A CIO Thanksgiving

This is the time of year when we reflect on the things that we are thankful for in our lives.  The CIO Leader needs to lead with thanksgiving 365 days per year.

CIOs should give thanks to their geeks. 

We as leaders always say that “people are #1”.  But what do we actually do?  Saying it is one thing, but acting on it is another.  We should do things that demonstrate our gratitude.  It doesn’t mean giving them everything they want.  But it does mean giving them everything they need.    Cornucopia filled with fruit and grain

Paul Glen in his book “Leading Geeks: How to Manage and Lead People Who Deliver Technology”, characterizes several ways leaders can motivate Geeks.  One thing that we can do is projectize as much as possible.  People don’t like working day-in and day-out on tasks with no objective and with no end.  Creating projects (when appropriate) helps to focus energy on specific outcomes and fosters an environment of accomplishment.

Glen also goes on to say that another thing IT leaders should do for their Geeks is to occasionally bring free food.  I do recall during my happier days as a Systems Programmer I got a call at home from my boss around 7pm.  She asked me what I was doing.  I said to myself … uh-oh.  I was looking at Wheel of Fortune, what’s up? She asked me if I could come into the office and help her, there was a problem.  Well, almost two days later and with very little sleep, we finally fixed the little problem.  I recall sleeping on the floor using my purse for a pillow.  After we had been up all night (the first night), her boss came in at lunch time with food! It must have been nearly 25 years ago, but I still remember how it tasted and how it helped me make it through another night.

CIOs should share the powers of their Cornucopia. 

In Greek mythology, the Cornucopia was associated with magic powers.  Those who possessed it got anything they wished for.  Later, the horn of plenty was associated with food and abundance.  The leadership significance here is two-fold.

First, you must wish for something.  For leaders, this means having a vision.  They have to be able to share a dream and direction that people want to follow.  It kills me when we go through annual strategic planning processes and we start getting hung up on mere words.  Leadership vision is not a statement.  It is an intrinsic characteristic of leadership that helps people see that they are part of something big.  It inspires loyalty and commitment and motivates them to stretch and grow.

Finally, a CIO needs to be prepared to feed those she serves with the resources that she is given.  You have to have an empty cornucopia and a plan for that empty cornucopia because once it fills with food and abundance, you will have rot and waste if you don’t prepare to give back.  CIOs need to deliver a return on investment and produce results.

CIOs should plant seeds for harvest.

Time and money are such scarce resources.  CIOs need to use those resources wisely and nurture them to produce results.

One of my favorite no-nonsense leaders is Lt. General Al Edmonds (USAF, retired).  He was Director of Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), VP and GM of EDS Public Sector, and is currently CEO of Logistics Applications, Inc.  I always look forward to benefiting from the advice and council of his leadership wisdom.  He told me once, “Don’t forget about your seeds, young lady!”  Of course I pretended I knew what the heck he was talking about.  “Don’t forget to sprinkle your seeds around and water them and watch them grow”.  He was talking about people who you mentor and invest time in helping them increase their leadership potential. 

John C. Maxwell talks about this in his 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership in the Law of Explosive Growth.  He goes on to say,

“Leaders who develop followers grow their organization only one person at a time.  But leaders who develop leaders multiply their growth, because for every leader they develop, they also receive all of that leader’s followers. 

We leaders need to change our thinking not about spending scarce time with people, but rather how to invest time in the right people.  This is how we produce an abundant harvest.

CIOs need to also plant seeds for innovation.  I believe that with a mustard seed of innovation, CIOs can move mountains.  I hear so often that we can’t afford to spend money on innovation.  I wonder how we can afford NOT to invest in it.

Judy Estrin in Closing the Innovation Gap challenges us to nurture the innovative environment. 

“Just as plants require water and sunlight if they are to grow, sustaining innovation requires the right leadership, funding, policy, education, and culture.”

A CIO Thanksgiving means planting seeds of leadership.  It also means having a vision, a plan, and a cornucopia of results.  Finally, but most important, we need to give thanks for the people who help us deliver the harvest to the organizations we serve.

Linda Cureton, Thankful CIO of NASA

 

The Small But Mighty Stennis Space Center

I try to always notice when things out of the ordinary happen.  This time, I had the extraordinary occasion to visit the Small But Mighty Stennis Space Center in two consecutive weeks. 

Stennis Space Center is located in Mississippi.  The site is the location that was established to test the engines for the Nation’s first journeys to the moon.  It continues to be our largest engine testing facility and tested all of the main engines for the Space Shuttle and will test the engines for their replacement.  The path to the moon and beyond must pass through the Small But Mighty Stennis Space Center.

As one of the smallest of NASA’s Centers with barely 200 civil servants, I was amazed by the vastness of its physical site and the enormity of its mission.    It’s funny how we always overlook the importance of the contributions of the “small”.  Many laughed at the small shepherd boy who slew a mighty giant with a mere rock; we underestimate the importance of the small seed from which the mighty oak grows; or maybe some scoffed at those wild and crazy kids that had a small idea that started a mighty company called Apple. 

As I stood in one of the stands that test the mighty engines that led us to space, I was treated to lagniappe by the Small But Mighty Dinna Cottrell, CIO of the Small But Mighty Stennis Space Center.  I must admit that I’ve only pretended to understand what is meant by lagniappe, but she gives me an explanation that helped punctuate the true meaning of the word here:

“The definition of Lagniappe as my mother told me growing up and still to this day, means “a little something extra.”  My mother told me when she was a little girl she would go to the store and the store owner would give her “lagniappe,” which was small pieces of candy.  My mother will be 81 in early December.”

Wardell Burnett pictured on left with plow and mule preparing land for new rocket test standThe lagniappe I was treated to was the story of Wardell Burnett.  He retired in 1999 as a furniture mover.  He was a loyal and dedicated worker whose small contributions behind a plow and a mule were critical to the success of America’s mighty space program.  His work was critical in meeting the challenge of carving up thousands of acres of pine-choked land in Hancock County to make way for the national rocket test site was one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken.  Pictured here on the left with an engine test stand in the background personifies the mighty contributions that the small and humble make. 

As leaders, we should never overlook the contributions of the small and humble.  Leadership success relies on those contributions. 

“Vision comes alive when everyone sees where his or her contribution makes a difference.” – Ken Blanchard

Mr. Burnett, who died in 2008, couldn’t imagine what was going to happen at the land and site he helped prepare.  Yet, his work personified the spirit of the Small But Mighty Stennis Space Center.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

In Search of the Lost Art of IT Management

I get a steady trickle of “Friend” requests on Facebook.  As a rule, I don’t accept requests from people who I don’t know or with whom I have no mutual friends.  But, then I got such a request from Otto Adams.  The name didn’t even ring a bell.  A few clicks and I discovered he was in my graduating class at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC.

It may or may not be surprising to know that out of a graduating class of 141, I barely remember anyone.  Mostly, I remember the brass section of the band and a few clarinet players.  So, I looked at Otto’s friends to see who they were to get some clues.  Then I saw, Chris Belcher.  Humm…his photograph showed a 50-ish man with gray hair and an ever-so-slight beginning of male-pattern baldness.  But, the amazing thing was that the photograph, which was so good and it captured the essence of his personality, it caused me to remember a quiet blond teenage boy who always walked around by himself with his camera on his shoulder.  Yes, good photographs do that.  I shouldn’t have been surprised to find a string of visual arts students on Facebook, but that’s what I found. 

Next, I came to Francesca Scott.  She was obviously a professional photographer.  No picture of her, but I had a vague memory of a short girl with long beautiful hair that walked around by herself with a camera on her shoulder.  A browsed her gallery.   I hadn’t seen such beautiful pictures in years.  And quite frankly, had forgotten what beauty a talented photographer could produce.

And then I thought of what is going on today with Information Technology.

Today, just about everyone has a camera on their phone.  This along with the ease of use and popularity of digital cameras makes it easy for just about everyone to be a “photographer”.  Furthermore, with the video capabilities that exist now, just about anyone is able to record “what’s on the scene” of most newsworthy events that happen. Now everyone is a videographer.

Today, just anyone can have a blog.  It’s easy and it’s free.  Information is everywhere and anyone with a blog site can now become a “journalist”. 

The same situation exists with IT.  No one can deny that there is a proliferation of IT.  At NASA, we spend somewhere around $1.5 billion per year on it.  It’s everywhere.  And here, just like everywhere, the proliferation, the ubiquitous nature of it, and the increased ease of use forces IT, as well as cameras, to be considered merely tools.  It is because of the notion that IT is merely a tool, that we have lost the notion of a discipline that is actually associated with the management of IT – the artistry that is associated with the use of the mastery of tool.

Well, what does this “art” look like? And why is it important to find it again?

Truth.  Now that anyone with a blog, can be a journalist, what is left for the journalist to do? To, coin a phrase, information, information everywhere and nothing to think about.  The journalist’s role can add value by helping readers validate information and convert information into knowledge.  With IT, the CIO must now evolve from being the deliverer of IT, because now most people can get that, to helping organizations use that information to get the knowledge they need for mission success.

Beauty.  I don’t know if I can tell you what made Francesca’s photographs beautiful, but they were.  The beauty was not in the tool she used, but it was in the results that were produced.  And perhaps beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.  Similarly, the beauty in the successful management of IT will be in the eyes of those who are served by it.  There is no beauty in IT tools, but the beauty can be observed in the outcomes that are produced as perceived by the people who are served.

Love.  Love inspires passion which breathes life into what we do.  Long hours in a dark room, dancing until your feet were sore, or practicing your horn with a tired embouchure, require passion to fuel and sustain artists.  Similarly, the CIO, or any leader for that matter, must have passion about their work and about the mission to sustain execution of activities that can ultimately breed success.

Love, beauty, truth … What does that have to do with space exploration? Getting back to the moon? Or getting to Mars? I’m not sure how to really explain what that “looks like” relative to IT Management.  But, considering how important IT is to NASA’s mission and how much we spend on it, recapturing that lost art of IT Management is needed to use these mere tools as effectively and as efficiently as we can for the masterpiece of mission success.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The Betting CIO

By some strange confluence in the universe, I found myself in a casino for two consecutive weekends. 

I played Texas Hold ‘Em and wagered on horse races both for the first time.  Now, I understood both from academic, technical, and statistical perspectives.  I had even played successfully in cash-free simulations.  But as that supportive Las Vegas dealer said to me, “Baby, you’ll learn better and faster if you play and risk some money.”  She was right.

I’ve always understood that I was a risk taker.  I learned early on in an exercise during a leadership development program at the Federal Executive Institute.  They presented a wine-making exercise that teaches aspiring executives how to use data that they’ve gathered and apply the results of experimentation to learn how the right amount of risk can be translated into organizational success and competitive advantage. 

Leadership competencies such as these are very important to an organization like NASA.  NASA’s heritage demonstrates the powerful effect of the Ying and Yang of risk management and innovation which continues to spawn discoveries in space, fuel the passion for exploration in human space flight, and launch breakthroughs in technology.  And as we continue on in our mission to inspire, discover, and explore, we will do so by balancing the sometimes competing forces of intellectual judgment and intuitive possibilities. 

Too much risk aversion yields little reward.  Too much innovation could be wasteful or even dangerous.  It’s amazing that we are so creative and innovative in our youth and as we mature and gain experience, life beats it out of us.  John Medina, in his book, Brain Rules, describes, in his Rule #12, how we are powerful and natural explorers and how babies model that behavior.  He goes on to explain:

“The desire to explore never leaves us despite the classrooms and cubicles we are stuffed into. Babies are the model of how we learn—not by passive reaction to the environment but by active testing through observation, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion. Babies methodically do experiments on objects, for example, to see what they will do.”

Well now let’s see what we can learn from babies.  First, they watch and observe an object; next thing you know, they want to taste it and put it in their mouths; and then they try to see what they can do with it, even try to break it.

First, the Betting CIO shouldn’t confuse luck with sound research and risk analysis.  Just because you run across a highway and don’t get killed, doesn’t mean you’re skilled; it could mean you’re just lucky.  For example, if you haven’t applied sound risk-based security management practices and nothing bad happened, that’s luck, not good management.

Second, the Betting CIO should follow the advice of the most successful gamblers, “Scared man can’t gamble”.  It takes courage to innovate and operate.  If your tolerance for risk is zero, well then it’s a non-starter.  A system with absolutely no security risks is one that is turned off or unusable.  Without risk, there is no fear; and without fear, there is no need for courage; and without courage, there can be no innovation. 

Finally, the Betting CIO won’t learn anything without risking something.  She must pick it up; play with it; and taste it.  If there are a lot of unknowns and the stakes are high, perhaps she should make a few observations and then take the plunge in a scenario where the risk is lower.  So, the Betting CIO should be observant, try some things, and set up safe sandboxes; but should not be reckless, scared, or paralyzed.

Oh, by the way, I lost just a little bit of money in horse racing and poker.  But, I learned a whole lot more in my loss than I ever learned in reading and computer games.  Leadership lessons in a casino?  You bet!

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Inspire or Expire

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center got an inspiring first visit from our new Administrator Charlie Bolden.  I am always fascinated by how executives manage their transition into leadership.  Clearly, with a resume like Charlie Bolden has, he’s no stranger to transition.  We got clues about the man, his mission, and perhaps about his modus operandi.

One thing that stuck in my mind and in my heart was a charge that NASA should inspire the world.  He may have said nation, but I heard – the world.  I’m sure of it, actually.  As leaders, we are constantly honing our leadership competencies so that we can inspire a workforce.  The key issue, however, is that leaders need to do that plus create organizations that inspire.

The derivation of the word inspire comes from the Latin verb spirare meaning to breathe.  Inspiration literally means to breathe into.  How does an organization breathe into the nation or the world? Four other words come to mind that are relevant to this discussion.  Transpire, respire, perspire, or expire.

Inspiring organizations would have to transpire or emerge.  They have to come outside of themselves and find out what’s going on.  Look at the environment and develop an understanding of their external surroundings.

Inspiring organizations would need to respire or breathe.  Breath sustains life.  It is the process of bringing into an organization, the things that are needed to sustain it.  It is also the process of shedding the things that are noxious. 

Finally, inspiring organizations would need to perspire or sweat.   Some of that sweat will come from hard work and some of it will come from reacting and managing risk.  Regardless, you don’t get very far without doing the things that produce sweat.

And if organizations are not able to do these things, there is a strong possibility that organizations may expire.  Many doubt that a government institution can meet organizational demise.  But, organizational demise shows up in many forms: failure to meet mission, failure to satisfy stakeholders, or inability to meet their constituents’ needs are some possible outcomes.

Just like the Apostle Paul, who appreciated the proverbial thorn in his side, I appreciate the comments that I might get that say “what does inspiration have to do with getting a man to the moon?” or “what does inspiration have to do with being a CIO?”

Well, there’s this thing called the Constitution that talks about things like promoting general welfare, and pursuit of happiness.  Who knows, maybe inspiration from an organization like NASA can contribute to that. 

For a CIO, who supports the inspiring organization, it may look like providing and promoting enabling technologies that help with collaboration.  It may look like reducing costs so that we can better utilize the scarce resources that we have.  Finally, it may look like understanding the work that needs to be done and giving advice about how can be technology can be applied to the effort.

In a smaller group of Goddard’s Executive Council, Charlie Bolden gave me some good-spirited poking about why I was not smiling.  I must have known in advance what he might say and what it may mean.  I shouldn’t have been worried though.  I realize now that all I have to do is get out, take deep breaths, and get ready for hard work.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Problem Solving and Personal Leadership

I had a rare opportunity to sit in on NASA’s Senior Management Council Meeting last week.  It was worth coming in from the flu and missing Michael Jackson’s funeral to take what was for me a glimpse into how an organization like NASA approaches problem-solving.  Acting Administrator, Chris Scolese moved methodically from issue to issue …What problem are we trying to solve? Do we have a plan? Did we solve the problem?

As individuals and as leaders, do we apply the same rigor and approach to problem solving?  Back in the good ole days, as a technician and systems programmer, problem determination was an important skill.  I recall one situation, in pulling an all-nighter, I had to wait for my colleague and good pal GJB to “do his thing” before I could do mine.  However, his stuff didn’t work.  So what did he do? He just kept trying over, and over, and over, again.  It was four o’clock in the morning. S o sleep deprived with patience exhausted, I yelled, “For crying out loud, Dude … just do something different! ANYTHING!”

Not surprisingly, some of the same characteristics of a good problem-solver can be found in a good leader.   Courage, creativity, focus, tenacity. 

Chuck Musciano, in his blog, Shaking the Mouse, relates a story about one woman’s approach to problem determination.  When a sales rep of a major IT company began to experience … “the demon of demos” … she began to shake the mouse to get things to start working.

Now, it was true that the [optical] mouse driver did hang every so often, but it was due to a small input buffer being overrun with too many mouse events.  If you waited a few seconds, the buffer would drain and the mouse would recover no shaking necessary.  This woman, however, believed that mouse was clogged and that shaking was required to fix it.  It clearly worked: every time she shook the mouse, it started working again.

My pal David is a digital image technician.  Printers and copiers … ugh … are the bane of my existence.  Here’s my problem solving technique — when I get a paper jam, I just open doors and slam them shut until it clears; if my print doesn’t come out right, I just go through all the permutations and combinations of inserting the paper; by now, I’m sweating and crying and then email document to someone else to print.  But, David is good at problem solving.  First, you show it who is boss.  Then, don’t be afraid of a little electrical shock and don’t be afraid to take it apart and try stuff, you can shake that off  that shock it just wakes you up.  Then you wrestle with the little devil until it gives up and works.    

Ok, David.  I think those reflect sound personal leadership principles.  Here’s a quote that gets pretty close to his technique:

Why don’t we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

This suggests that courage is better than process.  But perhaps leaders of organizations should make risk-based decisions about taking those safety labels off, nurture an environment for creativity, and ensure that they have enough energy and focus to wrestle the problems until they just give in and allow themselves to be resolved.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

 

 

The Poor Strugglin’ CIO

Sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad days.  There are two things about those bad days.  First, bad days make good days seem even better!  Second, they are trials that prepare you for things that happen in life – they make you better.  As you look backwards on bad days, these lessons always seem clear.  Wouldn’t be great if we could look forward to them or at least learn these lessons in real time?  It would make you almost embrace these so-called bad days. 

I was in Boston this week, attending the NASA Integrated Services Network (NISN) Forum.  I was having a leadership conversation with Tereda.  I’m not sure if she realized it, but we were having a discussion about one of the executive core competencies of the Federal Government Senior Executive Service: Resilience.  Resilience deals effectively with pressure; remains optimistic and persistent, even under adversity and recovers quickly from setbacks.  We discussed those setbacks and moments of adversity that make you a stronger and more effective leader.  Graph which has a minimum point annoted as the worst day of your life

I remember a day of adversity as a teenager – December 26, 1975 – I had what remains to be the worst day of my life. Now, realize, this is by teenage girl standards, but even as I have increased in age and experience, relatively speaking … this was pretty much still the worst day of my life.  Picture this: the Washington Redskins are playing the Philadelphia Eagles.  Teenaged Linda and trumpet player turned French Horn player gets a lead from recently dumped boyfriend on an opportunity to play trumpet at the half time game. Teenaged Linda gives the only answer that an up-and-coming Redskins fan could give.  Yes.  It snows; lips stick to mouthpiece; Redskins lose; cute under-dressed teenager needs to huddle under blanket with former boyfriend for survival.  I look in his eyes as he looks into mine, and I hope file this memory away for the rest of my life as the worst day of my life – my worst day ever.  Happily, this day continues to be a benchmark that helps to motivate some of my executive resilience.  I only wish that I could recognize those days sooner.  If I could, perhaps look forward to those bad days, and then they wouldn’t seem so bad. 

As I checked the flight status of my return trip from Boston Logan to BWI.  It was foggy and stormy in Baltimore and Boston.  Our flight was delayed.  I have a pretty bad cold and feel bad.  Hum…I think I am getting ready to look forward to one of those bad days.   So, I was jazzed up … nothing but “better” stuff could happen after a “bad” day.  When I finally got home in my own bed at nearly 2:00 am, I reflected that this turned out to be an amazing day with the most wonderful experiences.  Let me share a few.

Beautiful Sunset.  I met Dean.  He works on the NASA/Goddard’s James Webb Telescope project.  He introduced himself and offered me a flat chocolate pancake.  He said to me that he met me before, but I probably don’t remember him.  I told him it didn’t matter because we were about to have a fun evening together and I wouldn’t forget him.  He was leaving on a flight the next morning at 5:40 am heading to Orlando to catch a cruise.  I was so happy for his great day because he would make his cruise and even with no sleep, he had a good 10 hours of slack in his schedule to make his launch.

Spectacular Sunrise. Then my Deputy Dennis was talking to someone who seemed to be a delightful NASA veteran.  He had been with NASA since 1961.  Dennis was happy that they had a lively conversation.  I think that by the time we took off, their conversation may have been up to the 1980s.  I never knew the man’s name.  But he had a hair full of gray hair.  He lives in Ocean Pines, MD.  I pretty long drive from BWI Airport.  He’s getting ready to have one of those bad days.  Then, he talks to himself and makes a decision.  He will stay at Kent Island and wake up to watch a beautiful sunrise over the Chesapeake Bay, then drive the rest of the way home.  He was getting ready to have a great day.

The Moon and the Stars. Finally, our plane arrived.  A plane load of full of people broke into spontaneous applause.  Yes, this was indeed a great day.  We boarded and I had the prophetic insight to upgrade to business class, so I looked forward to a very comfortable pleasant flight. 

I sat next to this old man with a familiar spirit.  He reminded me of my grandfather.  He ordered a Tanqueray and ginger ale.  I ordered a chardonnay.  I made sure that my bag didn’t take up his leg room and gave him some advice about his tray table.  Later, I put on my headset and turned up the volume on my iPod and looked out the window.  There was heavy cloud cover and the reflected moonlight was beautiful; the starry night was enchanting.  I always loved the moon and the stars. What a stunning night.

As we landed and prepared to leave the plane, I smiled at the familiar grandfatherly spirit that kept me company.  He took down his roll-aboard and I spied his name tag – Kumar.  Wow!  Could it be my old Astronomy Professor? I seized the moment and excused myself and asked him if he was a physics professor.  He said, he used to be one but he is retired.  I asked him if he taught at Howard University.  He smiled and said yes.  And I told him that he was my Astronomy Professor at Howard University.  He left the plane and he waited for me.  As I managed myself off the plane, I remembered another close call for the “worst day of my life”.  He was in it.

When I caught up with him, I told him I had to tell him a story.  In his Astronomy class, he asked the class if we understood the movement of the tides and the relevance of the position of the moon, sun, and Earth.  Everyone nodded with feigned understanding.   Then, to my terror, he gave me the chalk and said, “Young lady, explain it to the class.” I said ok, and then shocked him with an explanation that was almost as good as his.  My classmates came up to me and said, “Girl, you did good! Glad it was you and not me!” I didn’t expect him to remember, I just wanted him to know I did.  Well, he said he remembered. This was 33 years ago. 

Then he said to me, somewhat apologetically, but not really, that they were intentionally hard on the science and math students at Howard University because the pressure and the trials would make them better in their life and their careers.  I survived that bad day and came away from his class loving the moon, stars, sun, tides, and our Earth.  But, I never knew how great that day was until last night. 

I finally got home at almost 2:00 am.  Congested, feverish, and tired, I lay in bed and said my CIO prayers.  I think this bad day may have been one of the best days of my life.  I look forward to my next bad day.  I had sweet dreams that night.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Girl Power for CIOs

I had the good fortune of being asked to speak on a panel for Women in Technology.  The panel was called Government Leaders at the Helm.  Like with any other discussion focused for women in leadership, we are asked typically to answer these questions:

·         How do you break through the glass ceiling?

·         How do you get work-life balance?

·         What’s it like being a woman in a male dominated field?

This was the third year that I did this panel.  As each year passes, there has been an increase in the number of men who attend.  I’m not surprised.  Perhaps posed in a slightly different manner, these are questions that any leader should ask himself or herself as they manage their lives and their careers.

Glass ceiling. It’s difficult talking about this.  Acknowledgement may not cast your organization in the most positive light; yet ignoring it may be reacting like putting your proverbial head in the sand.  Rebecca Shambaugh, in her book “It’s Not a Glass Ceiling It’s a Sticky Floor”, acknowledges the existence of the glass ceiling, but challenges her readers to focus on those things that make your feet stick to the floor.  Some of the things we learned as girls in Kindergarten may be some of the traits that hold us back in our leadership careers.  She goes on to say:

The strengths and traits that got you to where you are, such as getting results, being detail oriented, being process focused, or a team player, are more of a recipe for being a good middle manager than an executive-suite executive.  In contrast, executive-level leaders need to think strategically, have a vision for their organization and people, lead complex change, and build strategic and collaborative relationships inside and outside the organization.

Focusing instead on these executive skills, is the key to getting “unstuck” on the floor.  Focusing on the wrong thing causes you to overlook your strengths.

Focus … there must be a golf story coming.  I was playing golf in Hilton Head, SC. I finally got to the point where I could drive the ball and not go into the water by NOT focusing on the water.  But, at Hilton Head, there were alligators at every hole – plus, I’m hitting from the forward tees which are closer to the alligator.  I did not lose my focus on the alligators and every single drive with an alligator went straight for the alligator.  Focus.  It works.

Work-life balance.  This question always drives me nuts.  It’s not like I am 33 1/3% wife, 33 1/3% friend, and 33 1/3% CIO! How can you not be 100% wife? Or 100% friend?  Focus and priorities make this a non-linear problem.  Einstein says it best:

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master.  For this reason, mastery demands all of a person.

There are times when folks will ask my husband, how does it feel to have your wife blog? He says, almost always, that it’s ok except when I blog on “his time”.  So then I thought what part of MY time is not HIS time? Then, I came up with it: while he’s sleep, working outside, shopping, or fixing something.  So, if I focus and write faster … and chose the appropriate time, then everybody’s happy.

What’s it like?  I like to answer this question like this … how does it feel? Well, today, I’m at a conference with a bunch Java developers.  A whole bunch of men.  A WHOLE BUNCH!  Imagine, you are late (ok, ok, no wisecracks), you are wearing a flashy silver and white metallic jacket in a sea of blue jeans, and you haven’t seen a woman yet. Then everyone turns and looks at you when you get a shout-out from the stage.  It feels like that.

Many of the executive traits that Shambaugh described are associated with Right-brained thinking.  And some studies have shown that right-brained thinking is often associated with women.  Some of those attributes are: big-picture thinking, seeing both present and future, appreciating, presents possibilities, and taking risks. 

Dan Pink, in his blog, Too Many Left-Brained Thinkers Spoil the Pot, suggests that left-brained thinking prevented some companies from seeing financial disaster coming.  He goes on to blog:

I have a theory that people who find themselves running major-league companies are real organization-management types who focus on what they are doing this quarter or this annual budget. They are somewhat impatient, and focused on the present. Seeing these things requires more people with a historical perspective who are more thoughtful and more right-brained — but we end up with an army of left-brained immediate doers.

So, I guess the conclusion is whether you are a male or female executive; or a CIO or regular person, you should focus on your strengths, be prepared to stand out in a crowd, and watch out for alligators.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The Goddard CIO Blog: One Year Later

One year today, I made my first blog post.  Today, I want to pause and discuss my experience, my learning, and my path forward.  This will not be a sterile reflection of the efficacy of this Web 2.0 technology, but rather, this will be an expression of what this experience meant to me as a CIO, a leader, and as an individual.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

A friend (I will just call him K) convinced me to start blogging in October 2007.  He was passionate about it.  He told me I would absolutely love it. I said ok, but he said, “No, you have to promise!”  I said, “OK!”  I decided that I would make it my New Year’s Resolution.  It was on the list right before “stop procrastinating”.  Thus, I didn’t get to until May. 

I’ve had earlier posts discussing Why I Blog. Loved ones expressed concern that caused me to be just plain afraid of doing this in the discussion Is Web 2.0 Worth the Risk? One year later, my conclusions are yes, it is worth the risk.  You can’t get innovation or any significant return without any risk; you can’t have risk without uncertainty or doubt; and you can’t have courage without fear.

One of my favorite leadership books is The Leadership Moment, by Michael Useem.  Life is made up of an infinite amount of moments.  Some of those moments in a leader’s lifetime are significant and some of them are learning moments.  May 30, 2008 started what is to date a series of at least 50 monotonically increasing learning moments which converge on the lesson that the only way to truly embrace Transparency and Naked Leadership to be armed with the confidence of faith,  the audacity of courage, and the competence of experience.  Then, and only then, can you face with humility the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that transparent and authentic leadership truly requires.

Oh, The Pain … The Pain!

One of my favorite TV shows used to be Lost in Space.  One often-used quote from one of the characters Dr. Smith was, “oh the pain…the pain”.  There is pain associated with this. 

I am reminded of an incident that happened when I was in the 8th grade.  There was a girl down the street who I did NOT know – she told my sister that she couldn’t stand me.  It made me cry because I didn’t know her at all.  How could I have that effect on someone I don’t even know? My little pubescent feelings were hurt.

One commenter called what I thought was a cool post nonsensical dribble.  Another time, I got an anonymous letter from an employee informing me that I was the worse leader on the planet, an embarrassment to my directorate, and laughing stock among my fellow NASA CIOs. Boy, how quickly I reverted back to the 8th grade.

Pain is not necessarily a bad thing.  Pain helps us protect our fingers from a hot stove; it protects our soul, spirit, and character when we do the wrong things; and new life springs forward through the pain of childbirth.  The pain reminded me to be careful; it reminded me to be humble; it reminded me to learn; and it reminded me of my purpose in the nation’s space program, in this profession, and in this life.

The Final Conundrum

One of my blog readers, RT, likes to challenge me intellectually. One of his favorite quips is … “Oh, the questions we ask … the answers we seek”.  In life, sometimes we delude ourselves into thinking we find solutions in great answers when in fact, we find solutions in life’s great questions.

I gave a leadership talk to the Society of Information Management Regional Leadership Forum. I talked about Power, Passion, and Purpose.  One student asked me if I found my purpose.  I told him I wasn’t sure. He told me he thought he knew his purpose, until a traumatic divorce.  Then he realized he found his purpose only through continuously searching for purpose. He wrote this comment card, which I kept:

Purpose — you have it — keep on searching for it. Thank you … Tony

So, in my original purpose for this blog … I wanted to be relevant, to reflect my true self, to communicate, and to learn.  And in searching to satisfy this purpose I learned of puzzles to life’s great questions – to inspire is to BE inspired; communicating your ideas means listening; the teacher learns from her own instruction; you find your purpose by searching for it.

I once made a remark to my statistics teacher at Johns Hopkins.  Though I intellectually understood the concept of “random” and it’s foundation to statistics, I didn’t really believe in it.  He looked at me in a knowing way and said, “Of course you don’t.”  I will leave the rest of his comment unstated. But, he was right.

I find it no coincidence nor a random event that learning what I have from these past 12 months happened at this time of my life, at this agency, and in this manner. Perhaps Web 2.0 was created just to be critical in the implementation of this Administration’s technology agenda; perhaps it was created just to enable collaboration at NASA within the science and engineering community; perhaps it was created just for me. 

The last time I saw my friend K was November 2008.  We had the opportunity to speak a few weeks after that.  I was passionately recounting my 6 month’s worth of blogging experience.  He told me he noticed that I changed. I was more extroverted.  Well, he was sort of right.  But, I’m still the same shy little girl that doesn’t want to come out and play … but now, I’m outside in a world of discovery and learning that amazes me every day.

And that’s what I learned from 12 months of blogging.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center