Hot Mess Hotline

The demands on IT leaders have never been greater. You’re expected to be technically brilliant while also leading your teams through constant change and disruption. But what happens when your “superhero” drive to do more, learn more, and be more starts to work against you? As Michael Pompey, Chief Information and Transformation Officer for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, shares in a recent podcast interview, many IT leaders fall into the trap of believing that “more is more.” They push themselves to the limit, taking on every challenge and striving for perfection. While this drive can lead to early success, it can also become a recipe for burnout and stagnation. Read the full blog post here: https://thechangearchitects.com/it-leadership-growth-mindset-with-michael-pompey/ About Michael Pompey: Michael is a seasoned technology executive with over two decades of experience driving innovation and transformation in mission-driven organizations. Currently serving as the Chief Information and Transformation Officer for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, he leads the organization’s technology strategy, overseeing the assessment and expansion of its digital capabilities to support growth in existing and new markets, with the ultimate aim of reaching all girls in the region. Michael’s career in technology began in the field of Juvenile Justice, where as a probation officer, he identified critical gaps in data management. By developing applications to track and forecast social and offender data, he demonstrated the transformative power of technology in improving case management and youth outcomes. This experience ignited his passion for leveraging data and technology to serve youth-focused nonprofits, propelling him into leadership roles across various mission-driven organizations. With a unique blend of expertise in both nonprofit and technology sectors, Michael has continually refined his skills to drive digital transformation in organizations dedicated to youth development. His academic foundation from the University of South Florida, combined with professional certifications from Microsoft, TBM, ITIL, and other leading technology providers, have equipped him to navigate the complexities of the digital age. Highly regarded for his thought leadership, Michael has served on advisory boards, including the Philadelphia Society for Information Management (SIM) Council, the CIO Forum Executive Council, and the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA). His insights have been featured in prominent publications such as *CIO Magazine* and the *Business Intelligence Journal*. Outside of his professional endeavors, Michael is a dedicated family man and proud father of two teenage boys, who continually inspire his passion for technology and its impact on the next generation.

The role of the CIO has never been more demanding. In today’s rapidly changing technological landscape, CIOs are tasked with not only managing complex IT infrastructure, but also leading their teams through digital transformation, driving innovation, and ensuring cybersecurity. The pressure is immense, and the stakes are high. Many CIOs find themselves at a crossroads. They are technically brilliant, but may struggle with the "people" side of leadership. They understand the importance of change management but may lack the tools and frameworks to effectively lead their teams through this process. This is where CIO coaching can make a world of difference. Listen to this episode with The Change Architects’ CIO coach, Joe Woodruff, and his approach to coaching the unique needs of our CIOs. Read the full blog post here: https://thechangearchitects.com/cio-coaching-leading-with-clarity-and-confidence-in-the-age-of-digital-transformation/ About Joe Woodruff: Joe Woodruff is a leadership coach, speaker and writer. In the years since co-founding CIO Mastermind, he has spoken and worked with hundreds of technology executives. Joe drives the content development for CIO Mastermind, and members call on him for coaching to sharpen their leadership skill-sets. His background brings a unique perspective to human motivation and organizational development. He is driven to equip technology leaders to elevate and extend their influence so that they are able to enjoy the profession of their dreams. Joe leads CIO Mastermind's work with companies to improve employee development, increase engagement and inspire retention. He is an acting CIO and change-strategy consultant.

What if accountability isn’t a weapon? Empowering leaders, like Kerry Siggins, have embraced accountability so highly that they wish for that kind of freedom and ownership for everyone around them. Most trainings on accountability say to “Hold employees accountable.” What if, instead, we invited employees into accountability. It’s an invitation into empowerment. Accountability is a topic we discuss a lot, especially when it comes to change and transformation. Nothing changes unless individuals decide to change first. Organizations don’t change; people do. Not only does Kerry share her story of transforming her company three times, she transformed her own life from addiction into recovery because of accountability! About Kerry Siggins: Kerry Siggins is the CEO of StoneAge, a fast-growing, employee-owned manufacturing and technology company based in Colorado. In 2023, Kerry was named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year and Colorado’s CEO of the Year. During her 17-year and counting tenure, Kerry has led StoneAge through three major transitions while continuously building a dynamic culture where employees think and act like owners. To that effect, StoneAge is recognized as a top company to work for by Outside Magazine and Inc. Magazine. She is a dynamic, sought after speaker who presents worldwide at corporations, universities, and conferences. Kerry hosts Reflect Forward, a popular leadership podcast and is an author, blogger, and contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Authority Magazine, and BIC Magazine. Her blog is visited by thousands of readers each month and she recently released her first book, The Ownership Mindset: A Handbook for Transforming Your Life and Leadership. Read the full blog post here: https://thechangearchitects.com/accountability-isnt-a-weapon-its-empowering-with-kerry-siggins/

Scaling without structure in IT often allows bad behaviors to create toxicity in a culture. The Change Architect’s executive coach, Tonya Wallace, shares an experience scaling a team where one person’s toxic behavior was limiting autonomy, creativity, and decision making. This team had recently gone from launching an innovative product to then maintaining it — but the team hadn’t adapted its speed and practices to this new way of working. Tonya shares how she helped bring self awareness, scalability, and structure that drastically improved trust and culture in a very quick way. Her quote blew me away, “Play chess with your hands behind your back and all you can use is your words.” This is influence in our modern working world. This is the key tool we have: our voice. As an ambitious leader, wouldn’t you want to use your most powerful tool in the most powerful way? This conversation will increase your power! About Tonya Wallace: Tonya Wallace is known as a Culture Guru and Agile Jedi. She combines leadership coaching, lean thinking and agility to develop high performing individuals and teams. As a Solutions Delivery Director for Cox Automotive, she supports one of the top revenue drivers that transforms the way cars are bought and sold within the Automotive industry.  As a technologist for over 20 years, she is the owner of Gideon VI, a M/WBE Indy based Tech company. In addition, Wallace is a John Maxwell team member, life coach, and DISC trainer, teaching self-awareness through understanding behavioral styles thereby reducing anxiety and improving communication within teams and promoting a healthy team culture. As a DEI enthusiast, she is known for her dynamic and engaging speaking style and information packed facilitation. Also known as "The Sports Mom", Wallace enjoys spending time with all six of her children, watching them thrive in Corporate America, entrepreneurship, and in the athletic arena. She loves to use her skills to combine agile principles, leadership skills and emotional intelligence strategies to drive a sense of ownership and self motivation to empower, influence and motivate those around her to raise the bar to achieve personal and professional goals. She feels blessed to be a vessel to others! Read the full blog post here: https://thechangearchitects.com/scaling-without-structure-creates-burnout-in-it-with-tonya-wallace/

Are you accountable for action or outcomes? Jason Botts is an innovative, results-driven technology leader who creates high-performing teams. He is passionate about creating tech transformation that actually matters to its companies, customers, and stakeholders.  We discussed why benchmarks aren’t good enough and how trust and listening can solve even the worst tech disasters. Listen to this episode where Jason shares one of the worst days on the job – only 90 days after an ERP implementation with some 3 a.m. trust building. About Jason Botts: With over two decades of experience, Jason helps realize key performance objectives for businesses large and small by partnering with business leaders and key stakeholders to capture synergies that result in operational excellence and effectiveness. He brings extensive IT operational and strategic experience from many industries, including life science, high tech / fintech and construction. His background includes transforming and leading technology teams that have been repeatedly recognized by InformationWeek magazine as Elite 100 Innovators – from entrepreneurial startup / Fast 50 companies to the S&P 500. He has led diligence and post-transaction integrations for deals ranging from $10M to nearly $3B.Jason serves by appointment of the Governor to the North Carolina Board of Science, Technology and Innovation and was recently selected as a technology leader in Aspen Institute’s Technology Executive Leadership Initiative (TELI). He holds a Master of Business Administration from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). https://thechangearchitects.com/is-your-tech-team-accountable-for-action-or-outcomes-with-jason-botts

Extreme ownership for IT leaders means: if you’re involved, you own it. Brian Burk brings his IT leadership experience to our conversation with his wise counsel and practical tools for accountability. Today’s projects are complex and have moving targets. It’s easy to want to avoid responsibility for results. But you’re here because you’re a leader that wants to see big change so avoidance is unacceptable. Brian shares multiple tools to bring more change and accountability — all while making a successful business even more successful. There are training ideas and a process for group brainstorming called SARGE. Listen in for ways to bring more ownership into your teams. About Brian Burk: Brian A Burk, MBA began his healthcare and life science career as a pharmaceutical and medical device representative. He went on to roles leading US sales operations, Phase IV clinical trials and marketing for multiple global brands in Big Pharma. He has led numerous organizations who provided either healthcare data, analytics, compliance services and/or technology services to the FDA, physician groups, manufacturers, PBMs and hospitals. Additionally, he founded, built, and successfully sold the IP to two healthcare technology companies, which provided e-prescribing and pharmacy routing services respectively. He won the Innovation and Quality awards from eHealthcare Leadership in 2011, 2012 & 2013. Read the full blog post here: https://thechangearchitects.com/if-youre-involved-you-own-it-extreme-ownership-for-it-leaders-with-brian-burk/

How about a specific example of technical debt and its cultural consequences? Ken Knapton shares a real world example where tech silos and cultural silos reinforce each other. This company had several overlapping solutions that wasted money and created at least $5 million in cash expense — while individuals were losing their jobs! If you’re struggling to articulate the case for why technical debt is holding your enterprise back, listen to this episode for the real world implications, criteria to evaluate and quantify, how to know you have a problem, and how to leverage your tech debt to the tune of 50%. About Ken Knapton: Ken Knapton is an accomplished technology leader with extensive experience in leading IT functions, driving efficiency, automation, and delivering improved business outcomes. Ken has a proven track record in identifying and solving complex business problems, implementing sustainable solutions, and driving process improvements that transform business operations and bottom-line results. Read the full blog post at: https://thechangearchitects.com/example-of-technical-debt-and-its-cultural-consequences/

Insider threat detection comes from new school technology and old school relationships. Robert Field learned of sabotage coming from one of his employees from a trusted relationship outside of the organization. Yes, technically, technology could have detected this. But the reality was that Rob’s focus on relationships saved his company’s bacon. He had people around him that cared about his success. As a leader, do you have strong enough relationships to tell you the hard stuff, the stuff you don’t want to hear? Do you lead with integrity every day? Do you have people and technology to protect you from the bad stuff? Listen to this episode for how insider threat detection is a people, process, and tech problem and how to fix it. About Robert Field An expert at leveraging technology to turn corporate strategy into reality, Robert is a Senior Technical Leader with 20+ yrs. of experience leading client engagements. Highly accomplished, versatile global leader with a proven track record of success in building deep, meaningful relationships across the organization driving business change. Demonstrated success in leading large-scale, cross functional teams and delivering strategic solutions that drive growth, efficiency, and competitive advantage. Leveraging a coaching leadership style engaging and motivating teams beyond their expected potential. Highly adept at identifying and seizing new opportunities, leveraging technology to disrupt traditional business models and achieve transformation. Find the full blog post at https://thechangearchitects.com/insider-threat-detection-comes-from-strong-outside-relationships-with-robert-field/

What got you here won’t get you there if you’re a leader driving growth and transformation. Ravi Bommireddipalli is a CEO who focuses on unlearning as much as he learns. For Robosoft’s next level, he’s being charged with leading the company to where it has never been. Along the way he’s going to become a leader he’s never been. And he’s going to grow more leaders so that not all operational details continue to come through him. This episode covers great ground on how CEOs and CIOs need to problem solve at higher levels, cover both the offense and the defense, communicate simply, and hire people who challenge them. Ravi Bommireddipalli Ravi took charge as CEO of Robosoft Technologies in late 2017. Since then, he has been a change agent at Robosoft, leading the transition to a full-service digital transformation company. He has expanded the service offerings and set up systems and talent in place to deliver end-to-end digital solutions for enterprise customers. He believes in forging relationships with customers and being a true partner in solving their business problems through digital solutions. Ravi Teja is a student of Ontology (the science of Being) Business and Engineering and believes that the power of empathy, human understanding and technology can solve a large number of societal and business problems. An Electronics engineer from NIT, Allahabad, an MBA in Technology Management from IIT Bombay, Ravi has 25+ years of experience in technology consulting and implementing digital transformation. His previous stints included Nihilent Technologies, TCS and Rolta. Ravi was the Chairman of Institute of Management Consultants of India (IMCI), Pune chapter and is an active member of the India CEO forum of IMA and the prestigious Forbes Technology Council – an ‘invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives’. Find the full blog post at: https://thechangearchitects.com/what-got-you-here-wont-get-you-there-with-ravi-bommireddipalli/ 

Every step of growth has its own challenges and hot messes. CEO Asad Ur Rehman learned these lessons the hard way as he’s grown from freelance software developer to CEO of a 300-person global firm. There’s a myth about success that when you achieve a certain salary, revenue, job, client, etc. etc. etc. THEN things will get easier, better. Here’s the good news: as you uplevel, you get more challenges. These challenges get bigger and you have to uplevel your problem solving skills. The only way is through and a commitment to learning.  I learned from Tony Robbins a long time ago that modeling the behavior and learning from other folks who have “Been there. Done that.” is a powerful way to jumpstart my plans. You can do that most simply by reading the books your role models write. Listen to Asad’s and my conversation to hear how Asad learned how to become a successful CEO when growth was often 2 steps forward and 1 step back. About Asad Ur Rehman Asad Ur Rehman is a dynamic entrepreneur and technology visionary who has transformed his passion for software development into a thriving global business empire. With a career spanning over a decade, Asad's journey from a software developer to the CEO of Cubic Solutions Inc. a technology company headquartered in the United States with a significant presence across Europe and Asia, is a testament to his unwavering dedication and visionary leadership.Asad's entrepreneurial journey began in 2011 when he embarked on his career as a freelancer in the world of software development. His innate talent for coding and problem-solving quickly gained recognition, allowing him to build a solid foundation in the industry. As a freelancer, he honed his skills, gained invaluable experience, and cultivated a deep understanding of the tech landscape. Find the full blog post at https://stefaniekrievins.com/every-step-of-growth-has-its-own-new-challenges-with-asad-ur-rehman/