Juggling two or more jobs is nothing new for CIOs. Jon Harris spent decades in IT leadership positions, and is deeply aware of the struggles IT leaders face: , thereby proving to the board that IT can produce business benefits, while still dealing with operational matters.

For Harris, the solution is having a second-in-command. He recently retired from such a role, as CTO for the University of Texas at Arlington, and worked for many years as the deputy to city of Austin CIO Brownlee Bowmer. In Harris's case, those high-level operations roles were in place before he arrived, freeing the CIO to deal with business issues.

For companies without such a position already on the payroll, he concedes "it's a hard sell. The CEO doesn't [always] get the benefit of a number two to free up the CIO to do other things." Nonetheless, he says, "it's critical if the CIO is going to move into the transformational role. You can't serve two masters--one being the business, one being IT."

If you don't have a deputy, it's time to start developing the role and grooming someone on your staff to take on your operational responsibilities, whether or not you can convince your CEO and board of directors to create a new position immediately.