For most of my career the advice to ambitious technologists was to go deep. Own a domain, become the person, let the promotions follow. That advice built a generation of brilliant specialists who are now being asked to lead through problems that do not respect their domain. AI reshapes the workforce. Cyber risk becomes a board matter. Transformation touches everyone. The specialist runs out of road.
What range actually means
Leadership range is not a grab-bag of hobbies. It is having operated in more than one system with real accountability: run a P&L and a technology function, sat on both sides of a vendor negotiation, led through a crisis and through a boring year. People with range recognise patterns faster because they have seen the same pattern wearing different clothes.
The CIO who has never sold anything and the CMO who has never shipped anything are both guessing about half the business.
Les Ottolenghi
Building it on purpose
- Take the lateral move. Two years running a business unit teaches a technologist more about technology than a decade in the data centre.
- Sit on something outside your company. A non-profit board, an advisory role, a startup. Different incentives, different lessons.
- Write. Explaining your field to people outside it is the fastest way to find out what you actually understand.
What this means for succession
If your succession plan for the technology leadership is a list of the deepest experts, tear it up. The next CIO should be the person who can explain the AI strategy to the audit committee, argue with the CFO about capital allocation and still command the respect of the engineers. That person exists. They are probably not in the job you expect.
