Coaching a CIO / CTO to lead change and make impact with the board

Context Snapshot

Industry: Large private construction company

Domain: Technology Leadership (CIO / CTO)

Environment: Traditional organisation transitioning from a centralised to a distributed operating model

Leadership challenge: Realigning technology teams, distributing ownership, and stepping into a board-level leadership role while leading organisational change

Strategic need: Shift from a centralised operating model to a distributed, empowered business structure, bringing technology to the leadership table for digitalisation and leveraging the possibilities of AI.

Executive Tension

The organisation had reached a point where its traditional centralised model was becoming more of a constraint than an enabler.

The pace of change in technology, digital capability, and AI was accelerating. Business units needed greater autonomy, faster decision-making, and stronger ownership closer to customers and operations.

Recognising the increasingly strategic role of technology, the IT Director was promoted to the board as CIO.

The promotion created a dual challenge. The CIO was not only stepping into a broader executive leadership role but was also expected to become a catalyst for organisational transformation.

The CIO now needed to:

• Operate as an enterprise executive rather than a functional leader

• Influence peers across the board

• Help shape organisational strategy

• Lead significant organisational change

• Build confidence in a distributed operating model while maintaining coherence and governance

The challenge was not simply one of promotion.

It was a simultaneous shift in leadership identity and organisational alignment.

Reframing the Problem

At first glance, this could have been approached as a traditional executive coaching engagement focused on leadership impact.

The CIO already possessed strong technical credibility, deep organisational knowledge, and a proven track record of delivery.

The deeper challenge was different.

To become effective at board level, the CIO needed to create the conditions that would allow them to step away from day-to-day operational dependency and focus on enterprise leadership.

At the same time, the organisation was attempting to rethink the relationship between technology and the business. Technology capabilities needed to move closer to business units, while shared capabilities needed to remain sufficiently aligned to create leverage, consistency, and economies of scale.

This was not simply a structural redesign.

It was a shift in how decisions would be made, how accountability would be distributed, and how value would flow through the organisation.

Complicating matters further, the organisation’s culture had been shaped by decades of centralised decision-making. While the benefits of greater decentralisation were widely recognised, many existing governance practices still reinforced central control.

The coaching therefore could not be separated from the transformation itself.

The leadership development and organisational change had to evolve together.

How We Worked

1. Using the Change Sparring Partner Approach

Because both the leader and the organisation were evolving simultaneously, a traditional coaching format would not have been sufficient.

Instead, we used our Change Sparring Partner approach.

This enabled us to combine leadership coaching, organisational design, operating model thinking, and change leadership within a single engagement.

Rather than discussing leadership in isolation, we worked through real organisational challenges as they emerged.

The CIO developed as a leader while actively shaping the future direction of the organisation.

2. Understanding the Changing System

The move toward a distributed operating model affected far more than organisational charts.

It fundamentally changed how work, decisions, and value would flow through the business.

Together we explored:

• What it meant to embed technology capability closer to business units

• How governance could evolve to maintain coherence across distributed initiatives

• How shared technology capabilities could be organised as business platforms rather than central services

• How to reduce cognitive load on business-facing teams while increasing local ownership

• How technology capabilities mature over time and require different organisational structures at different stages

• How to organise a distributed technology leadership team operating across multiple business domains

• How the CIO could create space to focus on direction, strategy, and executive leadership

This shifted the conversation away from structure alone.

The focus became understanding how leadership, governance, decision-making, culture, and organisational design interacted as a system.

3. Leading Distributed Leadership

A distributed organisation requires distributed leadership.

Rather than concentrating decisions within a central technology function, the focus shifted towards:

• Clarifying decision agency and accountability

• Establishing guiding principles for local autonomy

• Creating mechanisms for alignment across business units

• Forming a leadership team focused on creating coherence across technology

• Building capability throughout the organisation

The leadership team’s mission became centred around:

• Ensuring excellence

• Creating flow

• Pursuing strategic outcomes

• Developing organisational capability

The objective was not to relinquish control. It was to create the conditions where autonomy and alignment could coexist. Leadership became less about directing and more about enabling.

4. Building Board-Level Influence

Success depended not only on leading technology but on influencing change across the executive team.

Coaching focused on:

• Stakeholder mapping and relationship development

• Executive communication and narrative building

• Framing technology as a business enabler rather than a delivery function

• Navigating competing priorities and organisational politics

• Contributing to enterprise-wide discussions beyond technology

Over time, the CIO developed a broader enterprise perspective and greater confidence operating as a board-level leader.

Evidence of Movement

The first phase of the engagement focused on redesigning the technology organisation and establishing a leadership structure capable of operating with greater autonomy.

This involved difficult decisions around team structures, leadership responsibilities, and role clarity. Perhaps more importantly, it required defining a shared purpose and leadership dynamic that enabled individuals to operate with agency while contributing to a coherent technology strategy.

As this foundation developed, attention shifted toward using technology as a model for broader organisational change.

The technology function became a practical demonstration of how distributed leadership, local ownership, and shared governance could work together.

As the operating model evolved, conversations shifted away from central oversight and toward local accountability supported by clear principles and governance.

Board participation became increasingly strategic. Discussions focused less on technology activities and more on business outcomes, organisational capability, and long-term value creation.

Relationships across the executive team strengthened, creating greater alignment around the transformation agenda and enabling smoother decision-making across organisational boundaries.

The CIO reported increased confidence operating at board level, particularly when navigating ambiguity, competing priorities, and organisational politics.

Inviting Your Reflection

If you have recently promoted a CIO or CTO into a broader executive role—or if you are a technology leader stepping into that role yourself—consider:

• Is the leader being supported to make the transition from functional expert to enterprise executive?

• Does the organisation expect new behaviours while continuing to reward old ones?

• Is transformation dependent on distributed leadership while decision-making remains centralised?

• Are leaders equipped to influence across the business, not just within their own function?

• Is technology positioned as a delivery capability or as a strategic enabler of organisational change?

As technology becomes increasingly central to business performance, the role of the CIO and CTO is evolving.

Success is no longer defined solely by delivery, operational excellence, or technical expertise.

Today’s technology leaders are increasingly responsible for shaping organisational direction, enabling change, designing operating models, and strengthening the relationship between business and technology.

When organisations move from centralised control to distributed accountability, leadership development ceases to be a support activity. It becomes a strategic necessity.