CIO Darlene Taylor’s formula for success: Listen, drive, care

This is only one example of the types of innovation that can be inspired by merely listening, and Taylor cautions against limiting your interactions to issues that concern the workplace. “There’s so much to learn [about your team], and so much inspiration to draw from them, that you can’t glean from LinkedIn or a resume.”

For Taylor, that team extends beyond the folks on her organizational chart. “Over the years I’ve had the chance to build relationships with hundreds of team members, partners, and customers — maybe more, and globally, I’ve learned what interests them, professionally and personally, and If I come across one of those interests — in an article, a job opportunity, or even a big sports win — I’ll send a personal note,” she says.

She also uses group chats generously. “They’re great places to cheerlead and celebrate each other’s accomplishments, and to share insights about a new technology or ask your peers for advice.”

Finally, she encourages leaders to communicate abundantly with their teams, focusing on strategic, technical, personal development, and event topics that reveal something about their friends, family, or personal lives. She says, “You have to ask and you have to listen, because empathy matters. Full stop. And it can be a major determinant of success when you’re trying to drive in the trenches.”

Taylor drives fast. Life, she says, “is too short to drive a slow car.” She says it in jest, yet the mindset has repeatedly carried her to success and encapsulates the second tenant of her management philosophy: Drive.

In most industries, projects are planned from a start date. Carefully their milestones are laid out until the last one, representing the project’s end, comes into view. “Big auto is the complete opposite,” explains Taylor. Given some immovable end date — the launch of a new vehicle, or the rollout of an associated Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to a new customer — you work backwards, placing the milestones to seem as if they would have landed just the same were you not bound to some non-negotiable end.

About Author

AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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