@TheDigitalBoard we help you to identify, assess and recruit the world’s best Digital and Technology leaders, yet we’re no ordinary headhunting firm. Please browse the site to see how we can help you or your business.

The single most important role of the CIO or CTO is to deploy all of the technology capability available (people, process and tech) in order to generate value for their company and help it achieve its business goals. The dizzying speed of technological change and the need for companies to stay ahead of fast-changing trends and anticipate disruptions to their business model doesn’t make this any easier. CIOs need to balance the ability to anticipate upcoming trends, to plan ahead and provide the company with direction while leading the transformation efforts that will bring their organisations the flex and competitive edge needed to survive (all while keeping the lights on - no easy task)! Below is our proprietary framework which outlines the 10 key leadership competencies (both EQ and IQ) that we believe are required in a world class technology leader.

What makes a world class technology leader and how do we assess them?

Put together they represent: forward-thinking, agility and creativity as well as exceptional leadership, persuasion and influencing skills. Exceptional people leadership skills are also required in order to  hire, build, grow, and develop high-performing technical teams. Building a culture where technical people can thrive and build their careers. 

Anthony Roberts.jfif
‘‘I’ve been working with Bryan and the team @TheDigitalBoard for almost 10 years now. Without question, they are the most informed headhunting firm out there for Digital and Technology leaders. Delivering digital transformation within global companies which operate at scale and with inherent complexities can be challenging, but Bryan’s team were more than up to the task and successfully delivered on every mandate we gave them - a 100% track record of success’’ 
Anthony Roberts, Entrepreneur, Investor and Business Advisor, Ex-Group CIO Walgreens Boots Alliance
EQ & IQ

Our EQIQ approach explained:

With over 20 years dedicated to the technology leadership space, we know that CIOs, CDOs, CTOs (as well as broader technology leaders) are among some of the most in demand leaders in the global talent candidate marketplace. Added to that, they are without question, some of the most challenging leaders to assess (striking the right balance of technical, commercial with leadership and influencing skills). And, if you look at the churn rate (average tenure of a CIO is 3.5 years) and the extremely poor succession planning (most replacement roles go out to Executive Search), the current approach is clearly not working.

We have assessed over 6000 senior technology leaders in over 20 countries, across multiple industry sectors and cultures. In doing so, we have taken the time to understand both the critical competencies and behaviours required to be successful and moreover how to assess these. Yet, we have gone much further than simply developing a competency model, we have developed a proprietary 360 assessment product that gives both a structured and data-driven approach to assessing these leaders as well as an exceptional reporting capability.
Our assessment product is extremely rigorous and secure (running in the cloud on SAP). The model itself is based on 10 leadership Competencies (six EQ and four IQ) that have been uniquely curated based on these unique individuals. Each competency is further underpinned by a set of 10 behavioural indicators that can each be scored on a maturity rating, between 1-5.
In short, we wanted to help our clients make more informed decisions using actual (and relevant) data when it comes to either appointing people into their roles, helping teams work together and/or developing their senior leaders towards more modern/agile ways of working. With a background of 20+ years in senior technology hiring and assessment, we have focused our efforts on understanding this space.

Click to download our latest insights:

In “Has the elephant finally left the room?”, we conduct a Board level "deep-dive" into the skills, backgrounds and experience of some of the world's most influential companies. We have a US paper focussing on the S&P 500 and a UK paper focussing on the FTSE 100/FTSE 250.

S&P 500 Paper

FTSE 100/FTSE 250 Paper