Chief information officers are the bridge between information technology professionals and non-IT professionals in order to help create effective business partnerships throughout a company. While their roles have changed and shifted over the years, the CIO voice is more important than ever. So what makes a good CIO, and what are lessons every CIO need to learn along the way for effective leadership in the ever-changing landscape of the digital transformation?

“You have to almost be like a chameleon, in a sense,” said Bask Iyer (pictured), chief information officer at Dell Technologies Inc. “Technology is going to keep coming as a wave, so be ready for adapting and adopting to the changes. … The minute you feel like you know everything — very risky in a technology profession.”

Iyer spoke with Lisa Martin (@LuccaZara), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host John Troyer (@JTroyer), at the Dell Technologies World 2018 event in Las Vegas. They discussed the challenges of CIO leadership in the ever-changing landscape of the digital transformation. (* Disclosure below.)

Always learning, always changing as a CIO

One of the biggest challenges a CIO faces is getting the right people on board to help drive the digital transformation within a company, according to Iyer. The technology is secondary to the people driving the change.

“I made the same mistake every CIO makes,” Iyer said. “It’s not just the technology; it’s people, process, culture and technology. … I made changes to the leadership team [because] … we had to have people who can actually lead to change.”

Another thing a CIO must do is put the T back in IT, as Iyer explained. “You cannot do digital transformation without understanding the technology. So we had to staff internally; we had to get good folks,” he added.

A part of this process is education and being willing to admit that many don’t understand geeky terms like agile, DevOps and continuous development.

“We train our folks and our customers, our clients,” Iyer said. “You cannot do requirements the old way and throw it over the wall and expect me to develop. You have to get into the room with me, and draw it on the wall, and we have to design it together. So that’s been a good change.”

It takes passion for technology, along with humility, to always keep learning and growing as a CIO, Iyer concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Dell Technologies World 2018 event. (* Disclosure: Dell EMC sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Dell EMC nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE