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.

These days when we talk about effective leadership it's fashionable to emphasize themes of happiness. How often do we hear that happy employees are more productive, or that harmonious teams perform better. These ideas aren't wrong, but without clarification they risk oversimplification. "Happy" doesn't mean cheerful and content, and high-performing teams are "harmonious" in only the broadest sense of the word.

Leadership is no popularity contest, to be sure. However, the workplace is after all a social environment. It makes sense, therefore, that leaders with positive informal social connections with their direct reports turn up with better results.