You deserve better. 

I cannot be moved from this conviction. 

Four years ago I started CIO Mastermind because I was tired of working in isolation as a technology leader. I figured I wasn’t alone, and I figured correctly.

What I didn’t expect to find along the way was the number of technology leaders who feel stuck in their career trajectory or stuck in their role. I can name the people I have had the conversation with. It turns out that they are not alone either. One survey revealed 75% of respondents indicating they felt stuck in their professional development. 

That isn’t right. 

Career trajectory is about advancement, but it is about more than that; it is about maximum reach. Career trajectory isn’t just about the position you hold in a company, but the influence you hold in the industry. Not everyone should seek the C-Suite. But everyone should be renowned in their focus of work. 

Role-rut isn’t just about doing the same work. It’s about not shifting what others come to expect from you. It’s one thing to do something because you are exceptional at it; it’s another to do it because someone believes it is the limit of your competence.

Now I’m on a mission. For years, CIO Mastermind has mastered the peer-group advisory experience. I love what we have crafted, and more importantly, our members and their companies love what we have crafted. 

Where else do you find unbiased input in a vendor-free environment where your real-time issues are thoroughly addressed with a customized solution in mind? (If you are intrigued, see me here).

I want to champion the elevation of technology leaders. To that end, my team and I are fully investing in how you and your peers can intentionally develop yourselves to be better professionals, better leaders, better executives and better experts (and you get to define what better is, not me. Better is contextual).

Let’s see if this resonates with you.

Intentional Personal Development

1. As it relates to your Self

• Are you avoiding trying to be “balanced” and embracing “the ordered-self?”
• Are you maximizing nutrition, movement, rest and appearance no matter your body-type?
• Are you entrenched in binary thinking or have you learned the art of re-thinking?
• Are you an emotionally healthy leader or are do you fall back into your shadow-self?

2. As it relates to your Skill

• Are you clear in your communication?
• Have you mastered asking questions?
• Have you perfected your productivity style?
• Have you dialed into resilience strategies?

3. As it relates to your Scope

• What is your noble why?
• Are you true to your focus?
• Have you embraced essential endings?
• Who are you multiplying yourself into?

4. As it relates to your Score

• What is your measure for effective work-life order?
• Are you leading out of your family/friend life or despite your family/friend life?
• Who is speaking into your work developmentally?
• How do you score your career? 

Intentional Relational Development

1. How do you cultivate and not just give assent to Culture?
2. What is the strategy in place for developing individuals on your team?
3. How are you developing the team itself?
4. How are being more effective in leading process as a result of developing individuals and the team?

Intentional Positional Development

1. What is your Fit in relationship to peer positions and upline leaders? How well do you fit?
2. How do you regularly align yourself with executive offices?
3. Is your voice gaining in strength? Do you know how to speak and speak up in executive or critical position settings?
4. Has your stake strengthened? 

Intentional Vocational Development

1. What is your personal brand in your company and in your industry?
2. What aspects of your industry are within your mastery and what are you still mastering?
3. How prepared are you for transition, either to another company or into a self-defining season?
4. Do you plan to invest in your Business-Of-Self and contribute your experience and expertise beyond your current opportunities?

If I could say anything to the 75% who feel stuck, it would be I love you and there is hope. Stuck is an illusion, a momentary deception, a surrender to external influences. Role-rut is a near-impossibility. 

There is always something to be done. You have never lost the initiative nor the ability to leverage momentum.

I believe in you. And you deserve better. And more is in reach.

But I must beg of you. You will notice how often I used the word intentional. The technical and tactical skills you have mastered can’t hold a candle to the personal, relational, positional and vocational skills you must master and customize in order to realize your career goals and dream-life. 

But being unstuck requires intentionality. I can help you break through anything, because the breakthrough is already in you. But if you are not intentional to draw it out, it will sit as water in an unattended well. 

This is what I beg: Review the list above. Identify your points of need. Tell me what they are. We are developing resources for all that I listed above. Help me prioritize them based on what you see in yourself.

I quite think I’m the happiest person on the planet because I work with people I admire and whose success makes me jump for joy. Which is why I can get grumpy when you are overlooked, underestimated, and under-appreciated. 

But why whine when I can solve? Let’s solve this together.

‍