Featuring Summer Xiao, Deputy CIO - Enterprise Applications/PMO at City of Houston

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🎙 About the episode

In this episode, we dive into the importance of mental wellness with Summer Xiao, Deputy CIO of Enterprise Applications at the City of Houston. Summer shares valuable insights on creating a safe space for team members to share stress, recognizing signs of distress, and fostering a sense of identity outside of work. Learn how building trust, open communication, and leadership support are key to enhancing team performance and well-being. Don't miss out on this valuable conversation that goes beyond technology in the public sector.

00:00 Joe Toste hosts public sector tech podcast.

05:52 Recognizing signs of distress in high performers.

06:36 Benching players, human complexity, tips for leaders.

11:03 Public sector tech leaders share valuable insights.

Key Highlights

Mental Health in IT Professionalism: "I was having mental breakdowns. And that's when I realized the path we chose to be it professionals isn't going to be easy mentally."

— Summer Xiao [00:01:48 → 00:01:59]

Trust and Sharing Stress: "So I think the first thing is people don't share stress with others that they don't trust."

— Summer Xiao [00:02:43 → 00:02:51]

Workplace Stress Management: "But that's how you create the safe environment. First is establishing trust."

— Summer Xiao [00:03:37 → 00:03:40]

Preventing Burnout in the Workplace: "How do we recognize it earlier to say, hey, I think somebody's really going down this. They're really unwell emotionally, and mentally, how do we peel them back before they become a negative influence on everybody else?"

— Summer Xiao [00:05:11 → 00:05:27]

Leadership and Workforce Management: "And you have to recognize that early in the situations where we had to let people go, I think as a leader, I haven't recognized that early enough. That's the biggest learning. So I'm constantly serving right now, especially as my top performers who's going to start going down the path. Let me yank them back. Right. And some of the sure signs that somebody is under distress is if they're a high performer and they lose the ability to listen, you find yourself having to repeat something multiple times, and they still make the same mistakes."

— Summer Xiao [00:05:52 → 00:06:22]

Supportive Leadership in the Workplace: "When I go to my CIO saying, hey, summer is stressed. It's not a foreign concept to her. She's very accepting. And I think that's really important, is to have this awareness through all levels for the organization."

— Summer Xiao [00:07:34 → 00:07:48]

Leadership in Project Management: "we only need two things for the project to be successful. We don't need infighting with our business partners, and we need leadership, support. Everything else we can handle, the team can handle."

— Summer Xiao [00:08:19 → 00:08:30]

Work-Life Balance in Entrepreneurial Families: "I couldn't separate myself because it didn't know the concept."

— Summer Xiao [00:09:04 → 00:09:28]

Work-Life Balance: "When I see them getting really stressed, they're working at 10:00, 12:00 and I say, let's all say my work is not me. I'm not my work, my work is not me. I'm not my work."

— Summer Xiao [00:09:52 → 00:10:03]

The Cost of Disconnecting in a Connected World: "I wanted to take full economic advantage of the money I paid at Disney. Did not want to waste my money. And the first two days was uncomfortable. And then I got used to it. I was like, this is a nice feeling. I guess nothing has fallen apart yet. I think."

— Summer Xiao [00:10:18 → 00:10:44]

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Vulnerability in Fellowship (John 17) | Billy Humphrey