5 ways to completely demotivate your Chief Digital Officer.

Unfortunately, there are not as many Chief Digital Officers as various studies predicted a few years ago. I regularly meet professionals who hold this position, some officially – but the majority unofficially. What I often experience in these conversations is a strong sense of disillusionment. What initially looked like a position where you could really make a difference turns out to be a shadow position in the company. This is often the fault of senior management or the CEO directly. Read here how he sometimes manages to demotivate highly motivated and talented employees.

(Reading time: 3 minutes – English version here)

Attributing success to yourself

Many companies can boast successes in digitalization. Some are very visible to the outside world whenever they involve customers. Other successes may not be visible at first glance or only within the company. True to the motto “success has many fathers, failure only one”, CEOs are usually at the forefront of media successes, explaining something about digital strategy and team thinking only to read in the relevant media the next day: “CEO XYZ is building the digital future at company ZYX.” In most of these digital projects, the CEO was not really involved in the project beyond approving the contracts and skimming the project presentation. However, it’s a completely different story when a project fails with media impact: then the CDO has to get involved. Then nobody talks about the team anymore.

Fancy, Trendy, Buzzy

Not all but many CEOs are susceptible to buzzwording. Particularly those who see themselves as strong doer types. They are constantly in the CDOs’ ears with ideas and suggestions and would prefer to simply implement everything that is technically possible and is propagated in the relevant blogs. This type of CEO is rather harmless because he does not stand in the way of change. The problem is rather that he simply gives a CDO a lot of work. He has to coach him, so to speak, explain why one thing makes sense and another less so. Why timing is important. The fact that technology and staff still need time to keep up mentally and in terms of resources during change projects.

Propagate comprehensive changes but do not really support them

The permanent propagation of the company’s progressiveness (keywords: innovation or innovative, big data, multi- and omnichannel, transformation) is also widespread wherever it is opportune. However, when it comes to specific changes that are comprehensive, e.g. those that affect existing revenue streams, endless reconsideration, verification and plausibility checks are required. The projects are reviewed until a competitor has launched something similar in the meantime and can demonstrate initial success. The CEO then stands in the CDO’s office one morning and asks “why on earth” we don’t already have this.

Do not provide a budget

When it comes to costs, the wheat is separated from the chaff. It’s easy to see which CEOs are serious and have the courage to invest large budgets in transformation and digital projects. Lip service in this area is particularly frustrating. Key roles in large companies are often committed in this way. Budgets and scope for action are promised. However, when the time comes to get down to business and the supervisory board and senior management realize that these measures sometimes entail drastic changes with significant investment consequences, they back down.

Sanctioning failure

Advancing the digital transformation in a company in an interdisciplinary manner is not a safe or completely plannable undertaking. It is in the nature of things that individual projects and strategies fail. Even with the best data and the most skilled minds in the team, mistakes can happen and measures may not have the desired effect. As a CEO, you should be aware of this. Nobody never makes mistakes. Of course, this should not be a free pass to approach projects with a “who-cares” attitude. This failure should be understood as part of the culture. Strictly speaking, not the failure itself, but what you make of it. Instead of immediately demonizing the entire project or measure, the failure should be analysed and the findings should be seen as a benevolent response and input for a future, improved project.

But!

Since the above 5 points cast a bad light on CEOs and senior management, it should also be said that I also see many leaders who support their CDOs very well, trust them and work very well with them. I often perceive these people as real leaders. I hope to meet more people like this in the future.