TECH TITANS: Balancing Work and Play with Mike Cole, Civilian CTO at GDIT

(Intro Narrator at 00:00:00) Today, we're bringing you an episode of Tech Titans, and this one is a throwback from 2021. The civilian CTO of GDIT, Michael Cole, joins us in this episode to share his best advice on forming meaningful culture in the workplace. You're listening to Joel Beasley, Tech Titans.

(Joel Beasley at 00:00:22) How do you get an edge? Like, everyone has a certain number of things that they can focus on. We all have a limit. I know what things that I'll focus on that help me get an edge or have more success. What are the things that you focus on that help with your success?

(Michael Cole at 00:00:35) You know, I think for me, because of the type of work that me and my team do. Right? I mean, government proposals are not scheduled. Right? They're dynamic. They're complex and usually come out at the holidays. Right? I mean, the government is very good at, hey, I got that off my plate. I can now enjoy my holiday. Right? So then our team picks it up, and we work. Right? And the SAs and, you know, solution architects and myself, you know, we do a lot of hours to submit those proposals. I think what I find is successful for me is that it's not something that I can do. Right? I only can touch so many proposals personally a day. It's the people. Right? And that's my management style. Right? People first. And if you take care of the people, they know how to do their job. Right? And as long as I focus on that, as long as I remember that it doesn't matter what I can do, as long as I've got the right people doing the right jobs, treat them like the adults that they are, then we get a lot done. I mean, my team submits basically one and a half proposals a day, Monday through Friday. That's the number. Right? So that is a lot of work that gets accomplished in a single year for us. So, I mean, gotta take care of those people. It's not something I can do myself.

(Joel Beasley at 00:01:52) Yeah. It's for me, it was humbling to realize, you know, as I was growing, how little I can actually do.

(Michael Cole at 00:01:59) Yeah. Right. Right. Right. That's exactly, and there's so much stuff that I am not able to do myself. So I have to prioritize. Right? It's where do I insert my position, my experience, you know, to give us the best chance to win that proposal. Right? And we run proposals that run anywhere from $500,000 to billions of dollars. Right? So it's where do I effectively insert myself has been one of the hardest things to learn because I wanna touch everything. Right? I'm not a control freak, but I just enjoy it so much that I want to touch everything. And understanding that I can't and making that step back has been pretty critical, especially working from home in this pandemic where it's super easy to work, you know, twenty hours a day if you're not careful.

(Joel Beasley at 00:02:47) Yeah. And I also have found that it's dynamic. So at different points in your growth or the cycle of the business, you have to insert yourself at different places. So, like, when we were growing our first product line, I was falling into the trap of, like, I was staying with all the customers at one level, and I wasn't engaging with the people that were paying us 10 times more. And then I realized, okay, I need to adjust how I look at this. And when I get up there and we're creating a new product line, and now I have to go help at the very bottom. Right. You know, to get this new product line going. So I have found that, you know, people will always ask you, like, what's the secret? Like, what do you do? And I'm like, I don't know. Just be really curious and have a good work ethic.

(Michael Cole at 00:03:24) Yeah. Right. Right. I mean, that's really, I mean, it's roll up your sleeves and get dirty with your team. Right? I mean, yeah, I mean, I don't write proposals every day anymore. Right? It's not my job. I've got so many other things that I deal with. Right? The administrative side and some of the things that I don't want to burden the other guys with. Right? There's no need to force some of that stuff down. So just knowing that I'm the one that has to just go, okay, let me just help you a little bit, get you started, train them, mentor, and move on. That's an effective way to go.

(Joel Beasley at 00:03:59) How do you create culture? How do you get teams and staff to buy into it? How do you maintain it? Why is it important?

(Michael Cole at 00:04:07) So you have to do it with an intent. Right? You can't just come in and say, well, I want the culture be this and then just move on. Right? It takes effort to create a culture, and it takes even more effort to maintain it. Right? So you don't have to come in and say what our culture is going to be is, like I talked about collaboration earlier. Right? It's not like I stand in front of the team and I say, our goal is to be the most collaborative team in the industry. Right? No. I exemplify it. Right? I do it. Right? I show them this is how we do it. Oh, we got a question. Let's reach across to the other parts of our company to do that. Oh, they need a resource. Let me provide that resource to them to help defense or intel with a bid. Right? And as long as I'm showing it, they'll see it. I don't have to overemphasize the words because I think if you start to say, this is our objective, this is our mission, you may have some people who don't agree with it. And if they don't agree with it, nobody likes change. Right? So now you're gonna have some harder ones where you may see people leave your organization because you've said something. But if I'm treating everybody equally, if I'm working with everybody the same, if I'm touching base with most of my employees as often as I can, right, whether it's in an all-ins or one-off meetings, then they see what I am trying to get them to do. And I think they're more apt to start doing it because they're like, oh, I saw Mike do that. Let me do the same thing.

(Joel Beasley at 00:05:41) Have there been big shifts in culture between the different federal contracting companies you work with, or is it similar across all of them?

(Michael Cole at 00:05:49) So, you know, I will say I'm not a person who leaves a company just because I'm chasing financial gain. Right? So I don't want to say why I would leave a company. But, you know, if you think about it, I left a company. Right? I left the company a few years ago. I didn't leave CSRA. It was acquired by GDIT. And I think what is cool is that we brought our culture with us into GDIT, and we've been able to maintain that. And I'm pretty lucky. The guy who was the CTO before me is now our chief growth officer. So him and I, he was a mentor of mine. Him and I talk every day. Right? And his approach and his culture, pretty similar to mine, which is probably why we work so well together. Right? So I haven't had to do a whole lot of cultural realignment in my new role. You know? I mean, I've been in this role for about two years now. So I haven't had to do a lot of cultural realignment, which has been a lot easier because I think if you acquire a culture that's similar to yours, there's less change and less impact.

(Joel Beasley at 00:06:53) I see you as, like, an experienced peer. I wanna go back to the Twitter thing real quick because we're coming up on time. With the CTO at Twitter becoming the CEO and CEO leaving, I don't think you've been a CEO before. Correct?

(Michael Cole at 00:07:06) I have never been a CEO. No.

(Joel Beasley at 00:07:07) But as a peer to another CTO and obviously at the level that you're playing at, which is huge with tens of thousands of employees, what would be, like, the one or two, like, the one thing that you would, like, pretend you're gonna give him advice, the CTO, and we don't have to put this in there. But, like, what's the one thing that you would share with him as he makes this transition? If you guys were buddies and you were hanging out together and fishing or something, he's like, hey, what's the one piece of advice you'd give me going from CTO of Twitter to CEO?

(Michael Cole at 00:07:38) Remember one thing. You're not always the smartest person in the room, and it's okay. I mean, I think that's what for me, that's what I've learned in my job. Right? It's like, I'm not always the best solution architect on a proposal. There are people who have done this job longer and have won more. And you have to recognize that. Right? And it's okay if they work for you. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room to be a success. You have to understand what makes each of those people bring their best to their job every day. And if you let them do their best every day and you give them credit, you will be a success.