IT Leaders

00:00:00:29 - 00:00:26:07
Unknown
So my name is Lisa. I grew up on this campus, so I spent my career either at the white House on the first floor, up on the fourth floor here, or at Commerce crossings for a hot minute. When I did the PeopleSoft implementation, which I didn't know was a bad idea at the time. I didn't know that taking that job was not my can be my favorite thing, but I spent two years, implementing 8.0 embedded with a group of about 100 of us to get that done.

00:00:26:07 - 00:00:47:08
Unknown
And we went to Big Bang with 140,000 people. Also did not know that was not a good idea. But I have spent my career working with IT leaders in teams and helping them be even more effective. And so we'll talk a little bit about that today. We Doug and I did some brainstorming and talked about something that might be relevant to all of you.

00:00:47:09 - 00:01:08:26
Unknown
We've all been stuck, whether it's at home, whether it's with your direct team, whether it's partners, teams that you have to collaborate with to move things forward. And so that's going to be our focus for today. All right. So we've got a few things. And I'm going to share my sort of best of some of the tools and resources that I've used in the past to coach leaders that I've worked directly with.

00:01:08:29 - 00:01:28:14
Unknown
So what got you here won't get you there. Choosing your mindset. The power of questions and we'll do some feed forward along the way. Do a couple of sessions of that. Doug has given me a time frame. I think I've got more content than we'll have time for. But I'll, get as far as I can with you guys today.

00:01:28:16 - 00:01:54:10
Unknown
All right. What got you here? I'll get you there. Christian, do you mind let candidates out, maybe putting these on each table. Chris, thank you for saying. So what got you here won't get you there. Anybody heard Marshall Goldsmith? I brought some show and tell. Yeah. Marshall Goldsmith, world renowned leader in leadership, leadership behaviors, things that help leaders be even more effective.

00:01:54:12 - 00:02:13:25
Unknown
You wrote a book. What got what got you here won't get you there. It's on audible, and I'm confident you could find a five page abstract someplace if you don't want to digest something. So thank you. Christian. There are 20 behaviors. As I was looking at this, I was reminded of a few that I've experienced in my career.

00:02:13:25 - 00:02:34:21
Unknown
Maybe more than a few. But what Krista just passed out is, the list of. It's funny. So here's the first ten. There's the next ten. So we're going to spend some time doing some interactive step along the way. So I'm going to ask you to take two minutes. Go with your gut. Read the list in front of you.

00:02:34:21 - 00:03:04:23
Unknown
Check off the things that might x you might experience or behaviors you might exhibit. Sometimes, maybe often. And then we're going to group up at tables. So I think there's a couple of people at each table. So we're going to then share at your table the ones you've checked, your top three. So if you would take two minutes, review those, check off the ones you think apply no limits.

00:03:04:23 - 00:03:17:12
Unknown
But 4 or 5 would be great. And then we're going to share them at your table.

00:03:17:15 - 00:03:43:19
Unknown
You and. All right. If you weren't at your table, share 3 or 4 that you checked that you think you exhibit in the workplace. That might be in the way of you being your most effective leader on occasion with some clients, with some people. Entertains every now and then. All right. Take a couple of minutes and do that.

00:03:43:21 - 00:03:49:22
Unknown
For the boss. Assess.

00:03:49:24 - 00:04:02:16
Unknown
If I could call a spouse. Right? Yeah, yeah. Anybody want to share a feed that you heard at your table? Good. There you.

00:04:02:19 - 00:04:25:06
Unknown
Stop. Sure. That's the failure to get proper recognition. Sometimes you have to spy and focus on that scale. Let's go. And then that stop actually give. Right. Let's. Then they brought up an idea that they did here. What was it? It's talking about the cards that we used to have enough pictures. I don't know if they're spookier.

00:04:25:08 - 00:04:49:01
Unknown
Escorts. Yeah. This is where it's at. Yeah. And, you know, the more experienced we get, the more we look at people. We're just talking about our table and you're like. But they're just doing their job. I expected it to be turned in. Good quality work on time. Like I'm supposed to recognize and show gratitude. Yes, yes. It's that quick pause just to say thanks.

00:04:49:04 - 00:05:09:28
Unknown
Anybody else other thoughts and ideas? Yeah. So, adding to his value, everybody listen at every opportunity. So even just recently so I'm relatively new with, Churchill Downs. I've been there less than a week. Oh, something, well, bitter about nine years now that this is feels horrific on the job as it and but it is office talk.

00:05:09:28 - 00:05:30:18
Unknown
They have another game and they're talking about something on the budget. And you know, since, you know, I had so much experience at Churchill Downs at this point, they had to have my input on what was going on with the budget that I had not see ever. But I was more than happy to give them my, but yeah, one of mine is I bring energy and enthusiasm to every conversation.

00:05:30:18 - 00:05:43:05
Unknown
So you're just participating at that point? You're just leaning in. But yeah, absolutely. We've all been there. Anybody else?

00:05:43:07 - 00:06:01:10
Unknown
Okay. This is a great list for all of us to to be reminded of those behaviors that sometimes get in the way of us being our most effective. And it's not that we're not effective. Right. So this is about the finer points. As you grow as a leader, it's about continuing to enhance your effectiveness whenever you can.

00:06:01:13 - 00:06:18:12
Unknown
I also encourage you to share this with people you work with and or who work for you. You've surely seen some of these behaviors that are getting in the way or people on your team in terms of their effectiveness. And if you've got relationships where you can share it with clients, sometimes they're in the same place.

00:06:18:15 - 00:06:49:00
Unknown
Okay. So again, available to you, lots of easy ways to digest that. All right. So we've been there. Okay. One of Marshall Goldsmith's, one of the tools that he uses and talks about is this concept of feedforward. So feedback back is looking backwards. Behavior is you've manifested how people have observed you in action and they're giving you feedback.

00:06:49:00 - 00:07:14:28
Unknown
And I think you were just asking Doug for feedback on what we're experiencing today. Feed forward is basically crowdsourcing things you're working on. So it's this concept of turning to somebody and asking a simple question about, hey, I've got this situation, what do you think? We all have opinions. Back to your point, right? You don't have to be invested in knowing the details to be able to offer a point of view or some ideas.

00:07:15:00 - 00:07:37:20
Unknown
And so for all of us, sometimes getting unstuck means expanding your thinking, changing your approach, getting an idea out of left field that helps you approach something differently. And so that's what Marshall Goldsmith said. His point was feed forward. Looking ahead, how can you expand your thinking about a situation? So I'm gonna ask you to pick a behavior, go back to your table, pick a partner.

00:07:37:25 - 00:08:01:23
Unknown
I think we've got mostly matched groups. If not, find a friend. And I'm going to ask you to feed forward. So basically choose one of the behaviors. Describe how this behavior might, on occasion, rare events show up in your workplace for you. Ask for two suggestions on making a positive change on that. And then listen to the suggestions.

00:08:01:23 - 00:08:26:21
Unknown
Take notes. No comments, no discussion. This is just expand your thinking. Just some ideas. Thank your partner and swap. So find a friend. Take a behavior, ask for feedback. Some questions that you can use to kind of suggestions that might give you different ideas on how to make progress on that. Make a couple of notes. Switch partners. We'll take five ish minutes to do that.

00:08:26:21 - 00:08:33:24
Unknown
So quick hit.

00:08:33:27 - 00:08:43:02
Unknown
That just probably. Is.

00:08:43:04 - 00:08:47:16
Unknown
Here.

00:08:47:19 - 00:09:13:13
Unknown
Does anybody get an insight of something that they're like, That's an idea I haven't tried. And something that would be an interesting twist up to anybody. Want to share one? I, have the tendency of passing judgment, like holding my standards on other people. And I was reminded by Mike that there are more women. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

00:09:13:15 - 00:09:32:01
Unknown
And I think just keeping that in mind, and as long as I think others in the meeting are getting value out of the way, people are leading the project or leading the meeting, and it's not completely going off the rails. They don't necessarily have to do it in the manner that I would do it. I love that, thank you and your previewing where we're going to go.

00:09:32:01 - 00:09:59:05
Unknown
And in just a minute. So that concept of judging, right. We all have that judger in our head. And that's a very relevant. Thank you. Anybody else want to share one. Go ahead. Don't shy you. You shared. Okay. So mine was, clinging to the past, and I kind of had the tendency, I work with a small team that up in there for a while, so I kind of had the tendency, for determining behaviors of what's going to happen and where your project.

00:09:59:05 - 00:10:24:01
Unknown
So, you kind of help me out with the suggestion of kind of adding to those thoughts when they come in and kind of being more open minded there. But but creating that open mindedness with, with adding some, some additional info in there. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I think for all of us, we all have instant reactions in our head and conversations that are happening in our head all day, every day.

00:10:24:03 - 00:10:49:00
Unknown
It's really hard to edit that. It's really hard to simply say, stop. I shouldn't have that thought or go away. Like, I don't want to consider you. It's much easier when you have those initial thoughts to add to them. So and maybe there's another way, and maybe their standards are fine. Maybe the clients like their approach. It's not mine, but the clients might like it.

00:10:49:02 - 00:11:08:02
Unknown
And so just opening that possibility that there might be something to add to what's popping in your head. I think that my beloved opening a trap to. Right. Because let's hypothetically say the point is that I can that approach, you can very easily fall back into that and done it the way. If only they would have listened, right?

00:11:08:02 - 00:11:33:16
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. We're going to talk about gut coming back to judging, in a minute. So we'll come back to that. Anybody else we can ask? Yes, Siri, I will always talks about, the words of being me. In words of working out, and not being able to solve anything by overthinking it on the way home or when you get in bed that night, like, let it go.

00:11:33:16 - 00:11:55:24
Unknown
I didn't say that the wrong way. No one's going to be offended tomorrow. Like, yeah, for sure I'm being out there, but then I'm overthinking it later. Yeah, yeah. Replaying it 12 times in your head. Yeah. We've all been there for sure. So for most of us, being unsupported, have you guys ever seen Calvin and Hobbes? How horrible to them.

00:11:55:26 - 00:12:28:22
Unknown
Okay, one of my favorite leadership tools. So, one of the things as we think about how we want to get unstuck, right, is we've got a situation. We think we thrive on change, right? That's us. But what we really want is other people to change, like Calvin going off the cliff. Right. So we we have to remember that while we think that we're thriving on change, what we're really when we're stuck, it usually means that we want somebody else to do the moving.

00:12:28:22 - 00:12:54:05
Unknown
We want somebody else to do the changing. And so it's just a good opportunity to pause. All right. Next show and tell. Anybody heard of Carol Dweck? So Carol did a lot of work around what, what it takes to be successful in psychology success. And she came up with two concepts the growth mindset and the fixed mindset.

00:12:54:08 - 00:13:21:03
Unknown
So the growth mindset is where you believe that there are things that you can do and you can control to make progress on something. You're facing a challenge and you see a way to get to the other side. You see a pathway. Having a fixed mindset is generally the belief that your skills, your capabilities, your abilities are fixed and that that is insurmountable.

00:13:21:06 - 00:13:47:02
Unknown
It's for whatever reason, in my experience, the more experience you have, it can really get easy to be in that fixed mindset because you have the history. You've seen the movie three times, four times. You know how it's going to end. If only they would listen, right? So which one are you? Again, back to my favorite leadership lessons, Calvin and Hobbes.

00:13:47:02 - 00:14:09:23
Unknown
When we're in the growth mindset, particularly with experienced leaders, you know you can do hard stuff. You're not going to give up. You're going to be persistent. You know, there's stuff to learn if you're facing something and you've got that intellectual curiosity that's really started and you're approaching something, you're like jazz. My brother is an electrical engineer. He describes himself as the grumpy engineer.

00:14:09:23 - 00:14:35:11
Unknown
He's turned into the grumpy engineer he always worked for. He just moved into a new job. He was dissatisfied in his old one, and he had gotten really grumpy. I can attest he's learning right now. So he's really intellectually stimulating. So he's growing. He's got a growth mindset. He was in the first five set. So for most leaders who are in this place, fixed mindset on not your whole life, right?

00:14:35:11 - 00:15:02:27
Unknown
Just a project. A person you don't feel like it. Like you don't feel like working on that. You don't care. You don't want to do it. So your approach is no. So what Carol would say is that your fixed mindset, it's not an either or. You don't have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. You have both existing in you on any given occasion, and sometimes within a ten minute span, you can have a growth mindset and a fixed mindset.

00:15:03:00 - 00:15:24:21
Unknown
But you can continue to grow with that. It's not synonymous with hard work, so you can work really hard and be incredibly exasperated. You can feel like you're moving chairs on the Titanic. So growth mindset, isn't just hard work. It's not just believing in yourself. How many of you would like to drive a NASCAR race car?

00:15:24:21 - 00:15:45:15
Unknown
Formula one. I like to drive fast, except on days like today. Just believe. Just because I believe I can does not mean I can't. My husband would attest to that. Growth mindset is unachievable. Again, it's a myth. We can all continue to develop a growth mindset. It's like emotional intelligence, right? IQ is generally fixed from the time you're very young.

00:15:45:18 - 00:16:07:25
Unknown
Emotional intelligence can be built. And so kind of growth mindset. All right. We're going to experiment here and see if we can make this loud enough. I it may not work. Yeah. Well I just want to warn you it will be included in the video. All right, so anybody watch Ted Lasso? Right. Then you've seen this clip shortly.

00:16:07:27 - 00:16:21:21
Unknown
So anybody remember the episode where he takes Rupert on for darts in the pub? Yes. Okay, let's see if it works up.

00:16:21:24 - 00:16:49:21
Unknown
Okay. We don't need to win. Two 20s. No. Bottom side. Yeah. Good luck. You know, Rupert, guys have underestimated me my entire life. And for years, I never understood why I used to rule it back then. One day, I was driving my little boy to school, and I saw this quote by Walt Whitman was painting on the wall there and said, make curious, not judgmental.

00:16:49:24 - 00:17:16:13
Unknown
I like that. Oh, so I get back in my car, I'm driving to work, and all of a sudden it hits me. All them fellows that used to belittle me and I'm a single one of them were curious, you know, they thought they had everything all figured out. And so they judged everything and they judged everyone. And I realized that they're underestimated me.

00:17:16:15 - 00:17:47:29
Unknown
Who I was had nothing to do with it. Because if they were curious, they would ask questions. Yeah. Questions like, have you played a lot of darts? Did. Oh, oh. Which I would have answered. Yes, sir. Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from age 10 to 16, when he passed away.

00:17:48:01 - 00:17:56:16
Unknown
Barbecue sauce.

00:17:56:19 - 00:18:23:07
Unknown
Became. So what? Ted's point is, I say challenges Rupert, and he misses the bullseye as he hits the first start. Rupert. He says Rupert says, do you want to play for 10,000 pounds? And Ted says, no, that's way too rich for me. But how about we play for the control? The last two games of the season? Or you stay away from Rebecca's box?

00:18:23:10 - 00:18:51:09
Unknown
And ultimately, as he's throwing his darts, he says he's been underestimated his whole life. And he says, now, if you were curious, you might ask, hey, Ted, do you know how to play darts? Hits it. And then he asks again and makes the next point. Yes, I have played with my father from 12 to 18 every Sunday, and then he hits another one, and the last one, he says, is, that he'd been judged his whole life, right?

00:18:51:09 - 00:19:11:06
Unknown
Like he's been judged his whole life. So if you were curious, you would have asked questions to find out. Was I any good at darts before you challenged me? And ultimately his point was that, being curious instead of judgmental is a much better place to be. And so I heard multiple tables talking about this concept of, right, we're going in and we're judging.

00:19:11:06 - 00:19:32:11
Unknown
We're judging whether people show up on time, whether they are actually producing the spreadsheet the way we wanted, whether they coded the way we thought they said or like we did. And so it's this concept of making sure that we are curious and not judgmental. I'll try and get us back to where we started. Supposedly on your table was going to be, copies of this.

00:19:32:11 - 00:19:58:05
Unknown
So again, it'll be in the presentation. So sorry about that. No, they didn't give it. We all start at the same place, and there's a choice. And every meeting, every interaction, when you're walking through the hallways and talking to people on your team, we're either in a learner mindset or you're in a judge or mindset. The more experience you have, the more capability you have.

00:19:58:05 - 00:20:20:17
Unknown
The more you know, the harder it is to stay in that learner mindset, right? Because we've got all these preconceived notions and biases as we're walking through the day that are telling us, judge this, judge that, make a decision, make a decision fast, be decisive, which is being in the judge our place. What the point of this work is and this choice map.

00:20:20:17 - 00:20:46:24
Unknown
It's the last book I have for you today. Again, also an audible, super easy to consume. Change your questions. Change your life. Our global CPO was the one who suggested this book to me, and she's amazing. But her point was, if you stay in that place of curiosity and asking questions, you're way more likely to get farther, faster, which is so counter-intuitive.

00:20:46:24 - 00:21:08:00
Unknown
We think that you only need my expertise, my wisdom, the experiences that I have, the work that I've done. And if I convey that to you, we're going to get farther, faster. We're just talking about, at the back table. Well, can't I just tell them, like we tried this before. Here's what happened. Like, let's just expedite the fact that if I just put all of that out on the table, it's going to get us father faster.

00:21:08:00 - 00:21:36:01
Unknown
Well, maybe. Maybe not. So Mary's point is that at any point you can turn from judger to learner. And the way you do that is through questions. And she's got this concept and it's called queue storming. How many of you have ever been in a brainstorming session? Okay. What do you do in brainstorming session? Throw out ideas. You're throwing out ideas.

00:21:36:01 - 00:21:53:12
Unknown
You're throwing out answers right? What if we do this? What if we do that? What if we do this? So again, you're giving the opportunity. You're not supposed to judge in the moment, but all of us do it. You're given the opportunity as these things are going up to not judge. But then at the end of that session, you go back and you judge.

00:21:53:14 - 00:22:25:26
Unknown
You judge all of those ideas, all of those things that are out there to do. So my point is, what if you did Q storming instead? What if you just brainstormed questions? The opportunity to learn, the opportunity to position something differently, to come at it from a different angle. And her point is that at any given point, when you're in the judge or mindset, you can switch using questions to go back to being a learner and that the power of asking questions is incredibly underestimated.

00:22:25:28 - 00:22:58:09
Unknown
And so that's one of these key points. So we are going to do some Q storming. So here's what she's doing is we just talked about a flood of questions firing up your curiosity. And it allows you to explore problems from different angles. So anybody remember the homework or the pre work or the hope that you would come with the scenario that maybe you were kind of stuck in if you didn't read the Pre-read quickly think of a question uation where you might be stuck.

00:22:58:11 - 00:23:30:05
Unknown
You might be stuck with a person. You might be stuck with the person on your team, a client, somebody you're supposed to be collaborating with, a leader that's driving you crazy. You might be stuck at home, spouse, kids, whoever. Think of a scenario, find one partner at your table. So pair up and ask. Be brave and brilliant as you describe your scenario, and ask for 2 to 4 questions you could ask to change the scenario, to change how you're thinking, to expand your thinking.

00:23:30:08 - 00:23:35:24
Unknown
And thank your partner and switch places.

00:23:35:27 - 00:24:12:24
Unknown
Any questions you get? All right. Response. Awesome. Make. See you in there. All right. I love it when the conversation continues. All right. That's the wrong. All right. If I could have your attention, please. I'm seven minutes over. Doug has given me the hook up to stage yet. You need to change school. Yeah, I just was telling them I'm like, okay, positive discipline.

00:24:12:24 - 00:24:39:21
Unknown
The book. Highly recommend. I found them too late. The series is too late. It's sunk in. Yeah. No joke. I just recommend it to serious him. Like the parenting class. I took a chance. All right. Thank you. Anybody want to share a question or two that you might have heard from somebody at your table about? Maybe been not one that was directed to any questions?

00:24:39:24 - 00:24:57:00
Unknown
Okay, that's for two hours. I'd share something that I don't I, I, you know, I was the product we got right now that it's completely beyond my control as project manager and the team to solve it's is another partner are working on it which was waiting on them. That's something to think about. Only there's nothing. It's beyond my view trolling.

00:24:57:00 - 00:25:12:12
Unknown
He actually threw one question out of me. I'm like, actually that's not a bad idea. And it was to get our technical folks involved to help their technical folks. You know, it's not that we don't know their system and anything, but they might be able to ask questions in that meeting that helps them see something that they hadn't seen the work.

00:25:12:12 - 00:25:34:24
Unknown
So yeah, for sure. Or what's what's in your way? Well, we all know you're delayed. None of us really want to talk about it, but what are you struggling with? Also, people are talking. Yeah that not so many questions at that point. Caustic splat. It's mama, but it's still a possibility. And his his question. You still need to dot, right.

00:25:35:00 - 00:25:56:19
Unknown
Ultimately you still need it done. Anybody else? That was great. Thank you. Ask sweet personal. But I think a lot of, I think a lot of the issues are there. What are we missing here? You know, why? Why do we have this impasse? So I think they apply to business just as well as personal lives. Agreed.

00:25:56:23 - 00:26:23:18
Unknown
And generally, nobody comes to work to screw up, right? Like nobody starts their day going. I'm going to make your life miserable. I'm going to be late for you today. So a tiny bit of empathy and a tiny bit of compassion can really change the experience that you're having. And that relationship, even when it's really contentious. Right? It doesn't mean that you're that they didn't miss the deadline for your call and say, hey, this really stinks.

00:26:23:21 - 00:26:52:25
Unknown
Maybe we could work together to solve this for you. And so I think, you know, just reframing it and maybe thinking about a question or just that left field idea, can really help. All right. I have included, a request to all of you to make a commitment to yourself. Try one thing, one question. Catch yourself once, and the next week take a different tact.

00:26:52:27 - 00:27:14:04
Unknown
I hope I've given you some resources you can use. Not just with yourself, but with your teams. Again, to Doug's point, leadership is hard. And to Calvin's point, I just want other people to get unstuck and to change. But it really starts with you. I've included all the stuff that I've used today. For you to make it easy to find.

00:27:14:12 - 00:27:39:27
Unknown
Hopefully it'll be easy for you to consume. And thank you. I appreciate it, Doug. Thank you. Yeah. Not one question. How can people engage with you if they see value for their teams with you, sir? Solicit Gautreau. I think my name is in some of the materials at gmail.com. Just reach out. Happy to chat further. Yeah, it's it's a really fun bucket of work for the love.

00:27:39:28 - 00:27:57:28
Unknown
So thank you. I told Doug the last time I was in this room was five years ago, when I was doing a coaching session for managers at your level, on the mid tier process and giving feedback and how to contemplate how to make that a really constructive and developmental experience for the people who work for you. So thank you.

00:27:58:00 - 00:27:59:00
Unknown
Appreciate the opportunity.