In the post-Covid world, IT leaders play a critical role in any organisation. As such, cross-functional business understanding is essential, along with a background in tech leadership. In the past many IT leaders were responsible for executing a strategy, now they are increasingly responsible for helping the business understand the digital landscape and helping shape strategy.
So, they need to be visionary and able to influence. Tech leaders also need to be able balance demands, for example balancing business needs with budgets, or short-term imperatives (such as cyber security) with longer term transformation (such as AI). And of course, leaders need to be able to provide sound operations whilst also delivering new tools at pace.