“The wise person sees danger and takes cover; the fool keeps going and suffers for it.”

— Proverb

“Never give up.”

— Winston Churchill

I have quit too early. I have hung on too long. I don’t want to be thought of as a quitter. I don’t want to be regarded as too persistent.

Quitting is a reality of life. It will be a foe and it will be a friend. Knowing when and when not to quit is the mark of a healthy person and an excellent leader. It doesn’t hurt in poker, either.

Why CIOs Quit

CIOs quit for both good reasons and bad. Often, the leave is centered around:

• Inadequate preparation for executive leadership
• Undue expectations of being a hands-on technology solutionist and a business-line strategist
• Confusion and conflicts related to strategy
• Budget restraint
• Change resistance
• A seat at the table without a real voice in the direction and decisions

Any of these may be valid reasons for a CIO to see danger and take cover. All of these are also approachable issues for resolution.

When CIOs Should Never Quit

Never quit in the middle

This is the reminder I hear from my friend, Mel Conant. If you met him, you would like him. In his 70s now, he has plenty of experience that I pay attention to. This is a lesson he has learned that I will never forget.

Never quit in the middle is good advice for all areas of life. The problem for CIOs is not knowing where you are - beginning, middle or end. Generally, when a CIO begins a role, there are plenty of urgent needs, and the perceived value to the organization is what you can do for them now.

Unfortunately, such a start lends itself to a cycle of urgency. Your job becomes tying up loose ends and chasing bad ideas.

When CIOs are in a hiring process, they need to unearth the first year objectives, 1-3 year goals and 3-5 year developments that the business has identified. If determining these is supposed to be part of a CIO’s initial work (because companies don’t know what they don’t know), then part of the CIO performance review or coaching sessions need to be to establish them.

Since the average exit for a CIO is 3-4 years, it is reasonable to assume that most are quitting in the middle. Establishing an “end” up front is not the same as planning an exit; success of an overall development strategy simply leads to a new end to be determined (or a promotion to enjoy).

Do you know what the middle and end look like for you as a strategic CIO?

Never quit in a crisis

I was on the phone this week with the CIO of a large city. He reviewed for me his past year of leadership through the pandemic. I said to him, “I appreciate the heroes that our country is acknowledging in this time, such as medical workers and teachers. I wish technology leaders were a part of that recognition.”

What you have been asked to do is nothing short of heroic. You had to respond to an attack you did not see coming. You had to adopt immediate survival strategies, and you had to quickly implement practices that were on a longer development schedule.

You could have said on many occasions, “I told you so,” but you chose to rally your team, honor your stakeholders, and roll up your sleeves. You catapulted your organization into the future. You did it with force-fields up, at warp speed, and with patchworked power.

You are now involved in post-pandemic planning (future article to come). How do you feel about yourself? How do you feel about your team members that invested into this past year? Pretty good, I imagine.

Now imagine if you had quit. Contribution is not the same as completion. Quitting before the win doesn’t feel like a shared win.

I have discovered that companies, groups and people can live without me. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon if I have my way about it, but I learned a long time ago that the world will go on without me.

Never quit in a crisis is for your sake. Though others benefit from your tenacity, endurance looks beautiful on you. See the crisis through, then determine if the new future for the company is the new future for you.

Never quit because of stress...but quit before burnout.

We all feel stress. We all get tired. Fatigue is manageable. Peace is available. We humans may not always be impressed with each other, but wow are we magnificent creatures.

We can handle a lot.

But not burnout.

People misunderstand burnout. They think it is stress on steroids. Burnout is more particular than stress. Stress is serious: it has emotional, physical and relational symptoms that must be addressed. Stress can be alleviated; health, rest, life-giving activities, and love are all part of good stress management.

Whereas stress can be alleviated, burnout must be avoided.

According to Tom Paterson, a renowned business consultant, burnout results in a metamorphosis, a change in character, substance and appearance. The person who is burned-out has undergone an irreversible change.

“A new forest may grow - a new interest or challenge may be pursued after a period of rest - but the old forest is no more,” Tom says.

By example, if a surgical nurse burns out, she will never go into an operating room again. She may do some other form of nursing, but she is no longer capable of being at peak performance in a surgical suite.

The talent remains. The motivation is lost.

Online searches for “signs of burnout” increased nearly 25% in 2020. The concern is real.

How close are you to burnout? Here are some warning signs:

• Behavioral change
• Chronic illnesses or issues
• Desire to drop out, isolate or escape
• Obsessions
• Pessimism and cynicism
• Self-doubt and emptiness

These are easy to joke about; they are also essentials to seek counseling for. You can walk up to the edge of burnout and be helped; you can be wise and take cover. But you cannot cross that line; you must not be a fool and suffer for it.

It’s been quite a year. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is a lie; it’s why people suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Are you stressed, or are you approaching burnout?

If you identify with chronic anything or isolation tendencies, seek counsel now.

To quit is an art. Hope is good to hold onto; hopeless is good to admit. It’s all about the context. Seize the day or live to fight another day. You decide.