I get it; we all have day jobs and sometimes they can be focused on admin. But for your role to really matter, you should be an extension of the CIO.
If you aren’t making decisions on behalf of the org and are instead asking the CIO every time; you simply aren’t doing your job to the fullest. You should share a philosophy on how the group should be run and then execute on those concepts. You should have the trust and respect of your boss and feel empowered to make decisions, even if they don’t always work out.
On a day to day basis, execution is your job. Bring ideas to the table and see how you can push the org forward. Don’t be a desk jockey. Get your ass up and sit with senior stakeholders. Make sure you are presenting the org in a fair but favorable light.
I knew I was going from Business Manager to COO the first time I attended a board meeting on behalf of the CIO. Believe me, it wasn’t glamorous. It was the annual audit meeting and it was just after the birth of our second child. I was so tired, the chair was so comfortable, and the subject matter was so boring that I needed to pinch the inside of my leg just to stay awake. My entire contribution to the meeting was a 30 second update but it was important to me. I was now trusted by senior management and I took it seriously; still do.
Gradually meetings like this became more commonplace. The CIO can’t be in two places at once and representation from the COO is the next best thing. Without trust in your ability, you’ll never make the leap. You don’t build that trust by being a suck up. You build it by adding value on a consistent basis and operating in a way that pushes the org in the direction the CIO wants to go in.