CIO —
Like other IT departments, Southern Company’s IT organization has faced its share of challenges. We’ve seen declining budgets, tight labor markets and multiple hurricanes in our service territory. We’ve handled these challenges while providing excellent services and products. That would not have been possible without an effective senior leadership team that works well together.
I’ve worked on many teams during my 27 years with Southern. Some of the teams had brilliant people who didn’t trust one another. Those teams accomplished very little. In contrast, I’ve been on high-performing teams with people who were less gifted in intellect, but who trusted one another and worked together toward a common goal. These teams consistently delivered better results and left a legacy of great relationships. A trusting team is what I set out to build when I became senior VP and CIO of Southern in 2002.
But it took some time and effort.
Southern’s IT senior leadership team is made up of five regional CIOs, one VP of operations and six departmental directors. These leaders span four states and a 120,000-mile service territory. When I was appointed to the post, I knew there were teamwork problems. I also knew the IT staff was shell-shocked from having four CIOs within six years. Five years prior, I had served on this team as CIO for Georgia Power, one of Southern’s five operating companies. So I had some personal insight into what the senior leadership team faced.
The first thing I did as the new CIO was to hold one-on-one meetings with my direct reports. I wanted to learn about each of these individuals, and I wanted them to learn about me. We discussed their most recent performance assessments. I tried to learn what motivates them, and I also asked for each report’s advice. Where should I focus my attention for the first 100 days? What do I need to do to help you be successful?
A common concern team members identified was lack of trust. Some members of the IT senior leadership team felt their opinions were not respected. They cited examples of other team members reviewing notes or checking BlackBerry handhelds while they were speaking. Others said that ideas they shared in meetings sometimes fell on deaf ears until another member repeated the idea and received credit for it.
Another problem was that team members often worked independently of one another. A few years ago, for instance, the generation side of our business, which builds and operates the company’s power plants, needed an asset management tool. A software solution was chosen and implemented for that part of the business. Soon after, Southern’s transmission organization, which is responsible for planning, building and operating transmission lines and substations, decided to look into the same kind of tool. If open communication had been commonplace on the IT team, we might have been able to purchase a tool that would have met the needs of both organizations.
