Do you often wait for direction from business leaders before engaging your IT function? How can IT leaders break free from being in “wait and see” mode?
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Hello, This is a fantastic question, and it gets to the very heart of the modern CIO's role.
To answer you directly: absolutely not. I personally think that an individual in the C-suite who waits for direction is not a person who should be in a leadership position, period.
The old model of the CIO as a "service provider"—someone who simply takes orders from the business, builds what they're told, and keeps the systems running—is dead. If I operated that way, I would be failing my CEO, my peers, and the entire organization.
IT is a fluid creature; it evolves daily with or without guidance. Waiting for direction in this environment isn't just passive; it's a decision to fall behind. My job—the very job of a CIO—includes the ability to engage foresight, to dream, and to create unique propositions for the CEO and CFO that engage technology for the betterment of the company. The inability to dream dampens the effectiveness of any C-suite member, especially the CIO, who is uniquely positioned to see how new technologies can reshape the entire business model.
If I wait for the business to ask me for a generative AI strategy, they've already been reading about it for six months, and our competitors are already building prototypes. My job is to be the one bringing them the strategy, showing them the opportunities and risks before they have to ask.
So, how do IT leaders break free from that "wait and see" mode? It's a conscious, and sometimes difficult, shift in three key areas:
Change Your Seat: You can't just wait for an invitation to the strategic planning meetings. You have to earn your way in by demonstrating you're a business leader first and a technologist second. This means spending more time with the heads of sales, marketing, and operations than you do in your own data center. You have to understand their P&L, their customer complaints, and their market pressures.
Change Your Language: Break free by stop talking about IT and start talking about business outcomes. Don't propose a "cloud migration project." Propose a "market agility plan" that allows you to scale up in new regions by 30% in half the time. Don't talk about "upgrading the CRM." Talk about "increasing customer retention by 5%." When you speak the language of the business, you stop being an order-taker and start being a strategic partner.
Change Your Team's Culture: You can't be the only "dreamer" on the team. You have to empower your IT organization to break free, too. I encourage my team to spend time in other departments, to listen in on sales calls, and to bring me "crazy" ideas. We have to kill the "no" culture that IT is famous for ("No, we can't do that, it's not secure") and replace it with a "yes, and" culture ("Yes, that's a great idea, and here's how we can do it securely").
Ultimately, breaking free from "wait and see" is a choice. It's the choice to be a leader, not just a manager.
Of course, this is my opinion.
Xavier Thomas
Strong IT leaders don’t wait—they anticipate. By understanding business strategy, maintaining active dialogue with executives, and presenting data-driven roadmaps, IT shifts from order-taker to value creator. Proactively proposing pilots, automation ideas, or AI use cases builds trust and positions IT as a strategic partner, not just a service provider.
If you are in wait & see model, it is a "cost center model" & people are only providing "status updates".
To breakfree, focus on OKR's (self built), common sense focus over emerging tech or latest fab, differential pricing to standout & overall governance to keep your house in strong control with checks & balances to avoid surprises.
I think too many IT teams still wait for instructions instead of taking the lead. The key is for IT leaders to act like business partners, not just support staff. When they understand the company’s goals and bring forward ideas that drive growth or efficiency, leadership starts to see them as strategic, not reactive. Proactive communication and small pilot projects can really help shift that perception.