423- There Is A Cost To Know Things w/Steve Goudreau

You've Been Heard

Philip Howard

Tech News, Technology, Business, Management, News

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🗓️ 7 May 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Steve Goudreau has been in IT leadership long enough to know the difference between being at the table and being heard. At his current role, he has a seat at the executive round table. At his previous company with five times as many direct reports, he didn't even have director-level access.The difference? Understanding what executives actually need from IT. Not helpdesk metrics or project status updates. Information that helps the company make better decisions about technology, risk, and investment. "You want the information you're presenting to move the company forward," Steve explains.We get into executive communication that works, AI strategy that starts with goals instead of tools, and shadow AI governance that doesn't kill productivity. Steve also breaks down technical debt as future cost made visible, the questions CEOs should ask their IT leaders, and why the strongest leadership skill isn't technical.His biggest insight hits different: "There is a cost to know things." Training costs money. Research costs time. But staying ignorant costs more.

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right. Well, welcome everyone back to you've been heard. We are talking with Steve
0:14.9	Gudrow today. So Mr. Goodrow, and I guess this is more advice of how do you go about finding a job in IT, right?
0:23.0	When you go to look for a job, do you look for a place where you can go in and you're like, oh, man, this is going to be so easy to impress these guys and it's going to be really, really awesome.
0:33.2	And they're open to technologies as a business force multiplier and we're really going to be able to make a big change.
0:39.1	Or you're going to go somewhere that's like super technology heavy where like everyone
0:44.6	in the organization is kind of already an IT genius themselves and the predecessor had
0:49.6	built everything.
0:51.0	How do you go about doing that?
0:52.5	Well, I mean, obviously there's there's pros and cons to
0:54.6	each, right? And in my current position, I didn't come in knowing what I knew. You'll never know
1:00.5	the complete state of the department until you're there for a couple months anyways. But I go
1:06.5	into looking for a place to where I can have that personal relationship with leadership.
1:12.3	I think that's the most important. I mean, as much as I'd like to come in and be that network
1:17.0	who comes in and writes the ship, I want to be that person who can make that difference to
1:22.7	where maybe the previous IT director couldn't move certain projects forward, couldn't articulate the
1:28.3	need for an NBR or couldn't articulate the need to change how they're doing reporting or things
1:33.9	of that nature. It's going to be what the appetite of the organization is for change. And IT is
1:40.0	change. And as long as that organization isn't resistant to change, I think that's the biggest
1:45.4	things that when I evaluate a prospective employer is the difference you can have is going to be
1:52.1	proportional to the amount of resistance the organization has to change.
1:58.2	So the old school IT leader, the old school mentality, which we've alluded to a bit is maybe I've been in the IT role forever since the invention of the dot matrix printer.
2:10.9	And I came in right after punch cards and we were putting network cards and that's how long I've been in the company.
	...

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