Why being the best technically won't get you the CIO chair
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Welcome to this week’s edition of CIOsurge!
This week:
Roberta Anderson, CISO of Onterris, on why visibility, not competence, is the firewall most of us fail to break through
Why technically strong leaders keep getting passed over for the CIO chair
Why the CIO's job has quietly become change leadership
Let’s make this week a game-changer.
Stay sharp. Stay ahead.
Visibility Is the Firewall: Why Doing a Great Job Won't Get You Promoted
This week I sat down with Roberta Anderson, CISO of Onterris, author, and a 25-year veteran who worked her way from Air Force airman and linguist to the CISO chair at several well-known organizations. I asked her which part of her career framework, confidence, visibility, influence, and belonging, took her the longest to break through. Her answer was visibility, and the reason is a trap most of our community has fallen into.
Roberta was raised on an idea a lot of us carry: do a good job and you will be rewarded. It turns out that is not how it works.
"I always thought, I'm really doing a good job and this is going to move my career the way that I feel it should be moved. And it wasn't. And then I was sitting back and year would go by, year would go by, and I wasn't seeing the movement that I thought I should see."
The problem is not the quality of the work. Maybe your boss is managing 20 other people and is simply busy. Maybe you think what you did shows impact when it isn't landing that way. Maybe the people watching your work are not the ones who can actually move your career. Good work does not broadcast itself.
What changed things for her was getting proactive. Stop waiting to be noticed. Go to the people who can do something, get a sponsor, and frame what you are doing in the language that gets you promoted.
For CIOs and CISOs, the translation matters most. Security has historically been treated as a cost center. The way out is to stop talking in vulnerabilities and patch counts and start talking in business impact.
“Instead of focusing on vulnerabilities or patching, you need to learn how to translate your work into business impact. The conversation should center on how your efforts affect the business and contribute to revenue.”
The executives you report to no longer want to hear that you have 100 vulnerabilities. They want to hear you have a situation that will affect the budget or the ability to hit a deliverable. That reframe is the difference between someone stuck below the CISO line and someone ready to sit in the chair.
The takeaway for technology leaders: your work does not speak for itself, and neither does your team's. Build the sponsor relationships and translate every security outcome into business terms before you need the visibility, not after.
Why technically strong leaders still aren't CIO-ready
A new piece from CIO.com makes a case that will sting a little for anyone who has climbed on technical merit: the technical judgment that got you here is not what gets you the corner office. The data points instead to influence and the quality of your relationships with peers as the real gating factors for CIO readiness, and aspiring leaders consistently overrate the former and underrate the latter.
This lands the same week Roberta told me visibility was the hardest firewall she ever had to break through, and that is not a coincidence. The pattern is everywhere right now. If you are grinding on technical excellence and waiting for the org to notice, you are optimizing the one variable that matters least at the top. Spend the next quarter mapping which of your peers would go to bat for you in a room you are not in. If the answer is uncomfortable, that is the work.
— Zack Tembi
Now more than ever, CIOs need to be change agents
CIO.com argues the role has shifted under our feet: the modern CIO is measured less on running technology and more on driving business change through it. As AI reshapes operating models, the CIOs who stay relevant are the ones leading the organizational change, not just supplying the tools for someone else to lead it.
This is the other half of the same story. Feature one says relationships get you the seat. This one says change leadership is what the seat is actually for. The uncomfortable read for our community is that "keeping the lights on" excellence is now table stakes, not a differentiator. The differentiator is whether you can move an organization to work differently. That is a muscle a lot of technically brilliant leaders have never had to build, and the window to build it is closing.
— Zack Tembi
💡 CIO Spotlights
Wasi Ahmed, Chief Information Officer, Patterson Companies
Appointed CIO of Patterson Companies effective August 17, 2026, reporting directly to CEO Robert Rajalingam and joining the executive leadership team
Brings more than 30 years of technology leadership across distribution, manufacturing, software, and consumer products
Most recently chief technical and information officer at Foundation Building Materials, where he led enterprise-wide SAP modernization, cloud transformation, cybersecurity, and AI-enabled automation
Oversaw the integration of more than 70 acquisitions at a business generating over $7 billion in revenue
Earlier roles include CIO of Yokohama Tire Corporation of North America and senior positions at Ventura Foods, Pharmavite, and Oracle
Bradley Bolivar, Chief Information Officer, Centene
Appointed CIO of Centene Corporation effective August 31, 2026, succeeding Brian LeClaire, who retires by the end of October 2026
Joins from Fannie Mae, where as CIO he led enterprise technology across application development, infrastructure, cybersecurity, data, and AI
Accelerated enterprise modernization and expanded the use of AI and automation to improve operational performance during his tenure
Brings nearly three decades of technology leadership spanning financial services, media, and consulting, including senior roles at Warner Bros. Entertainment
