Deep Dive: Negotiation and CIO Credibility

Olivia Carter

Good afternoon, Mark. Today, we’re digging into why the best tech leaders aren’t just system builders—they’re master negotiators. Mark, I gotta say, this topic hits home for me. I remember early in my career, IT had just rolled out a major campus-wide system upgrade—new portal, revamped backend, the whole thing. On paper, everything was technically flawless. They hit their go-live date, avoided any major bugs, and met the project scope. But within a week, the phone lines were lighting up. Department heads were frustrated, frontline staff felt blindsided, and even some executive sponsors were quietly questioning whether they delivered what they promised. That was a wake-up call. The issue wasn’t the tech—it was how they’d handled the lead-up. They hadn’t brought people along, they hadn’t negotiated expectations clearly, and they hadn’t communicated the why behind the change. That was the moment I realized: credibility isn’t just about being competent. It’s about how well you manage the space between what’s expected and what’s delivered.

Mark Putnam

That’s a sharp observation, Olivia—and honestly, it reflects a shift the whole profession had to go through. I think the dot-com crash was a real inflection point for IT leaders. In the late nineties, there was this wild optimism. If it had a domain name, people invested. IT orgs were flush with capital, and the pressure was all about speed—launch fast, launch big, and figure out the business case later. And we did. We built systems. We built infrastructure. We built a lot of noise. But when the bubble burst and all that speculative energy evaporated, it exposed how little of what we’d built was tied to value. That crash forced a reckoning. It wasn’t enough to be fast—you had to be right. It wasn’t enough to deliver functionality—you had to deliver outcomes that mattered.

Mark Putnam

That’s when The New CIO Leader came along. The authors wrote it right in the middle of that recovery. They basically said: the era of the “chief technology mechanic” is over. The CIO’s role has to evolve from keeping the servers running to influencing how the institution moves forward. You have to bridge strategy and execution. Be the translator between business goals and technical capacity. Lead with credibility. Govern with clarity. And deliver value you can prove.

Olivia Carter

Yeah, and honestly, that still rings true today. If anything, the stakes are higher now. We’re in this phase where everyone’s talking about digital transformation, AI, automation—but if you can’t bring your campus or your business partners along, it falls flat. I think that’s what I underestimated early on: you can roll out the best-designed solution in the world, but if users weren’t part of the conversation from the beginning, it doesn’t matter. That’s why I think of tech leadership as a form of cultural stewardship. You’re not just managing systems—you’re managing expectations, alignment, and trust across the institution.

Mark Putnam

That’s exactly it. And I think the best IT leaders understand that negotiation isn’t just about contracts or budget meetings. It’s about daily, ongoing negotiation with your stakeholders—what are we doing, why are we doing it, and what can we actually commit to? You have to constantly negotiate expectations to keep the credibility cycle intact. It’s not about saying yes to everything; it’s about aligning what’s expected with what’s possible, and then delivering with consistency and integrity. That’s what earns trust. That’s what makes your leadership sustainable over time. You don’t have to be flashy—you just have to be reliable, strategic, and grounded in what the institution actually needs.

Olivia Carter

So, let’s unpack the Credibility Cycle. Mark, I know you’ve talked about this a lot—especially in your leadership workshops—but for folks who haven’t encountered the concept, let’s break it down. At its core, the Credibility Cycle is a loop: when you step into a new leadership role, you’re given a window of initial credibility. It’s not something you’ve earned yet, but it’s granted—often out of hope, curiosity, or the benefit of the doubt. That credibility gets you resources, authority, and space to operate. You’re allowed to make decisions, launch projects, and push for change. But then comes the critical part: outcomes. What you do with that initial trust either reinforces it—or chips away at it.

Mark Putnam

Exactly. It’s a dynamic loop, not a one-time transaction. The sequence goes like this: credibility leads to expectations and resources, which lead to action and results, and those results loop right back to either strengthen or weaken your credibility. And here’s the thing—this isn’t theoretical. It plays out in real time, especially in higher ed or mission-driven environments where trust is currency. If your outcomes are strong, and if stakeholders feel like you delivered on what you said, then you get more support, more budget, more strategic influence. It becomes a virtuous cycle. But if you stumble—or worse, if you overpromise and can’t follow through—things shift quickly. You start hearing doubt in people’s voices. Budget approvals take longer. Invitations to strategic conversations start drying up. The cycle turns vicious. And it’s hard to pull it back once that spiral begins.

Olivia Carter

It’s kind of sobering, actually. Like, there’s not a lot of room for sloppiness or blind optimism. One poorly executed project—or even just poor communication about a project—and suddenly you’re backpedaling, trying to explain, trying to re-earn what you already thought you had. Have you ever had a moment like that early in your leadership career? Where the cycle felt like it was tipping the wrong way?

Mark Putnam

Oh, definitely. My first CIO role was at a small branch campus. We had minimal infrastructure, limited staffing, and very little room for error. Every decision I made—whether it was about budgeting, hiring, or even which systems to prioritize—was watched closely. And I remember one moment clearly: we had committed to delivering a new system to streamline student services. The tech was sound, the timeline was aggressive but doable—but I didn’t spend enough time aligning expectations with campus leaders. When the rollout happened, the system worked, but the user experience was clunky, and the communication had gaps. The response was immediate: “Why didn’t we know this was coming?” “This isn’t what we expected.” That moment taught me that credibility isn’t just about results—it’s about perception. Did people feel heard? Did they understand the plan? Did they believe we cared about their needs?

Olivia Carter

That’s such a key point. We often think effort should count for something—and it does, internally. But in terms of credibility, it’s not enough. It’s not about how hard you worked behind the scenes. It’s about whether what you delivered matched what people were led to expect. That’s where negotiation shows up—not just in the formal sense, but in every conversation about timelines, scope, and resources. Great leaders negotiate not just to get resources, but to shape what’s expected in return.

Mark Putnam

Right. And that’s what keeps the cycle healthy. When you negotiate well—upfront, honestly, and with empathy—you align what’s possible with what’s expected. You avoid overpromising. You build margin. And then, when you deliver, you’re not just meeting expectations—you’re reinforcing trust. That’s the hidden power of negotiation: it’s not about winning the conversation. It’s about making sure that what you commit to is something you can actually deliver—and that what you deliver builds the next rung of your credibility.

Olivia Carter

So what I’m hearing is—negotiation skills are leadership skills?

Mark Putnam

Absolutely. Not just adjacent to leadership, but central to it. Negotiation is the discipline that keeps the credibility cycle from breaking down. Think about it this way: leadership is full of expectations—what can you deliver, by when, with what resources. Negotiation is how you keep those expectations real. Chester Karrass, who pioneered modern negotiation thinking, says negotiation is how you manage power and credibility over time. It’s not about who wins—it’s about how every decision, every ask, every compromise shapes how others perceive your reliability. If you push too hard or promise too much, people stop trusting your judgment. If you never ask for what you need, they stop seeing you as strategic. It’s a balance—and it’s active.

Mark Putnam

And then there’s Chris Voss, the former FBI negotiator. He flips the whole paradigm—he says the heart of negotiation isn’t force, it’s empathy. Tactical empathy. The ability to understand someone else’s position deeply enough that they feel heard, not manipulated. Voss argues that trust is built faster through calm presence and genuine listening than through logic or authority alone. And you know what? That maps almost perfectly to what makes CIOs effective in higher ed. You’re not commanding from a hierarchy—you’re persuading across peers, across departments, across skeptical audiences who’ve seen tech rollouts go sideways before.

Olivia Carter

That really resonates. When I was interning at Wired, I sat in on this high-stakes vendor negotiation—millions of dollars on the line, tons of pressure. The CIO didn’t posture or dominate the room. She listened more than she talked. Asked really focused questions. Clarified where the flex was and where the boundaries were. It wasn’t soft—it was precise. There was a rhythm to it. She’d give ground on something low-risk to gain ground where it mattered. You could tell she was protecting the institution and the relationship. Honestly, it felt more like choreography than combat.

Mark Putnam

That’s such a great example. Because good negotiation isn’t about getting to yes at any cost. It’s about staying aligned with your principles while moving the relationship forward. That’s why I say negotiation is a daily leadership discipline—especially for CIOs. You’re constantly negotiating scope, timelines, budgets, staff priorities, even perceptions. And you’re doing it with people who have very different pressures than you: deans, provosts, CFOs, faculty, staff, vendors. If you can’t navigate those dynamics with both strength and empathy, you either overextend or you stall out.

Mark Putnam

Bob Iger—the Disney CEO—talks about this idea of making small deposits in every relationship. He says trust isn’t built in grand gestures. It’s built in the rhythm of steady, respectful interaction. That’s what negotiation really is: not a showdown, but a series of intentional deposits. Give-and-take that preserves dignity, advances strategy, and keeps credibility intact.

Olivia Carter

So if we zoom out, the takeaway here is pretty clear: negotiation isn’t a reactive tool you pull out in high-stakes moments. It’s a proactive leadership habit. It’s how you keep trust alive, how you prevent the credibility cycle from breaking, and how you make sure your team isn’t stuck cleaning up after unrealistic promises.

Mark Putnam

Exactly. And when you practice it well, people don’t even call it negotiation. They just say you’re a leader they can work with. And that’s the point.

Olivia Carter

Let’s get concrete. Mark, you’ve made some pretty bold moves in your career—redirecting investments, restructuring teams, prioritizing security. How did you turn that initial credibility into sustained trust?

Mark Putnam

At one institution, I redirected major investments away from infrastructure projects that didn’t make sense. I removed ineffective leaders, restructured the PeopleSoft team to focus on empathy and communication, and promoted a budget manager who became my deputy. At another, I shifted key personnel to reprogram legacy systems, eliminated social security numbers as identifiers, and mandated encryption for all personal data. These were big bets, but they paid off because I communicated clearly and consistently. Monthly status reports, annual planning memos, regular “State of IT” updates—these weren’t just check boxes. They were about surfacing friction before it became failure, and proving, again and again, that IT could be trusted.

Olivia Carter

I love that. It’s not just about the big decisions, but the rhythm and visibility. You’re building trust in the open, not behind closed doors. And you’re inviting feedback, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Mark Putnam

Exactly. Transparency and consistency are what turn credibility into lasting trust. And in higher ed, that’s everything.

Olivia Carter

So, let’s bring it home. Negotiation isn’t some side skill for tech leaders—it’s central. Especially in higher ed, where you’re constantly balancing power, partnership, and credibility. Mark, you’ve said before that engaging deans and campus leaders as co-equals is both diplomacy and strategy. Can you share a story about that?

Mark Putnam

There was a make-or-break moment at one institution. We needed faculty buy-in for a major security overhaul. I didn’t go in as the “IT guy” dictating terms. I treated the deans and faculty leaders as partners, listened to their concerns, and negotiated openly. It wasn’t always smooth—there were tough conversations, real disagreements. But by treating them as co-equals, we built a coalition. The initiative succeeded because it wasn’t just my project—it became our project. That’s the lesson for today’s CIOs: negotiation isn’t a sideshow. It’s the main event. It’s how you keep relationships intact, priorities aligned, and momentum alive.

Olivia Carter

That’s such a powerful way to end. Negotiation is the art of leadership, especially when the stakes are high and the spotlight’s on trust. Thanks for sharing your stories, Mark. And thanks to everyone for listening. We’ll be back soon with more on the real work of leading through change. Mark, always a pleasure.

Mark Putnam

Likewise, Olivia. Take care, everyone.

Olivia Carter

See you next time.