In Foundry’s 2026 State of the CIO survey, 83% of CIOs say their role is becoming more of a hybrid to lead both business and tech initiatives, rather than simply manage IT. As the two become more inseparable, the CIOs who see collaboration as a competitive advantage are putting daylight between them and those who see it as a cursory soft skill. And C-suites are responding as they rely more on IT to drive growth and accelerate efficiencies. So the CIOs who deliver the most value will bring collaboration skills to drive change and technical expertise.
Silos between IT and the business are falling
As the World Economic Forum notes, not every tech initiative requires deep collaboration. But as businesses move beyond routine IT investments into cross-functional, innovation-focused transformations, collaboration becomes essential.
For example, how can IT decisions help an organization open new markets faster, or emerging technologies reduce risk in areas like data privacy. It’s no surprise, then, that Deloitte found that 65% of CIOs reported directly to CEOs in 2025, up from 41% in 2015.
Because tech is now part of almost every business decision, it takes everyone’s expertise and insights — from the CIO to the CFO — to see the full picture of how an initiative will affect the company. Shared knowledge leads to better-informed decisions that give tech its biggest impact.
When silos persist, CIOs struggle to get buy-in for their initiatives. Protiviti’s Global Transformation survey found that while 61% of CIOs report being confident in their tech transformation outcomes, only 34% of CEOs and boards feel the same — and the gap is even wider for AI implementations.
That gap is, at its core, a collaboration problem. Without effective collaboration and communication, others can’t see the value of transformation efforts. CIOs who excel in these areas can more easily demonstrate value, win buy-in and keep their organizations at the forefront of technology.
Delivering speed and innovation
Collaboration goes well beyond getting buy-in. While it may be thought to slow IT down, it actually brings in the insights that make change more effective and faster.
As I’ve highlighted in the past, when organizations move away from rigid data ownership, cross-functional teams can share what drives further innovation.
The same holds across the C-suite. Perspectives from outside IT show CIOs how a tech implementation works for the company as a whole, and where new opportunities lie. That lets CIOs test, refine, and reshape solutions faster.
Most importantly, when teams share a common purpose and goals, everyone stays aligned on the best overall outcome for the business. Iteration happens much quicker because everyone is focused on the big picture rather than individual agendas. With increasingly rapid tech cycles, that speed is a competitive advantage in its own right.
Building your collaborative abilities
For CIOs used to the old way of doing things, shifting to a collaborative mindset can be a challenge. But like any capability, it can be developed and improved by applying some fundamental principles.
Earn trust through follow-through. Trust isn’t built at a kickoff meeting or with a mission statement. It’s built when people see you do what you said you would, again and again. For CIOs, that means delivering on commitments or flagging early when you can’t. Clear and consistent communication is one of the most reliable ways to build trust across an organization.
Make transparency the default, especially when news is bad. Transparency means more than status reports. It means being candid about costs, risks, trade-offs, and setbacks before they surprise anyone. When leaders sidestep difficult discussions, trust erodes and goals drift. And in technology programs, small unspoken issues have a way of becoming expensive ones.
Seek cultural fit in how you work, not who you are. Cultural fit isn’t about sameness or shared backgrounds. It’s about compatibility in management philosophy, values, decision-making, and communication. A CIO who values speed and experimentation, and a CFO who prioritizes predictability and control will clash unless both recognize the difference and agree on how to bridge it. The same is true when it comes to finding the best technology providers.
Focus on the what, not the how. Few things undermine collaboration faster than micromanagement. When leaders dictate how a colleague or partner should work, they signal distrust, stifle creativity and innovation, and tie up their own time policing activities instead of driving results. The better approach is to agree on clearly defined, measurable outcomes, and then step back. Letting go of the how isn’t giving up control but building enough trust that everyone gets there together.
This requires adjusting your workflows and skills, but the payoff is valuable insight from your collaborators and wins that lift the entire organization.
The new life of the CIO
The days when the CIO could simply be the tech expert behind the scenes are long gone. With AI and other technologies ingrained in every aspect of the business, the CIO must lead well beyond IT.
By making collaboration a priority, you can gain critical insights across teams to guide your tech strategy, and deliver the greatest value to your organization.