The ability for both sides to listen is a key ingredient for building a better relationship between boards and CIOs.

“It’s very important for there to be open communications between the board and the CIO,’’ says Heidi Messer, who has sat on boards and is co-founder of Collective[i], which helps companies forecast, manage, and grow revenue. “It’s important for boards to understand through what lens the CIO is seeing the future and their plan for adaptation and how they are balancing reward and risk.”

To do that, CIOs must be transparent and open about their strategies, Messer says. They should also be collaborative and “be able to marshal allies across various functions as well as with the vendors that they select,’’ she says. “The board should be one of the partners they enlist. The key is to get internal and external alignment toward clear and shared company goals.”