Good talent can be hard to find and even harder to keep. For CIOs, winning over and retaining talent means changing their mindsets in the face of a digital era. Giving key personnel the power to pick their projects and managers is one way to entice and incentivize both new and current hires.

According to Gartner’s 2016 CEO survey, half of the CEOs polled expected their industries to be transformed substantially by digital by 2020. In spite of this impending change, the mindsets of many CEOs and CIOs are still geared towards old paradigms that are no longer applicable in tomorrow’s digital space.

Mindset Traits to Cultivate

Paradigm-breaking digital thinking doesn’t come easily to anyone. Such thinking requires identifying and developing specific mindset traits in CIOs. The following traits are the keys to success for any disruptive digital leader:

• The ability to thrive in spite of uncertainty
• Eagerness for breakthrough business outcomes
• The ability to take advantage of competitive levers in the digital era
• Motivation to embrace top-tier digital talent
• The ability to foster a culture of creativity and innovation

When it comes to cultivating these mindset traits, it’s important for the typical CIO to ask themselves these questions:

• Is this trait relevant to my needs?
• How much of this trait is enshrined in my belief system?
• Does this mindset completely translate to my own actions and those of my team?

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Ensuring that a paradigm-challenging mindset continues to evolve ahead of or on par with the realities of the digital era is crucial to the learning process. Leaders can consciously engage in contemporary digital era thinking in a number of different ways.

• Evolve the mindset by embracing challenge. The mindsets of old can leave leaders stranded by changing market realities. To evolve, it’s crucial to present and invite challenges to current assumptions, beliefs, and paradigms.
• Use pre-mortem ideation sessions to reframe perspectives. These sessions can help teams identify areas of success and the mindset shifts required to thrive in the face of digital disruption.
• Reshape the inner monologue to facilitate digital era thinking. Leaders should assess how receiving new information shapes the inner brain monologue and affects outward response.
• Create and practice digital routines. Adopting good digital routines helps leaders test their thinking, refine communication skills, and gain well-needed insights. This can start with beginning one key meeting each day by touching briefly on a digital disruption topic. Such exercises play an essential role in evolving the CIO mindset.

To learn how eXemplify can help your company succeed, contact us today for a no-obligation consultation.