Mike Kelley & Brian Ledbetter
Short Clips
Brian Ledbetter
Earlier in his career, at a small company, one of its leaders called Brian Ledbetter his CIO. Another called him his IT director. A third called him his IT guy. Brian, a veteran CIO and US Air Force veteran, says the title matters far less than how the organization sees you, and that perception is hardest to shift when you came up through the help desk at the same company.
He walks through LEAD IT, the framework he built from lessons he learned the hard way: Lead, Elevate, Align, Deliver, Innovate and Transform. Former guest Bruce Otte joins to press on delegation, which brings out Brian's three-foot hole story and his test for who is ready to own an outcome.
Later, Brian argues that whoever makes a technology decision should share the accountability when it fails. He explains how to answer a technical question and turn it straight to business impact, and why every AI conversation should start with the outcome. Asked what IT leaders will be talking about in 18 months, he picks the guardrails needed to tame AI, and he says companies are already hiring agent managers.
We review circuit consolidation, contracts, security, outage visibility, billing, and future flexibility to reduce chaos without forcing change.
Navigate through key moments in this episode with timestamped highlights, from initial introductions to deep dives into real-world use cases and implementation strategies.
[00:00] Cold open: CIO, IT director or IT guy
[00:43] Meet Brian Ledbetter, from the Air Force to a wall of certifications
[03:59] Three titles for one job, and the printer problem
[08:08] Where LEAD IT came from, and why Lead comes first
[14:57] Letting go of the work, and leaving the code behind
[18:12] Bruce Otte's questions on delegation, and owning the outcome
[21:50] The three-foot hole guy
[25:15] Building confidence, and room to fail
[33:27] Peer groups, and who owns the decision
[39:52] Speak the business, step zero and shared accountability
[44:58] Governance is rules, and AI starts at the end
[50:30] The 18-month prediction: developers, AI and agent managers
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