CIO Unscripted

Niel Nickolaisen sits down with Shawnna DelHierro, a technology executive whose path into IT started in HR and supply chain and took her through companies like Toyota before landing her in a strategy and growth role at a SaaS-based AI company. She shares some thoughts on what it can look like to lead large technology organizations without a traditional technical background, why listening between the lines might matter more than answering the literal request, and how the CIO role seems to be shifting in ways that are starting to blur the line between technology leadership and product leadership. There's also a good stretch on what it looks like to build teams that hold up when things get hard, not just when everything is going well.

VLCM field CIO Niel Nickolaisen joins Mike Linton to talk leadership and transformation. From physics and the nuclear navy to running lean manufacturing at GE, Niel never planned on a tech career, until he walked into his CEO's office to quit and walked out as the new CIO.

Across nine turnarounds, he's learned that the modern tech leader isn't a technologist, but a business leader who understands technology. He shares his practical playbook: combining Agile, Lean, and ITIL to fix delivery, and building trust at every level from the service desk to the board. Plus why he'd rather be a figurehead than a hero, and why IT pros should be the most change-embracing people in any org.

Practical, hard-won wisdom for anyone leading through change.