5. The Underpaid CIO: A CIO might start to dream about making the big bucks when he sees the fees charged by some of the consultants and advisers he's been hiring. "If he thinks he has the chops to do that, and he feels he has the experience, he can take his work elsewhere," says Scavo.

6. The Miscast CIO: Once in a while, a talented IT professional rises to the CIO's position only to realize that he's in the wrong job. That's a tough place to be. "This is a person who maybe came up from software management and came into the job through a promotion," says Scavo. "This CIO really loves the old work and its challenges [and] really wants more of a technical career." When he got the CIO's job, he was probably disappointed to learn that he had to spend most of his time managing people, not technology.

-- Todd R. Weiss

As a CIO, he didn't have that kind of autonomy, or creative freedom. "Often in the senior executive ranks, IT is viewed as a supporting role and not necessarily as a strategic role for the company. As a result, you find that your ability to play with the big boys is limited," he says.

From IT to Strategy Officer