showing that computer science degree pipelines have already faced major disruptions, including enrollment caps in the 1980s and the combined impact of Y2K, the dot-com crash, and offshoring fears in the early 2000s. He connected that history to today’s AI environment, noting that many leaders in a recent survey expect to hire fewer entry-level technology graduates in the next five years because of AI. At the same time, some respondents expect to hire more early-career talent because they believe organizations will need people to manage AI agents and support new AI-enabled operating models. An attendee raised the concern that if organizations stop bringing in people at the lower levels, they will eventually lack the middle- and senior-level talent needed later. Chris agreed, emphasizing that decisions made now could create unintended consequences for future leadership pipelines.
- Giving Back Is Part of Impactful Leadership: The session closed by emphasizing that technology leaders have a responsibility to help strengthen the future of the profession. His survey findings showed that most leaders believe they should support a deeper and more diverse talent pool, whether by engaging students, mentoring emerging professionals, supporting career changers, or participating in programs focused on STEM education and apprenticeships.
