WiLD Conversation - Getting It Done and Doing It Right: Leading with No-Blame Bias with CEO Alex Shootman

What if the key to trust wasn’t just character—but competence, clarity, and accountability?

In this compelling episode of The WiLD Conversation Podcast, Dr. Rob McKenna sits down with longtime friend and fellow leadership practitioner Alex Shootman, CEO of Alkami Technology and author of Done Right: How Tomorrow’s Top Leaders Get Stuff Done. What unfolds is not just a sharp exchange between two seasoned leaders—but a deeply honest conversation between old friends who have walked through leadership’s messiness, pressure, and purpose together.

With decades of experience leading turnarounds and scaling high-performing software organizations, Alex shares how he grounds his leadership in four non-delegable CEO responsibilities—and how a “No-Blame Bias” has shaped the way he builds trust, manages growth, and drives both results and culture.

Drawing from a leadership framework that values both getting it done and doing it right, Alex unpacks how clear accountability, relentless transparency, and trust as a managed business function are essential to long-term success. He reminds us that in every high-performing team, trust is breaking all the time—so we must be intentional about building it all the time.

Whether you're a CEO, an emerging leader, or someone navigating the tension between results and values, this episode offers not only practical wisdom—but a refreshing window into what happens when sharp minds, shared values, and leaders-in-process come together in authentic conversation.

 

Leadership Takeaways

• The CEO’s Responsibility: Strategy, values, economic outcomes, and building the right team cannot be outsourced—they must be owned and lived by the leader.
  
• No-Blame Bias: Creating a culture of truth-telling starts with removing fear of blame. Leaders must model and reinforce this bias to build trust across the organization.
  
• Trust as a Business Function: Trust doesn’t self-sustain. Even in high-performing organizations, it must be constantly assessed, cultivated, and rebuilt.
  
• The Getting It Done / Doing It Right Matrix: High-impact organizations don’t reward results at the expense of values. The real culture carriers do both—and they’re celebrated by name.
  
• Growth Breaks Things: Just like Hemingway’s “stronger at the broken places,” growth breaks teams and systems—what matters is how leaders repair and rebuild with intention.