1. Lead and mentor. CIOs who are passionate about transforming healthcare inspire those around them. CIOS who are insightful, happy to share knowledge and approach leadership in a thoughtful, creative manner are more effective.
2. Set the strategy. CIOs should naturally transition to contributing to the vision of the organization’s strategy. They should translate the value of technology and offer understanding of the key issues influencing healthcare.
3. Execute on the strategy. The CIO’s challenge is to set and execute the organization’s technology strategy. Peers, according to the report, are more likely to acknowledge a CIO who can move through challenges and achieve results as a leader.
4. Use technology as a tool to deliver on the strategy. A great CIO helps translate the value of technology to improve clinical and financial outcomes. A CIO needs to be an enabler for adopting technology as a tool.
5. Find new ways to build consensus across the organization. A great CIO develops partnerships between IT teams, clinical teams and the operations, finance and marketing teams to change the perception of IT projects. The CIO needs to lead the entire administration to work on technology issues.
6. Communicate, motivate then delegate. Strong CIOs build great teams that take ownership of tasks. Rather than micromanage, the CIO can more effectively support their teams by facilitating joint ownership of projects across departments. The CIO should also convey excitement and conviction to motivate their team.
7. Build great teams. A good CIO should rebuild teams to maximize the value of each individual.
8. Collaborate. Coordinating healthcare requires increased collaboration at all levels so the CIO must be working with key stakeholders across departments.
9. Understand and manage regulatory requirements. The volume and complexity of regulatory requirements has increased so the ability to stay on top of the requirements is necessary for a CIO. The CIO must ensure the administration understands deadlines to avoid gaps in strategic planning, misunderstandings and project failure.
10. Mitigate risk. CIOs must be perceptive in working through policy, procedure and technology to address disaster recovery, continuity planning and data breach processes, according to the report.
