Palmer, who spoke at Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders conference on Monday, led the development of an IT management training program that was so successful that it has been adopted by her company's human resources department for use in other areas of the Lowell, Ark.-based trucking firm.

But for many organizations, the thoughtful recruitment and development of future IT leaders remains a back-burner concern.

"As long as tech organizations can run reasonably effective, there is no imperative to focus on leadership development," said Jerry Bartlett, CIO at online stock broker TD Ameritrade. Bartlett took part in a panel discussion on IT leadership Tuesday.

The curriculums of university computer science and engineering departments ignore leadership development, and companies then fail to fill the vacuum, he said. "My biggest concern is that by giving short shrift [to leadership], there will be a lack of extraordinary leaders in the next generation," he said.

Palmer said she strongly believes in surveys that show that an employee's performance is most correlated with the quality of his boss, not with salary or company culture. "Actually, that's very exciting, because that is something you actually have a lot of influence over," she said.