The Credibility Gap: Why CIOs Get Overlooked and What to Do About It

The Difference Between Having Expertise and Being Seen as an Expert is Greater Than You Think

By Evan Boyer

When most C-level leaders hear that they need to be more “out in front” as experts, they often assume it means they need to be louder. But technically minded leaders do not need to become the most gregarious people in the building. They need to become the most understandable version of themselves, making their vision clearer and more accessible to audiences inside and outside of their organization.

According to the Edelman-LinkedIn 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, published executives report three times as many leads, speaking requests, and business opportunities as non-published peers. Every piece of thinking shared publicly builds the credibility that your next internal conversation depends on.

It’s ironic that the CIO is relied on to architect systems, lead complex builds, and solve problems their peers cannot, yet, somehow, they aren’t usually at the top of the list when the room is deciding who to listen to, or when the organization puts together a thought leadership strategy. This is an issue that plays out at every level of IT, from individual contributors up to the C-suite. And it typically starts with a misunderstanding of the difference between expertise and credibility.

Expertise Gets You in the Room. Credibility Determines What Happens When You’re There.

Expertise is all about your knowledge, your process, and how you consistently get things right. If you are smart, capable and constantly learning, you can be the expert in the room. But even the most technically sound people can be overlooked by those who decide whose ideas get funded, whose work gets visibility, and who gets a seat at the table. Expertise alone does not change minds, build trust, or open doors. 

That is the job of credibility, which is defined as the quality or power of inspiring belief. It takes longer to develop credibility because it is more nuanced and fragile. An action or a statement entirely unrelated to your technical work can destroy it. And while expertise and credibility in fact do coexist, they do not automatically reinforce each other. 

Imagine two leaders in the same organization who have the same level of visibility into the systems, the same understanding of the problem, and the same proposed solution. One walks into the boardroom and explains what needs to happen. They accurately and thoroughly cover all the priorities: the architecture, the dependencies, etc. The other walks in and immediately connects the solution to the business’s goals. They tell stories and pay close attention to their own tone, pacing, word choice and body language. Importantly, they address concerns before anyone has a chance to raise them. Although their ideas were the same, the outcomes were not. 

The simplest litmus test for whether your expertise can be translated into something people can trust, believe and act on is how others describe you. Are you seen as a brilliant individual, or as someone whose ideas and actions produce results? Are your ideas questioned because no one is quite sure of where they come from, or adopted because people trust your judgment? If the former, you might have expertise, but not yet credibility.

The Core of CIO Advancement: 4 Steps to Improve Your Own Credibility

CIOs are being pushed to develop storytelling as a core skill, with career strategists noting that storytelling inspires their teams in ways that sharing information straightforwardly simply does not. Delivering facts as verbal bullet points is not the same as delivering a credible message that resonates. Here are some steps to take towards that end:

1. Be curious. It’s a trait that all CIOs share. According to a Harvard Business Review study, the leaders who tend to own the room share a few common traits,with curiosity the most important. The trick, however, is extending that curiosity beyond your own domain into what others are working on, what pressures their colleagues and customers are facing, and where the industry is headed. That curiosity creates the foundation for relationships, surfaces better ideas, and signals to others that you are interested in building something larger than yourself.
2. Engage with the thinkers shaping your industry. According to research, 95% of decision-makers use LinkedIn thought leadership to stay informed about industry trends, and 54% of decision-makers spend at least an hour per week consuming thought leadership content. Read broadly and deliberately across several platforms and develop a clear position on the trends that intersect with your business. You cannot communicate a point of view you have not yet formed.
3. Lean into your own lived experience. The path to being seen and respected as a credible leader involves sharing your own lived experience and perspective rather than the consensus everyone already holds. That requires practice, and a willingness to take risks and accept criticism. By developing the ability to articulate a unique point of view grounded in your hard-earned experience, you are demonstrating authenticity, which is a key part of credibility.

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 ranks leadership and social influence among the top skills on the rise globally through 2030, and it is easy to understand why. The leaders who will matter most in the next decade are the ones who can translate their perspective into something others can act on. No amount of reading, certifications, or accumulated knowledge can substitute for your ability to articulate your own thoughts. This is especially important as AI continues to reshape the tech landscape. 

4. Train your delivery. You are ultimately the instrument to deliver your message, so it’s important carve out time to rehearse your message. This is the step most technically minded leaders skip entirely. Typically, your key messages shift as the business shifts, as priorities change, and as your audience changes. That means they need to be revisited and practiced regularly, not just drafted once and delivered on instinct. The leaders who are prepared to communicate well usually do it best.

The Opportunity

One of the more common mistakes experts make is believing that the technical skills that account for 15% of long-term job performance will outweigh the 85% of career success stems from soft skills mastery. They may be waiting until they have a perfectly polished message before they start building. What they fail to realize is that by the time they feel comfortable, the relationships they meant to pursue have already formed, the trust is already placed elsewhere, and the title of “expert” is held by someone else, often someone whose ideas may not be as strong, but whose communication has been more consistent and compelling. Treat communication as part of your current environment, not a layer added on top of it.

For CIOs, the opportunity here is real. The companies moving fastest are not just looking for the most technically capable person in the room. They are looking for the one who can get others moving in the same direction. And with AI shaping the speed of change in this area, the time for CIOs to act is now. Get clear on what you think. Learn how to say it. Then say it to the right people, consistently. 

Evan Boyer is the Founder and CEO of Leaders PR, a boutique B2B communications consultancy based in Raleigh, N.C., USA. He brings nearly 15 years of global agency experience helping leaders in Fortune 100s to high-growth startups shape narratives, earn media attention, and build executive visibility that moves the bottom line.