IT Keeps Promoting Unprepared Leaders | Tony Qualls
Leadership Language
In this episode of Leadership Language, host Bill Tingle sits down with Tony Qualls, Regional CIO at AdventHealth's Great Lakes region, to discu
Key takeaways
- Technical excellence alone does not prepare someone for executive leadership; soft skills like empathy, communication, and business acumen are essential.
- Many IT leaders are promoted based on past performance rather than readiness for higher-level responsibilities.
Main topics
- Promotion of unprepared leaders in IT
- Transition from technical expert to executive leader
Notable quotes
"The skills that made you the best operator are the same ones keeping you out of the executive seat."
Conclusion
Tony Qualls emphasizes that true leadership in IT requires more than technical skill—it demands
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) We may struggle with vulnerability, but I think the more vulnerable you can be, and it's more of me just saying, I don't know everything, but I'm willing to learn, and let me share with you what I'm learning. So it could be a five-minute thing. It could be something as simple as, I noticed in this email, here's something that a customer said, or one of our business partners shared, and the way we responded, we missed the attention to detail. We missed that. part of where the customer is asking for something and the way that we replied may have missed an opportunity. So I'll bring that up and just how is it we can learn from that and kind of point the things out. This is what we could do better, but also then, oh, here's wins. Look at where the team accomplished this in the past month or past week. Speaker 2 (0:55) Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Leadership Language Podcast. I'm Bill Tingle, and I'm so excited today to have my guest, Tony Qualls, on the show with us. Tony is Regional CIO for AdventHealth's Great Lakes region in Chicago, and he partners closely with the University of Chicago Medicine. For over 20 years, he's led the technology across healthcare, government, and his own entrepreneurial venture. After founding and selling a medical transcription company, Tony leads with a collaborative servant leadership style. I love that. His motto, bring me the problem and together we will find a solution. He's known for developing the next generation of leaders, not just managing systems. I love that. Tony, welcome to the Leadership Language Podcast. It's great to have you. Speaker 1 (1:40) Thank you, Bill. Very happy to be here and excited for the conversation today. Speaker 2 (1:44) Yeah, good. You know, Tony, I followed you for a while on LinkedIn. We recently had an engaging conversation and I really enjoyed getting to know you. I think what caught my eye that led me to reach out to you was the article that you wrote on the Heller blog as a former CIO and a leadership executive coach. I love what you said. IT has a systemic habit of promoting unprepared leaders while business executives get coaching, MBA cohorts and leadership institute. Why do you think IT in general gets treated differently? Speaker 1 (2:19) You know, Bill, I think from my experience, I grew up and kind of, you know, sort of just recognize this myself, that I think a lot of times IT, while we've made great strides of having a seat at the table, I still feel like there's still this, maybe sometimes not understanding what IT does. And there's a disconnect. And even maybe, you know, even to your podcast, the language that we use, people think I'm an IT leader. And so one of the things I try to do is. is even couch myself in I'm a business leader, you know, and I so I think part of it is that if you're not engaged with the business and really helping bring solutions and kind of being that interpreter between here's a business problem, here's how we can apply technology or how I can apply a system to what you're dealing with. I think it's easy for people to kind of miss out on that. And so I think there's been a lot more focus just around CEO. you know, career paths, the CFO, the COO. And I think the C-suite as a whole really does a great job when it, when you think about interns. So I'm seeing it more even with our own, our own organization myself, but even personally for myself, I think it's been really a lot around just really understanding that we need to have that seat at the table and bring business value. Speaker 2 (3:36) That's really good. I think back to my early days of my career, I started out as an electrical engineer, like a missile systems engineer. And I had this interest in going to work in the data processing department at McDonnell Douglas at the time. It was data processing. And I think back then, you know, IT, which I don't even think we had the name IT back then, it was just, it was seen more as just back office administrative. And you think about it today, I think it's just so important that IT technology leaders see themselves as the business because we are, I mean, just like CFO is part of the business, you know, we're all part of the business. Yeah. And so, you know, when you think about. That mindset, which I think it's changing, but that mindset of not addressing the development of technology leaders. What are you seeing as the cost, either in your company or in the industry, what are you seeing as the cost of that being unaddressed? Speaker 1 (4:39) Yeah. So I think I would share that really my own experience has been seeing where we are really great with promoting really good engineers, technicians, very highly technical capable people and extremely smart, wonderful IT leaders and people that really know IT inside and out. I think it's that personality side that we kind of missed in of how do we engage with the business? How do we connect and really show a lot of curiosity? around the problems the business is trying to solve. And truly, we do have a solution. And I think that's one thing I haven't put in my article, if I remember correctly here, that several years ago, I remember going to Gartner and one of the topics was every company will become an IT company. And I think now we're truly seeing the effect of that. I think everyone today, without a doubt, can think any industry that you're in, IT is a critical part of your company. And so as IT has become more decentralized, You know, there is there is an IT component in every job. If you're a financial analyst or if, you know, in the clinical space, you know, even our nurses are getting more engaged in in technology and how to use technology. So that part of the business has shifted to where now as a leader, it's very important for us to understand how do I develop my people skills? I must connect with people on a personal basis as well as be that empathetic leader. That can kind of help them grow and even help myself to grow. Speaker 2 (6:08) Yeah, that is so good. So true. I'm looking forward to talking about your leadership journey today. Let's go back to 1999. So in 1999, you get handed an IT manager role. I think it was because the previous person was let go. Walk me through the very first week. How did that feel? What was your experience in that? Speaker 1 (6:32) You know, it was... So first, we're definitely going back a few years here, right, Bill? It's a few years. But at the same time, it was so my first true management job I had, I'd been working after the Navy. I'd gotten out of the Navy, went to work as an MRI photo engineer repairing MRI equipment. So I still have the technical skills. But then this is the earlier days of IT and computer networking was a big deal. So I had been able to involve myself. within a healthcare system and being a part of the team, I was already part of that team when the manager was let go. I think that at the time that position reported to the CFO of the hospital. And I think that he saw in me something that he liked that allowed me to step into that manager role. And they asked me then to step into that role. So the first week I was really, I was nervous. I was scared because you're. So here I was now trying to manage the same people that I had been peers with. And, you know, and you may have heard the same thing before, but, you know, it was always this mantra around you can't be friends with the people you manage. And I was like, oh, my goodness, these are people I know. How do I manage them now? And I said, you know what? I think I can be a different leader. I think I can I can draw a boundary here between friendship and getting the work done. And so for me, it was just being open to say. Hey, what do you guys need? And that's kind of where I started my whole journey on. It's kind of a cliche, but servant leadership, you know, and really, hey, what is what's in your way? What's the obstacle you have? How do I clear that for you? That's my job as your leader here. How do I go clear that path for you? So for me, that first week or two was just, hey, guys, still Tony, same guy. I have a different title. But guess what? Let's build a team. Let's all do this together. That just kind of helped everyone get over that feeling of, hey, the guy that was our friend is now our manager. Speaker 2 (8:32) Yeah, that is so good. And that's so common that that happened to me. And it can be very uncomfortable for people to step into that. You know, like all of a sudden you're leading peers. How did you, if you can remember back, like how did you come to grips with? Speaker 2 (8:54) And balancing, they're still your colleagues, like, and they could be your friends, I believe you could be friends, but you have to hold your role and you have to hold the responsibility and authority that you have. Can you remember kind of like how you coped with that at the time? Speaker 1 (9:10) Yeah, if I remember, it was really around having. very good, clear conversations and just having, being very clear and having a lot of clarity and saying, here's what we need to do. And here's what your role is. Now here's what my role is. How do I help you with your role better? And I think just being that personable person and honestly, just being open and honest, like I don't have all the answers. But guess what? You know, and back to my mantra together, bring me the problem together. We'll create the solution here. And I think it was really in those early days. It's kind of where I just started doing one on ones. And it just something inside me knew, like spend intentional time with each of these people so we can get the work done that has been assigned to us. Speaker 2 (9:58) That's really good. A quick pause before I keep going. If what I just said is landing that you deliver and still get passed over, here is something for you. I built a short private diagnostic that shows you exactly which of the things holding you back is costing you the most. It only takes a few minutes, and if you're the right fit, finishing it unlocks the executive leap Speaker 1 (10:17) session. 45 minutes one-on-one with me. The link is in the show notes. Okay, let's get back to it. Speaker 2 (10:23) You seem to have had like a real spirit of helping people just and just working together as a team, which I can really, I can see that really would just. tear down the walls of concern that all of a sudden, you know, Tony's my boss now. Can you think back to that time? What was a decision that you remember making where you thought, nobody prepared me for this? Speaker 1 (10:50) I would say probably at