Climbing from CIO to COO can be accomplished if you follow some tried and true advice. First, make sure you have the skills to do everything a Chief Operating Officer does before trying to reach your goal and make it obvious to the CEO that you have what it takes. To do that, provide leadership beyond IT, learn to talk finance, demonstrate your knowledge of the business, let your boss know you're ambitious and recruit and build an IT team (because if you can build an organization that the rest of the company can admire, you will build credibility for the COO role). And finally, choose the right company and ensure your goal is actually attainable. For example, if you work for a company where IT is core to the business, you have better chance of growing beyond the CIO role.

Learn more about moving from CIO to COO:
- read the column at CIO

ALSO:
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- this about climbing the corporate ladder
- and this on climbing the executive ladder