S13 E9 CIO Leadership: Are You Making Decisions or Just Building Consensus?

Welcome back to my podcast. On today’s episode, I am joined by “Pro Troublemaker,” professional business coach, and president of Stefanie Krievins & Co., Stefanie Krievins. Since earning her trained coaching certification through Erickson’s International in 2014, Stefanie has built a company and team of “troublemakers” that provide tools for others to help them define their organization’s vision, work with trust and accountability, and communicate clearly to advocate for their own ideas. 

Here are some of the top transformational wins you will receive as an IT leader: 

• How to Navigate Multiple Generations within the Workforce 
• The Power of Seven Messages, Seven Channels, Seven Times 
• Using the DISC Behavioral Method to Better Understand Your Team 
• How to Build Self Awareness 
• How to Run a Better and Effective Meeting 

• How to Start Small and Build Stronger Leadership Skills 

Tune in and hear how you can transform your skills as a leader and create actions that leave an impact.

As a CIO and Business IT Leader here are some wins you will get by listening:

• (1:05) Stefanie: “We get to work with ambitious, fast growing scaling companies when they have messy, middle, growing pains."
• (2:10) Bill: “What is happening that there’s an opportunity for you and your organization to work for people to solve their particular problems?”
• (3:13) Stefanie: “I’m seeing a lot of leaders trying to use a consensus model of decision-making, which can be the fastest way to get nothing done.”
• (3:50) Stefanie: “For folks who want to run a high-performance team, hard times call for bold decisions.”
• (5:01) Stefanie: “We need to, as leaders, broaden our skillset when it comes to who makes the decision, how do they make it, who’s involved so that our organization can continue to grow.” 
• (5:42) Bill: “What’s the genesis of consensus decision making?” 
• (10:18) Stefanie: “There are new ways for you to be more transparent in your company in a way that makes sense for your business.” 
• (10:47) Stefanie: “One of my goals is to help people understand those nuances that create friction every single day. Seven messages, seven channels, seven times.” 
• (14:17) Stefanie: “Repetition is the magic of making your messages stick.” 
• (14:28) Bill: “Is that sort of the empowerment you’re trying to establish if you don’t have the view of the CEO in mind but rather an individual leader within their company?” 
• (15:46) Bill: “If you’re coming in from a technical orientation versus an analytical, do you find that people have different things you have to coach them up on?” 
• (16:17) Stefanie: “We are big fans of the DISC behavioral assessment.” 
• (20:40) Bill: “You’re essentially using this model to make sure that we know where we all are from our own style.” 
• (21:46) Stefanie: “Just recognizing that you need other people to help you make decisions.” 
• (22:18) Stefanie: “You need a high performing team that knows how to leverage all styles so they can make the best decisions possible.” 
• (23:14) Bill: “It is one thing to make a fast decision, but it is another thing to make a fast implementation.” 
• (25:09) Bill: “Is there a recommended meeting style or cadence that gives a framework for people?” 
• (27:39) Bill: “How do you coach a team or an individual on how to hold people accountable?” 
• (28:36) Stefanie: “We have to remember that the accountability is the other person’s responsibility.” 
• (32:08) Stefanie: “You have to define what kind of meeting it is so people understand how to best participate.” 
• (37:54) Stefanie: “Spend the first 20% of every single workday being completely unavailable to anybody else to do your deepest, most important work.” 
• (38:38) Stefanie: “Start with the work where you add the most value.”

Resources:

Stefanie Krievins’ LinkedIn 

Stefanie Krievins & Co. 

Stefanie’s Podcast: Hot Mess Hotline