There’s no roadmap. No standard approach. No required certifications. No tried-and-true methods to guarantee success. Executive coaching sounds like a profession at the opposite end of the spectrum from the CIO role.
Yet for former CIOs Jim Rinaldi of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Jim DiMarzio of Toyo Tires and Mazda North American Operations, their recent career transitions to coaching felt like a natural next step after the mentoring work they’ve done for decades.
“Coaching is very individual,” says DiMarzio, who retired from Toyo in July 2021 and now serves as an IT Executive Coach with IDG’s CIO Executive Council. “It’s really about exploring the person’s plans and getting to know who they are professionally. His clients are first-level through mid-level IT managers. “The good thing is, they all want to talk to you and improve, so it’s positive right out of the box.”
“More people in our profession should …