The inside track on how boards evaluate their CIOs

When CIOs present to the board, they often assume directors evaluate their technology strategy. In reality, many boards evaluate something very different: how the CIO thinks about the business.

Shawn Banerji, managing partner for the data, digital, and technology leaders practice at search firm Caldwell, says that in more than 75% of the enterprise CIO searches his firm conducts, candidates are expected to be board ready, meaning they can present to the board, engage in strategic discussions with directors, and comfortably speak the language of business leadership. This is consistent with both public and private companies, including businesses in financial sponsor situations.

“We look for people who operate and communicate in commercial terms,” Banerji says. “While serving as trusted advisor on emerging tech trends is important, it’s essential they articulate the implications of the tech on business strategy and operations, with a focus on the outcomes the enterprise is driving toward. They must understand the evolving regulatory landscapes and speak in the language of margin impact and sustained growth.”

Yet many CIOs still underestimate how closely directors evaluate their leadership in the boardroom. Technology updates can quickly drift into familiar territory — dashboards, architecture decisions, operational metrics — while directors listen for something else entirely, like whether the technology leader understands how those decisions shape the business. And directors notice when the two perspectives diverge.

“When CIOs are presenting, I can tell very quickly if they understand who the shareholders and board members are, and why they’re on that board,” says Karen Higgins-Carter, a longtime CIO turned board member. “That’s the first thing I look for in evaluating whether someone is a business leader or a functional leader presenting a strategy that’s disconnected from shareholder expectations.”

Follow the money

Boards have long cited financial acumen as a strong need for their CIOs. Now it’s an absolute necessity, particularly given increasing enterprise spend in various tech areas. 

BDO’s 2025 Board Survey, released in December, found that three-quarters of boards expect to boost investment in emerging technology this year, with two-thirds reporting increases in cybersecurity and data technology spend. 

However, the warning signs are still there. PwC’s most recent Annual Corporate Directors Survey revealed that only 21% of board members who participated say their management team ranked as very effective in having the skills to execute on their AI priorities. The same percentage of respondents say management isn’t very effective. 

In other words, the pressure’s on. And boards need CIOs to go beyond technical know-how to provide a clear strategy for investment, growth, and risk. 

“Boards have their own culture and level of competency with respect to governing any topic,” Higgins-Carter says. “But that variation is particularly acute now, with the pace of change and pressure on boards to ensure the long-term success of the company.” 

With that comes the need for clarity. Boards don’t expect CIOs to eliminate complexity, but they do expect them to translate it.

Directors are often less interested in the technical mechanics of a system, and more in the implications of the decisions surrounding it — how a technology investment affects growth, changes the company’s risk posture, or positions the business against competitors.

“The best technology leaders help the board understand what the business implications are,” Higgins-Carter says. “It’s about helping directors understand what the decision means for the company, not explaining every technical detail.”

That distinction becomes even more important as boards confront decisions around AI, cybersecurity resilience and large-scale digital investments. In those conversations, directors often listen for whether the CIO can connect tech initiatives to broader business outcomes.

Know your audience 

Clarity often comes with brevity. Carol Zierhoffer, a corporate director who’s served on multiple public company boards, recalls the lead-up to her first board presentation as a global CIO. She showed her first draft of 20 slides full of charts to her CEO, who promptly told her to cut half the slides and words. When she did, her CEO told her, once again, to cut it by 50%. 

“He drove me to get to something where I was telling a story from the charts,” she says. “It was good coaching that they don’t need to know every thought you’ve ever had, but how to make it more brief.” 

Boards are also paying attention to signals that go beyond the content of a presentation.

“When someone presents to me, I listen for the ‘I-to-we’ ratio,” Zierhoffer adds. Leadership cues like that can reveal how technology executives think about collaboration, accountability, and organizational impact. For directors, those signals help answer the larger question of whether CIOs see technology as an enterprise function or as an isolated IT discipline.

“Boards want to know the technology leader is thinking about the whole business,” she adds, “and that they understand how technology connects to the company’s strategy and culture.”

Run vs. change 

CIO recruiters say the boardroom conversation usually centers on how technology helps the company run the business better, including operational improvements, automation, cost efficiency, and resilience, and how it helps the company change the business in terms of new products, data capabilities, and emerging technologies.

The most effective CIOs can move comfortably between both, connecting operational improvements with longer-term innovation and competitive positioning.

The “run” conversation involves key commercial drivers such as automation, complexity, and cost takeout, and has become table stakes for IT leaders. 

The “change” conversation can raise more eyebrows, Banerji says. “One example is in the rapidly evolving landscape of drug discovery and commercialization, where digital twins and synthetic data fundamentally affect speed to market, driving down costs and contributing to top-line growth,” he says. “If you can have that level of insightful, commercial dialogue, you’ll have the board’s engagement. Their takeaway will transcend the legacy IT update, and inform their thinking in a manner that enhances how they contribute to that specific board, and in their other endeavors as well.” 

For many CIOs who aspire to serve on boards, he adds, demonstrating this capability is the first step to BOD consideration.