10 CXOs Share Their Powerful Leadership Lessons for Digital Trailblazers

I leave fifty transformation leadership lessons for
Digital Trailblazers, my name of aspiring transformation leaders, in
my new book with that title. It has
ten chapters of in-the-moment stories to see how I handled blow-up moments,
responded to innovation detractors, and formed diverse leadership teams.
Each chapter ends with five summarized lessons, such as, “Ask for more than
executive support; seek their endorsements and commitments.”

So in this post, I went back to two of these leaders and captured their
insights from their recent
real stories from Digital Trailblazer
episodes on the
Driving Digital Standup. I also have eight more from CXOs and industry leaders for you to
digest.

1. Ask smarter thought-provoking questions by slowing down

“Slow down, and I mean, slow down in your head because I think we are used
to running really fast, especially in technology. Fast is good. Fast can be
really good. Fast is not so good when you’re using a sharp knife, and bad
things can happen. So, I think we need to learn how to slow down mentally as
well as in other things. And when you slow down mentally, and you have some
reflection, and you don’t feel like you have to hear yourself talk, you get
think time, and you’re able to ask better questions.” – Jonathan Feldman,
CIO City of Asheville

2. Drive customer-driven transformations by making their lives easier

“Always focus on the customer first. How can you add value? How can you make
the customer’s life easier? And that then translates into how you do things
differently in your business. Our customer wants your high-quality products.
They want them in a timely manner.” – Martin Davis, CIO at Mevotech

Watch Martin’s episode on the
Driving Digital Standup

3. Transition to spiritual problem solving and mature past technology
religion

“I think people in tech are very religious about their stacks; Zachman or
they do ITIL to the nth degree. In the real world, people who are more
educated, they’re less religious, and they’re more spiritual. I think the
best technologists are not religious, but they’re spiritual in a tech sense.
It’s more like an awakening, and you are not tied to a vendor or a stack.” –
Sarbjeet Johal, Cloud Advisor to CIO and Industry Analyst/Influencer.

4. Extend your leadership skills by volunteering at nonprofit organizations

“If you’re an IT leader, a CIO, or CSO, you can get involved at the board
level or as an advisory. But if you’re not, you can bring your expertise to
help how they actually execute. Roll up the sleeves and show them how to use
a particular technology or get involved in solutioning around technologies.
There are just so many different opportunities and also an incredible
opportunity to learn.” – Helen Wetherley Knight, Nonprofit CIO and Strategic
Advisor.

Watch Helen’s episode on the
Driving Digital Standup.

5. Encourage creativity dialogs to foster innovation

“Create an environment that fosters creativity by encouraging everyone, at
any level of your organization, to bring forward new ideas. Identifying
innovative ways to use technologies both internally and externally can take
companies to new heights, and it’s important that employees know their value
and the role they play in making that possible.” – Ciro Donalek, CTO and
cofounder at
Virtualitics

6. Reimagine business processes, then implement with low-code

“Market Leaders deliver superior customer experience by thinking end-to-end,
reimagining their business processes, and making it simple for customers to
do business with them across products, channels, journeys, systems, and
brands. Market leaders are winning by investing in low-code platforms that
enable them to roll out new products and services faster, adapt to the
changing market needs quickly, and innovate faster.” – Anand Raman, EVP and
COO at
Newgen Software.

7. Build a culture of experimentation, learning, and engagement

“Digital trailblazers know that technology is rarely the barrier and that
the ability to build a culture of experimentation and be curious about
problems, solutions and the user experience is instrumental in bringing new
products to market. These trailblazers seek to understand perspectives
versus waiting to respond. Finally, they know how to involve and engage
others in the ideation and decision-making process without losing control of
the business decision.” – Chris Williams, Chief Operating Officer,
Interaction Associates

8.Change and transformation management is a day one priority

“Start thinking about change management on day one – even before you build
your data or digital products. It’s a crucial step for adoption.” – Nir
Kaldero, Chief Data, Analytics, & AI Officer at
Neoris

9. Align infrastructure objectives with business goals

“While executives know that digitizing their IT infrastructure can improve scalability and profitability, their attempts sometimes fall short. Why? Leadership teams often overlook crucial steps needed to ensure their digital transformation efforts add value to their business goals.” – Arthur Lozinski, Co-Founder and CEO of Oomnitza

10. Understand who and how people are impacted when driving change and transformation 

“If you are tasked with leading a change effort, big or small, think about the potential impacts on the people that will be affected.  Machines don’t care (yet).  Humans do.  Make sure you are thinking about the people.” –  Walt Carter, Chief Digital Officer at Homestar

10+ Plan, deliver, and transform as a Digital Trailblazer

And here’s one more that Walt shared after reading Digital Trailblazer. 

“Isaac’s thinking on transformation, change, and leadership comes from practicing in the arena: you’ll find practical wisdom and great tools and techniques in each story he shares from the trails he blazed! He has earned my highest recommendation!” –  Walt Carter 

Thanks Walt!