If you're stuck in a job-search rut, here's a tip: the newspaper is a great place to look for leads.

Senior executives expend much effort into grooming their directors and managers and keeping them satisfied in their jobs with the aim of retaining their key people. The operative word here is people. According to a new paper from PricewaterhouseCoopers, it may be smarter to shift the focus to pivotal roles. People in pivotal roles are the ones that have the most direct impact on customer satisfaction. The roles different in every organization, and they're not necessarily high-profile.

If there's one holiday activity I can really get behind, it's buying gifts for myself. If you're looking for a job or just want to class up your office accoutrements, here are some gift ideas. (If you're not as selfish as I am, these are also fine items to give to your favorite job seeker.)

If you want to take your career to the next level, the advice we seek and get usually has a practical bent: network, research the industry and prospective employer, ask for feedback, pursue training and education opportunities, work on being an effective leader. These are all good things, but in this month's Harvard Business Review, psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell shows how understanding brain activity can lead you to a more systemic approach to succeeding and advancing in your career.

As we head into the final month of the year, it might be a good time to talk about books. I realize it's the holidays and you're probably thinking you're too busy to read. But when you start having to leave the safe harbor of your home to do holiday stuff -- attend parties with excruciating people, shop, go to the airport -- I think you'll find time. Would you rather be out there battling dense masses of humanity or sitting by the fire with a snifter and a useful book on how to be a winning CIO? I've chosen these books because they contain substantial passages that directly address CIOs' contribution to their companies' success factors. I'll even tell you which chapters you might read if you just don't have time to read it all.

If you're a frustrated CIO struggling to get your company's business side to embrace IT as a critical strategic partner rather than just a cost center, the answer may lie in altering your approach to IT strategy. In the current issue of the journal Strategy +Business from management consultancy Booz Inc., Booz consultants Eduardo Alvarez and Srini Raghavan have one idea: a four-step road map based on the company's corporate strategy and the capabilities it delivers.