Nationwide's CIO on the 2 career tips that should guide any leader overseeing a company's digital overhaul

• As chief information officers emerge from the back office and gain increased authority internally, they need to be more knowledgeable on the business side of the organization.
• For Jim Fowler, the chief information officer of Nationwide, that means speaking the language of the business. In other words, it means understanding what those in non-tech roles, like supply-chain management, need - and developing products to address those problems.
• For CIOs leading digital transformation efforts, Fowler also says it's imperative they don't rely on their position and spend the time to influence those within the organization that can push the projects.
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The role of chief information officer is increasingly pivotal to the success of organizations.

They are often leading major digital transformation efforts and gaining new power within the C-suite along the way, including reporting directly to the CEO. But CIOs may not be used to the spotlight. In the past, the IT department often lacked interaction with other units - aside from requests to fix computers or solve other tech problems.

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That's changing, however, and information chiefs now have to be more knowledgeable of the operational side of the business, as well as being attuned to the individuals within the various sectors that can help advocate for the adoption of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other advanced tech.

"You are a business leader first and foremost before you are a technology leader," Jim Fowler, Nationwide's chief information officer, told Business Insider.

He joined the insurer at the tail-end of a major tech modernization effort and is responsible for using those digital upgrades to try to improve the business, a progressively more common task for CIOs.

Fowler shared the two pieces of advice that have guided him after more than two decades in IT-related roles.

'Talk the language of the business'

While companies have long had CIOs, they tended to focus mainly on running back-office technology. That isn't the case anymore, but companies are finding that their more old-school tech leaders may not be the best person to oversee their digital overhauls, according to Fowler.

"Companies created chief digital officers because they didn't have chief information officers that were business leaders," he said. "You've got to be able to talk the language of the business."

One way Fowler has sought to instill this advice within his own team is sitting tech employees next to those that manage other aspects of the business. Those who run the claims and billing operations, for example, now sit with those who manage the back-end technology. Weekly check-ins take place where they discuss how the systems are currently functioning and what features could be added.

The job is '99 percent influence and 1 percent authority'

Many big data, AI, and other tech projects fail because of cultural resistance. That's a common occurrence when companies pursue the initiatives with a top-down mentality, where executives give an edict from on high and expect employees to blindly follow it.

Instead, leaders must get support from different internal constituents for the digital efforts to succeed. So if a CIO is not "good at influence," they will fail, Fowler argues.

"The role is 99 percent influence and 1 percent authority," he said. "If you think you're gonna walk in and drive change because you sit at the top of an [organizational] chart, you're going to be sadly mistaken."

One way tech chiefs can gain backing is by finding advocates within various business units that can help push the projects. It's a tactic employed by IBM for its AI-based initiatives.

Combined, these two pieces of advice show just how important it is for the CIO or other tech leaders to not get bogged down with heavy IT-related issues. Instead, they should take the time to learn the business and those employees working in non-tech sectors, like supply chain operations or human resources.