The Higher Gear CIO: Recent Episodes

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Key Theme: Leadership coaching lessons in the dynamic and turmoil environments we try to lead in today.Leadership Thoughts: **Doing something to make the other person feel important and valued is not just in romance.  In the workplace great leaders help people feel good about themselves and touch their hearts.

Do I debrief and talk openly about what went well and what didn't go so well?

The need to be connected, feel worthy and accepted.

Each one of us is damaged in some way.  Healing comes from when someone believes in you.

Am I physically and mentally healthy? 

Complaints of a hostile work environment...

Being Independent and Interdependent carries over to all healthy relationships*Importance: Intuition
Respect
Being humble enough to own your mistakes.
Helping people believe in themselves.
Communication styles*How Do I Reflect on Myself as a Leader?
Do I make my employees feel valued and important?
Am I insecure?
Do I have deep confidence in myself?
Do I pretend to be something I am not?
Am I honest?
Do I take ownership of what didn't go so well?
Do I believe in my team/employees?  Do they know this?
Am I fast paced and impatient, is my team on this pace? 
How healthy are my relationships?

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**Key Theme:
The Island of Misfit Toys: Outliers, Quiet Quitters and Hemorrhoids

Leadership Thoughts:** 
· When someone is in transition

· Think of yourself as a product

· Position things from your strengths

· Is there a role or opening that is stressing out the team

· Everyone is not above average

· Know your audience!

· Small things can add significant value Importance: · In transition the first thing is to get your head straight

· What makes me valuable, what are my strengths

· You can turn conflict into a collaboration

· At the moment you have to do 5x the number to hire new people 

· Sometimes people leave because they are ready to grow

· If your team doesn’t feel heard, then they will not be engaged

How Do I Reflect on Myself as a Leader? 

· Am I thinking about what I want, feel, think or need instead of defining myself as a product?

· Am I being intentional?

· Am I intentionally communicating effectively to retain my people?

· Am I making sure my people feel valued?

· Am I recognizing when people are ready to grow?

· Are you engaging on a level where your team knows you care

· Do I really know my audience?

· Am I welcoming?  

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**Key Theme:
The Island of Misfit Toys: Outliers, Quiet Quitters and Hemorrhoids

Leadership Thoughts:**· Outliers

· The quiet quitters

· Hemorrhoids

· Salary bands

· Negative impact of keeping people and not being proactive

· Are you losing money on your top producing client?

· Quiet process ninja’s

Importance:
· The underlying elements of the great resignation

· Feeling less than utilized and not compensated 

· Some clients cost you money and the question isn’t being asked

· The people that are an issue don’t always know that they are an issue

· The system is built for average/mediocrity

How Do I Reflect on Myself as a Leader? 

· Have you seen the value in letting someone go?

· Are you getting to know cross functional things?

· Are you investing in your team?

· Different perspectives, are you recognizing these?

· Do you have people self-limiting themselves?

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Key Theme: A Conversation with a CISO and a CIOLeadership Thoughts:

· Phil’s story of how he became a CISO

· Walt’s story on becoming a CIO

· The dynamic interactions with the CISO and CIO from big organizations

Importance:· The operational burden of the CIO role vs the CISO role

· Doing pro-active activity ahead of time so it limits clean up weekend work

· Limiting arguments or debates by providing insights and oversight

· What is your risk appetite ? How Do I Reflect on Myself As A Leader?

· What got you where you are today?

· What interests you in the security space?

· Do you love what you are doing?

· Does it interest you still?

· Do you enjoy defending companies?

· Are you having arguments or debates with other business functions?

· Do you have open and transparent dialog

· Do your teams overlap?

· Is this a coaching opportunity, a team building opportunity

· Are you surprising the CEO, CIO or CISO? None of them like to be surprised

· Are you in the know regarding cybersecurity?

· Am I working with the business and establishing trust once risk is identified and am I fulfilling my role as a CISO?

· Am I enabling the impossible and concepts?

· What is the probability that crypto will impact us

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Key Theme: The Future of Work continued conversation
Leadership Thoughts:· Skate to where the puck is going to be

· Engage in imagination and creativity

· Creative innovation and novel decisions are accelerating

· Living a full and complete life that is not centered around work

· Entrepreneurship boom

· The means of retention are very different from the past

· Learning styles differ

· Challenge a standing start Importance:· More people on the planet are engaged in innovation than ever in the past

· 4.5 billion people are connected in internet working environments

· 30 billion things are now connected and getting smarter and more engaged

· The younger generation doesn’t want to work as hard as their parents. They are looking for experiences.

· Know your individual teams learning style and coachability

· What is the moral mortgage you take when you build a system?

How Do I Reflect on Myself as a Leader?· Are you thinking about the future and making it better for tomorrow?

· Do you understand the difference in what the younger generation values?

· Are you retaining your employees and aware of the key things employees are looking for?

· Am I committed to lifelong development for employees?

· How do I handle the Nomad lifestyle?

· Do I know the different learning styles of my team members?

· Do I have or need a coach and am I open to that coaching?

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Key Theme: The Future of Work
Leadership Thoughts:· Tools to identify and reveal logic in the code

· You can’t always throw the old out and get something new

· Indirect integration

· When will it change that we will worry that there is a driver in our car as opposed to it being self-driving?

· What confidence do you have in this system that is replacing the old system

· Changing the architecture of evolution

· Interplanetary internet

· So many doors are opening up

Importance:· You don’t want to have to pull retired employees to find hidden things

· The new old is sometimes your best profitable benefit

· When do we start letting go of decision rights and authority and trusting?

· At what point are we moving rights and authorities to systems we trust?

· Emergent systems are growing in distributed fashion

· I can’t make everything super smart, but I can make something nearby super smart

· How do you deal with planet rotation

How Do I Reflect on Myself as a Leader?· Do we have good documentation?

· Am I upgrading and moving our systems into the future?

· Am I evolving elements as they are replaced?

· Am I letting go?

· Am I moving decision making to the edge?

· Do we have highly distributed systems that we are able to build trust in the processes of the network itself?

· Am I skating to where the puck is going to be in the future?

· Am I at my age? Do I have insight of the old and also retaining the youthful challenge of a 2-year-old and ask why?

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Key Theme: The Future of Work
Leadership thoughts:
· Where are we in the midst of COVID and the different reactions?

· What does the term work mean?

· Where work ends, and life begins is subject to change

· Madmax was set in 2021 – thankfully that future wasn’t accurate

· What is the end state really going to look like compared to what we planned for?

· Nomad Lifestyles Importance:· Having a down to earth pragmatic view of the future

· What are students being told about the future of work?

· Take time to look at yesterday’s tomorrows

· Looking at the past thoughts on the future

· We live in a Re-mix era. The pattern of experiences is the pursuit of Gen Z. Boomers have career path and career role experiences.

· Nomad lifestyles are growing and are not following a traditional career path or structure.

· Innovation patterns of startups challenge the corporate style

How Do I Reflect on Myself as a Leader?· Are you looking at the future with a running start?

· Do you have a poor horizon of what is coming?

· Are you testing your thoughts on what you think the future is?

· Are you reflecting on the past and how it evolved?

· Are you overshooting or undershooting?

· Am I prepared for novel situations that are unexpected?

· Do you think you know everything?

· Am I prepared for a workforce that is living a Nomad Lifestyle?

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Key Theme:

• Don't ever walk past a problem

Leadership Thoughts:

• It takes courage to trust someone that has failed themselves
• People are watching and waiting for you to inspire them
• Leadership is a heart thing more than a head thing
• Your character and values is what your team is looking at
• Acknowledge
• Accept
• Appreciate
• When you are a secure leader you can switch back and forth from task focused to people focused

Importance:

• Love em and then Lead em
• If you can't love them then you shouldn't be leading them
• How do I get my heart all the way in?
• Acknowledge, Accept and Appreciate - all 3 will help you with the soft skills you need to lead
• 40% are born task/results focused
• 40% are born towards relationships/social and people
• 20% are born able to do both
• Be consciously aware that your character is the foundation - you have to take care of the mission while caring for your people

How do I reflect on myself as a leader?

• Do I move toward problems to understand them and work it out?
• Am I making my expectations clear?
• Is my goal for my team to be better than me and then celebrate that?
• Do I believe in my people?
• Is it difficult for me to connect with people and their hearts?
• Do I have enthusiasm and emphasis in my voice when I encourage my people?
• Do I say out loud that I appreciate things?
• Does my team know what I think? Am I predictable?
• Am I task focused or people focused? Can I switch back and forth quickly?
• Am I being intentional with my people?

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Key Theme:

• Being Intentional

Leadership Thoughts:

• Build a culture to lead with honor and engage with character
• The role of the CIO has evolved and has more responsibility to drive culture
• Everyone has influence

Importance:

• Use your influence as a CIO to influence culture
• Culture will help you set boundaries
• Clarity is the #1 step
• Win with honor

How do I reflect on myself as a leader?

• Am I using my influence to drive culture?
• Do I have ownership of my territory to set the standards and the pace?
• Am I positive or negative?
• Is my attitude contagious?
• Do I have courage, character and commitment to step up and set the example and hold people accountable?

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Key Theme:

• Set the example and hold people accountable

Leadership Thoughts:

• Everyone wants to be a value add to the team
• Everyone is doing the best they can with the knowledge they have - If they knew better, they would do better!
• Good coaches ask questions!
• Lessen the power of your own personal blind spots
• Whatever you tolerate you perpetuate
• When you hold people accountable you help them grow

Importance:

• People want to be on a winning team
• When you listen to your team you get better results
• How to start having the conversation on culture and how important is it
• When you ask questions, it becomes their idea and not your idea
• One of the most important things we do as leaders is hold people accountable

How do I reflect on myself as a leader?

• Am I asking my team: "What do you need to be good at what you do here"?
• Is my team excelling and performing in response to my leadership style?
• Is what I am doing contagious across the company?
• Am I tough as well as kind and relational?
• Am I clarifying the standards?
• Am I okay with being vulnerable and humble?
• Do I walk past problems?

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*In episode 5 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture Walt Carter, Pat Romboletti and John Vinyard will continue the conversation on Leadership Systems.

Leadership thoughts:*

• Leaders must always be a role model
• The leadership system should include:
  • Our 'table stakes' of what you should have if you are in this organization, both personally (i.e., integrity) and organizationally (i.e., VMV and behaviors)
• Who you serve and their requirements
• What a leader must accomplish
• What no leader can delegate

Importance:

• If leaders are going to have a consistent approach to leading?
• If you do not have the responsibilities clearly defined, every leader will 'lead from their gut' and this will drive the workforce crazy.
  • Everyone will have a different approach and think it is 'personality" driven not process driven

How do I reflect on myself as a Leader:

• How was I taught to lead?
• Do I understand the customer requirements of those people I lead?
• Do I demonstrate the characteristics of leaders which no leader can delegate... such as:
  • Being a role-model
  • Building commitment
  • Empowering leaders and teams
  • Analyzing performance
  • Making course corrections
  • Motivating employees
  • Continuously improving

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In episode 4 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture Walt Carter, Pat Romboletti and John Vinyard will discuss the behaviors behind culture and what constitutes a genuine change in culture.
Leadership Thoughts:

• Culture of the organization must be clearly defined
• There are lecturing cultures and listening cultures
• Leaders must make a commitment to a path forward
• Are the leaders collaborative? Do they like and respect each other?
• Culture drives behavior
• Behaviors must support the culture
• The core value of a culture must be that you care about your workforce
• Does the leadership team have "simplifiers and multipliers?" You need both.

Importance:

• This is pivotal to all aspects of an organization's performance
• What is being done is more important than what is being said
• Key staff will leave if the culture is not what high performing leaders expect
  • Pay alone will not keep some of your key leaders
  • This cost of senior leader turnover is extremely high

How do I reflect on myself as a leader?

• Do I understand how the culture is deployed on a day-to-day basis?
• Do others in the organization truly believe I care about them?
• If I ask someone to describe the culture, does everybody describe the same set of beliefs and behaviors?
• Are people waiting for me to make a decision - am I holding progress? How do I know?
• Am I able to describe our complex environment simply?

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*In episode 6 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture Walt Carter, Pat Romboletti and John Vinyard will discuss how to use a leadership system.

Leadership thoughts:*

• The culture you are trying to promote must be embodied in your Leadership System, and in every leader
• The Leadership System allows the senior leaders to deploy their 'wisdom' all the way down the organization
• Personal 'styles' and a Leadership System are not the same
• In a strong culture everyone is entitled to have an opinion, and is encouraged to 'speak up'
• In a strong culture if you know about a problem it is unacceptable not to 'speak up'
• You cannot tolerate the person who makes their goals, but do not embrace the organizational culture

Importance:

• A consistent approach to leadership is critical to repeatable organizational success
• The team must understand:
  • What we are attempting to accomplish?
  • How?
  • Who will do each part?
• In high-performing organizations bad news flows up FAST
  • Leaders do not take action to suddenly 'micro-manage' because they know:
    • The people who 'own' the bad news know the leaders know about it
    • The owner is working to fix the problem
    • The owner will ask for help if they need it
• How Do I Reflect on Myself as a Leader:
  • Do I know the aspects of the Leadership System which are my strengths and opportunities?
    • How do I know?
    • Do I have a tangible approach to improve each of my opporunites?
  • Do people in my organization feel safe in speaking up?
  • Do I give any (even subtle) signals that I don't want to hear bad news
  • When bad news flows up, do I ask "What happened - what process failed", not "Who did this"

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In episode 3 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture Walt Carter, Pat Romboletti and John Vinyard will take a deeper dive into the conversation on culture.
Key themes:

• Culture - what is it and what do I need to do?
• Leadership systems - what is a leadership system and how is it used?

Leadership thoughts:

• Changing culture is a very difficult process, and can only be done with the support (air cover) from the top leader
• Mentorship programs must be focused on the Mentee, not the mentor

Importance:

• Leaders who try to disrupt the culture MUST have 100% of their leaders support while they are trying to "tilt the culture"

How do I reflect on myself as a leader?

• What am I doing which is in conflict with the culture?
  • Do I have leadership support?
• Do I know the requirements of my direct reports?
  • Do they TRUELY feel I care about them?
• Who mentors me?
  • Do I have 3 mentors?
    • One that is outside the organization
    • One that is inside the organization (higher level)
    • One that is inside the organization
      • Someone that sees you everyday
      • A millennial to learn from each other

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In the second episode on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the impact on culture we start by answering the question at the end of Episode 1: 
How do you get teams to align and get in step with each other and be willing to be open to ideas outside the organization?
Leadership thoughts:

• Leaders must have humility to want to improve
• Leaders must know where to improve
• Organizations must have a documented Leadership System
• The definition of a Leadership System
• There must be a clear "code of conduct" documented for the organization, which is clear, communicated and enforced

Importance:

• "There is a tremendous proximity between excellence and dissatisfaction" (quote by Joe Anderson)
• The Standards of Behavior must be documented and not violated EVER

How do I reflect on myself as a leader?

• Do I evaluate myself in my ability to lead?
• Do I have clear measures of my leadership?
• Am I tough on myself and how I can improve my leadership?
• Do I have somebody who will "tell me the truth" about what I need to improve?
• Do I really have a passion for results?
• Have I earned the peoples trust
  • How?
  • How do I know?
  • How am I doing?

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Episode 1 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture:
**How do we define who is a leader and what are their responsibilities?

Leadership Thoughts
·   Leaders are at all levels
·   All leaders must set direction at their level
·   Beliefs and actions MUST match within the organization Importance
·   Everybody needs to lead
·   We must have a common definition of what is the responsibility of every leader
·   Whoever you bring into the organization must have matching Vision, Mission, Values (VMV) and behaviors
How Do I Reflect on Myself As A Leader?
·   Do decisions come to me which should be made at a lower level
·   Do you see leaders who pass the buck, and don’t make decisions within their span of control
·   Have we developed a Leadership System
·   Have our Vision, Mission, Values been defined and Universally Communicated -  You must have Behaviors, Tactics and Measures of these