"A Title Doesn't Earn You Respect, You Have to Earn Respect" - Kurtis Krentz of ALLO Fiber

Dr. Josh Elmore Welcome to the Land and Lead podcast, where we explore the real stories behind leadership transitions, the setbacks, strategies, wins, and moments of growth, all aimed at helping other leaders land well and lead effectively. I'm your host, Dr. Josh Elmore of Court Street Consulting.

The Land and Lead podcast is supported by my advisory work at Court Street Consulting. I work with new presidents, executives with expanded mandates, and leaders facing complex change to help them think clearly, learn in real time, and make consequential decisions. If you're navigating complexity where the stakes feel high and the path isn't obvious, that's the work that I do. Today we're speaking with Kurtis Krentz, president of ALLO fiber.

Kurtis is a seasoned executive with a significant track record in leading large scale business transformation and driving substantial growth. As president of ALLO fiber, a high growth fiber optic provider, his primary focus is on scaling operations to meet rapid expansion. This involves evolving an entrepreneurial culture into a mature, performance-driven organization. Kurtis's leadership responsibilities span operations, customer experience, construction, and key administrative functions, including HR, legal, and risk management, in addition to directing financing, capital raising, and M&A strategy.

Kurtis's prior experience includes a distinguished career at Ernst & Young in executive leadership. As a region managing partner, he led a $1 billion business unit comprised of 2,000 professionals across 17 offices, achieving market leading growth for four consecutive years and significantly improving employee Kurtis also served on an executive task force to evaluate a potential split of the global company involving complex negotiations, strategy formation, and operational modeling.

Kurtis's key transformation initiatives at EY involved designing and integrating an advanced data analytics function for the US firm and developing a strategic workforce planning function for over 90,000 employees in the Americas. These roles were instrumental in preparing the firm for future business needs in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Kurtis's foundational experience was built in various client-serving capacities assisting companies from Fortune 100 to small cap through IPOs and other complex transactions.

Welcome to the show, Kurtis. Kurtis S. Krentz Thank you. Nice to be here.

Dr. Josh Elmore Certainly, yeah, we're happy to have you. And ⁓ as we get into kind of the conversation, can you share a bit about your background and how you landed at ALLO fiber? Kurtis S.

Krentz Sure, you covered a lot of it there. But, you know, I spent 35 years in public accounting and retired and was going to see what that was all about. And my good Brad Moline, the founder of ALLO fiber, we got to talking. He and I go back to college days.

And over the course of a number of months during my retirement, he and I talked and formulated a role there, initially as Chief Administrative Officer, to come in and work with ALLO Fiber. So, being the good entrepreneur he was, he had a strong sales pitch and convinced me join ALLO and it's been a lot of fun and a great experience. Dr. Josh Elmore Hmm.

And so, ALLO fiber, you had a relationship founder for a long period of time, and that relationship led to a courtship, it sounds like, that those conversations. What was it about kind of your background or the relationship you had with Brad that kind of made that make sense? Kurtis S. Krentz Yeah, you know, he and I had never worked together.

We were roommates out of college, actually, been good friends for a long time as couples with our wives. And started telling me more about what he was doing. And I think was telling him more about what I had been doing in the previous three decades plus. And think he saw an intersection there of an entrepreneurial company that had experienced tremendous growth and success and getting to a level and a scale similar to the region business that I was running in my prior life.

And he liked and felt there was a benefit experiences seeing this in a larger scale and how you operate at a more mature state and that journey of scaling up from entrepreneurial to mature business. That's where our conversations really started to target ⁓ in a lot of different ways. And he saw value in that and fortunately asked me to join him in ALLO. Dr.

Josh Elmore Hmm. So it sounds like kind of the journey of an entrepreneurial organization towards professionalization. Kurtis S. Krentz Yeah, yeah, I think that's right.

I you know, and it's a journey we're still on. But it's the it's a journey I saw a lot in my prior life, working with entrepreneurs in the companies they were building, or even coming in, maybe after that stage was towards its end, and it they had had their success and the company was fairly large, but still operating as an entrepreneurial kind of company and needing to make that shift. And I'd seen this happen with entrepreneurs, as I'm sure many of your listeners have, to go from ground zero start something, one, it's a remarkable undertaking.

But the drive it takes, the attributes you need as an entrepreneur to create success out of that. There's a shift eventually that your success gets to a level of scale that you can no longer act as the entrepreneur. You can no longer direct the success the way you were able to when you were at a smaller scale. And that's the inflection point that ALLO achieved.

Probably before I joined, it really started to reach this level. so it's been a great experience for me to come in and be able to help the organization. Dr. Josh Elmore Hmm.

It sounds like a I always say this idea of enlightened leadership, right? So enlightened leaders understand and kind of see that either they need to develop or get assistance or to improve, or do something differently, so I'd say it sounds like Brad recognized , the need and kind of pursued it with a good friend, Kurtis S. Krentz Yeah, you know, what you said there, seen it go different paths. I've seen where the entrepreneur to just keep driving the way they've driven it and it gets larger becomes that asset becomes more of a liability because the company needs more structure and the board and investors and whoever else is getting involved as you've gotten big, now having to meet their expectations.

And seen it not work and I've seen entrepreneurs get pushed out. It happens pretty frequently. In other cases, know, an entrepreneur sees where this needs to go like Brad did and says, you know, o=it can be a variety of things. It can be, those aren't the things I enjoy doing.

It can be those aren't the things that I have the experience in, whatever it may be, that hey, I'm gonna bring somebody in to focus in those areas. Brad is a extraordinarily talented visionary salesperson. The attribute of an entrepreneur, I think, is they never see an obstacle they can't overcome. And there is always the possibility out there that there's no reason it can't be what he was able you know, that's who he is.

And that's what he was able to do to drive the success of ALLO. Now it's this organization that's spread across multiple states with, you know, 15, 1600 employees. There's a lot of structure underneath that that needs to be in place. Brad still is out being the face of ALLO, driving the market activity and the sales and the growth of the vision, but doesn't need to get bogged down with some of these operational things and administrative things.

Dr. Josh Elmore Yeah, super helpful to get that kind of context of you coming in. So thinking you coming in to fill that out a little bit, can you tell us a little bit more about ALLO fiber and the situation when you entered the organization? Kurtis S.

Krentz Yeah. So ALLO Fiber, I mean, it started as a telephone company for business in Western Nebraska. And as every entrepreneurial story starts, very small from zero. Brad saw it's 23 years old, which is a long time in the world of internet service providers, makes ALLO very unique.

And he was able to you know he saw that the move on internet fiber. he was completely dedicated to fiber not doing coax and some of the things cable companies have done he saw the value of that and started to raise the money to keep building a fiber network as he pivoted to that but kept the telephone if you will the voice I shouldn't say telephone the voice side in place as well. So, we provide internet, voice, mobile, and then on the business side, which makes us a bit unique, we are very focused on small business, small medium businesses.

And I think it's a group of companies and businesses that don't always get the attention. So, as we're in providing them voice services and internet services, we also have cybersecurity, firewall, network management, we can manage their hardware for them. We're doing a lot on the business side to really support that group. It's a, you know, internet is our foundation and core, but we also, Brad had seen the vision of being able to do other things to build off of that core relationship.

And the other thing that was really impressive to me coming in was Brad's compass in building this company was always the long-term. So it wasn't to do with the cheapest. It was to do it with the highest quality that would make sense 25, 30 years down the road. And I think that's a little unique too in this, in this space.

So there was just a to be impressed with when I came in and certainly to see a good friend, see what he had built was really a cool experience for me. But when I came in, it's that entrepreneurial setting, still high growth going on when I came in and absorbing all of that and trying to keep up with it. And you don't, when you're on this really hockey stick kind of growth trajectory, you don't have a lot of time to decide on, what would be the right processes to build around that?

You're just trying to keep up with it. And, and it's a group of people that did a really phenomenal job keeping up with that. And, and that was part of the appeal to me is just meeting the people inside ALLO that Brad had brought in. But we are also starting to get to, won't say entirely a steady state, but we are absorbing a lot of growth and making sure that what we have built out, we are executing on the best we can.

So we're really focused on our markets today and really focused in our regions to drive as much growth in those areas that we've already built out and wanting to get too far ahead of ourselves by building even more and stretching ourselves. And so this was ended up being an ideal time, I think, for me to come in and take, we're catching our breath a little on that continuing to grow, but also making sure that from an operational standpoint, we're creating repeatable success and stability with the structure around it that we can continue to grow on that down the road, is certainly our plan.

Dr. Josh Elmore Yeah. And how long have you been with the organization? Two years.

Okay. And you started, you're now, but you started in a previous role as chief admin officer, is that right? So, can you tell us about that? Kurtis S.

Krentz Two years. Correct. Chief Administrative Officer. Yeah, you know, in the corporate world, that title, if anybody's familiar with it, it can take on a lot of different meanings.

And I think Brad had a leadership team in place and of had the structure in place and was, as he and I talked, he was sensitive to how I was coming into the organization from the outside and the reception of that. And giving me the space to get integrated. And so this chief administrative officer role, we were able to take that title and define it how we wanted to. And allowed me to come into a new role, not replacing anybody overlapping anybody.

And it gave me the time to learn the organization, get to know the people up to speed on the industry and all that comes with a new job. Especially a very big change for me from what I had been doing. yet be contributing and involved in leading the organization. So it really was in hindsight, achieved exactly what we had hoped it would, I think.

And honestly, for me, having been in a retirement mindset, it Allowed me to make sure this is something I wanted to do and it made sure that I was a good fit for the organization rather than to come in as president. That would have been really hard for me to do. And I think it would have been hard for the organization to know what that meant and for me to be able to take that kind of a title and feel like that made sense even to me because there was a lot I didn't know and for me, know, a title doesn't give you respect.

have to earn the respect and title doesn't make you smarter and you have to do the hard work to learn the business. And so I think that's a really important aspect. And it was nice for me having been in you know, in a retirement mode, coming into this role was about not about climbing a ladder or, a lot of career goals that I have left, ⁓ I was gonna be done. And so I was able to really come in and just see what I could do to really contribute to the organization and help others.

It's, I guess it's nice to be old and to be able it's lot different than I guess I'd say than my first leadership roles where I was in my 40s and there's just a lot more that goes into that when you're first doing it and you're younger and you've got career aspirations and things. Dr. Josh Elmore Thinking about the kind of ⁓ career aspirations, those dynamics of being kind of in that different mindset, it sounds like there's a different type of authenticity to it, and maybe even less political because you're not striving maybe.

⁓ And so, you know, it's helpful context to get that kind of year intro, very thoughtful, placement in the administrative officer role and moving into the president role. So kind of building on that kind of as a strategy what other strategies have helped you navigate transition? Kurtis S. Krentz You know, just even for, to come in as the chief administrative officer and in all the things that allowed me to do that I, that I mentioned, it also allowed me to see what was possible for, for me in the organization where I thought I could contribute and where there were needs.

It got this, Brad and I never worked together. He got to see what I do and how I do it. And what we found very naturally happened was I started moving into a certain role and he and I working together and him relying on me to do some things and me recognizing he was certainly driving a lot of success and what he was great at and how I could compliment that. And I think what we found is we compliment each other extraordinarily well when you compare our strengths.

I think as we got particularly the second half of 25 and we're dealing with various business issues and organizational issues and I would just take the lead on some of those things and maybe he would say, Kurtis, you're going be better to navigate that. Then the team also saw what I was bringing to the equation. And when it came time that Brad decided to make this shift and that I'll be president and he's, CEO founder, think it was not a big, it was fairly was kind of formalizing a path that we had been on.

And I think, you know, what helped me in transition, I mean, it's always best to do something a third or fourth time than the first time. So the fact that I had spent a decade in my prior life in leadership and had maybe gotten through some of those first time feelings and finding your way. very much came in with a defined leadership style that I wouldn't have had the first time. The first time I was in a leadership role, you're, how am I going to do this?

And me, and I think others, the first time you get put into a role, there is going to be an imposter syndrome that is a voice in your head. You're wondering, what do they expect of me and what should I be doing and am I doing it well enough? And there's an inadequate feedback loop in leadership. And so I think having had those experiences, I came in very comfortable.

But also I, know, my compass for this given where I was in my career was how can I use this role, to help others be successful and to create success for the organization as a whole so that my time here would have been meaningful and whenever that is that it ends that others are better for it and that the organization is better for it. Dr. Josh Elmore You know, you mentioned this idea of having a defined leadership style, right? So you rose through the ranks at EY, of career there, and, you know, a common dimension or dynamic at play for leaders entering a new high stakes role is are you an insider rising through the ranks or are you an outsider coming in and it sounds like you were…you had the relationship with Brad lifelong, you know since college you had kind of early conversations with him and even a year of like a lower stakes introductory role where you're not kind of here's the president you're taking over so a lot of thoughtfulness around that introduction.

And you have what you said is a defined leadership style, right? So facilitative dimensions to you entering the role. And there's also things where it's going to make you really effective to be seasoned in the sense that you've gone through three different transitions like that. And you're coming from the outside, an organization that grew up through founder-led with a defined leadership style.

How have you had to adjust your style that you've kind of defined through your years of experience at EY? Kurtis S. Krentz Yeah, well, I think, you know, probably the that I to understand and adjust to was I had come very, very large organization. So my leadership experience inside that organization was a subset of the total.

you know, globally, we were 400,000 people and, you know, I was running a 17 state region with a little over 2000 people. So I'm, I'm a drop in the pond, right? So navigating bureaucracy and layers complete, you know, a completely different experience there's trade-offs. So being in a big organization, there's always budget available there's always funding right you can hire people and oh yeah that's not a big deal because it's all in the context of this four hundred thousand and uh...

and the numbers on my piece of the world aren't that material to the overall so there's luxuries there the pros and cons of anything you're very large is a lot of bureaucracy there's a lot of layers, there’s quicksand to try to get anything done. But you always have the funding and support of whatever you need that's there. And you go into a smaller company and into an entrepreneurial company with investors and things. It's not the same, you don't have the resources, right?

So deciding to hire somebody, that's a decision. It's not just, oh yeah, go ahead, right? There's money. And so you have to be very careful about your spend.

You have to be managing this at aspects of this at a granular detail that's different than a big company. And the level of sophistication of the operating environment and people's experiences and everything are all different. And so for me, that large organization you had a collective, it was pretty homogeneous. Education and background and experiences, you all kind of came up through this big machine called public accounting.

Whether it was consulting, tax, audit, whatever, it was all in this machine. In a smaller company, you're bringing in people from a lot of different places. And we have a meaningful construction crew that are out there doing hard work every day, putting fiber in the ground and, the field techs that are out there repairing and, servicing. And I hadn't had that aspect of a workforce in my prior life.

And so you've got to meet people where they are. And I needed to be, at least I felt I needed to be really thoughtful and, intentional about how I would engage this group of people versus my past life and understand there's differences. I think also understanding the operating environment of a large company for all the reasons I said, it was gonna be very different in the smaller company and I need to spend some time understanding I need to understand how they were doing in making decisions, whether it was hiring, whether it was budgeting, whether it was cost decisions.

I had to adjust to all that. Dr. Josh Elmore Hmm. Sounds like the right when you're in a company like EY, you said it's the machine you all kind of came up through the homogeneity.

what came to for ALLO fiber is of this rich diversity in different trades and professions and of orientation towards what it means to work and to be kind of at work, right, at a desk or in the field or, you know, ⁓ working with the material, raw material. And I imagine that orientation, I mean, even just the idea of working with raw material versus working with, you know, ones and zeros and numbers, right? That must change your framing. Kurtis S.

Krentz Absolutely. Right. Yeah. For sure.

And I, you know, and I mean, have such a high regard for people out there doing this hard work. mean, it's, can be the middle of winter, you know, in my past life, it was, know, this white collar that you worked hard and you're putting in long hours and serving our clients and all of those things. And at a high level, it's all kind of the same, but when to come into ALLO Fiber and, you know, have this group of people that they get the call at midnight when the network went down because of an ice storm or because of a thunderstorm or because somebody cut our line of another company that was doing some work and they go out, you know, from midnight to whenever it gets done and answer the call.

I mean, it's been really certainly inspiring to see how these teams work together and the work they do. And the stories we get from customers is really You get that here that you didn't really get in this big previous world I was in. And some of our teams just out there helping community members and they take the time to call or write a letter , an email to say, is what your service representative did for us today. It had nothing to do with the work.

That's been neat to see and it's different in a really good way. But I also needed to appreciate and understand that this was a different environment and workforce than I previously had. And I was the one that needed to adjust to that, not others adjust to me. ⁓ And that's important for a leader to...

And I've seen that where you get a title and suddenly make the mistake of thinking the world is at your disposal for your success instead of, I have this title. And I have a different position in the organization and I need to use to represent everybody else and help their success. And it's not about the organization adjusting to me, it's about me adjusting and fitting into the organization. And I think any leader coming in, whether you're from the inside or the outside, that's still a really element to remember.

Dr. Josh Elmore Yeah, really powerful reminder of kind of remembering you we had on a show, Rima Alameddine said, you know, leaders have people who follow them, right? You need followers to be a leader and that, you know, but people need to want to follow you. Kurtis S.

Krentz Absolutely. Yeah, 100%. And I've probably been surprised over my career many times that that that leaders are getting that wrong. Dr.

Josh Elmore And so thinking about your kind of, we went through a couple of dimensions of the role and the circumstances, what were some wins and setbacks and how did they manifest? Kurtis S. Krentz I think that, nothing was very black and white like, that happened that week and that was a win or that happened and that that that was a setback. I think that the win was after spending the amount of time I spent in the organization as chief administrative officer that it culminated with Brad and I both seeing this next move making sense in the organization, I think seeing it made sense that I would step in the president role.

And ultimately that was the going you know, for me, that's the win, you will, or set or could have been a setback and it wasn't. I think, you know, I came in, I still have a lot to learn and, honestly that's part of the appeal. I enjoy learning. that was part of appeal of undertaking all of this.

And I still have a lot to learn about the business and people and everything. I think it was certainly a net positive that despite coming in cold and needing to learn all of that, that we got to a place where this transition made sense for the organization and for Brad. I think that would have been an open question at the beginning, I think. And I think for that to happen, I suppose underneath that there's a multiple little winds that go along the way, right?

I do think that the people and the culture that Brad had created there at ALLO also an important aspect of me being able to successfully do this. It's a terrific group of people they're so motivated by the ALLO that I guess, you know, that was certainly a win for me. It wasn't something I created, but it was a win for me, to see that and see like, hey, this is a really terrific organization that I was excited to be a of. There were setbacks only in the sense of we ran into, as you will, I mean, it just comes with the territory, but we ran into business challenges and some issues we didn't foresee and things that we needed to do, stretched me at times.

And the setbacks became wins, I guess, in the sense that you keep moving forward, but it's never a straight path. And if it was, I'd probably get bored pretty fast. I mean, we had some things that we need to do on financing transactions and capital raising. And needed to do some things to adjust our cost structures and those are things every organization needs to do almost constantly, but certainly periodically.

so I wouldn't I mean, I don't know if I'd say there are setbacks, there were bumps in the road that I think we were able to navigate and could have been setbacks if we didn't successfully navigate them. I don't know if I'm answering your question as well as, ⁓ but it was probably more the culmination of it that I, that I'm focused on, was that a win if we call it that or was it successful? And I think we've gotten to a good place so far. Dr.

Josh Elmore Yeah, and I think it's having that, what I hear is a long-term perspective where, you know, there's ups and downs, but in the kind of long trajectory, long tail, that strategy of coming in and that you made it to the president role and have successfully been able to kind of take that on and that the organization is accepting you, that's like broad win. So that kind of overarching approach is what I hear. Kurtis S. Krentz Yeah.

That's probably very astute observation is I'm, I'm, I'm probably evaluating wins or setbacks in a longer term view recognize that in the short term, you're, you're going to have as many bumps in the road as you're going to have anything you think are wins And to me, it's, I, I generally haven't, no matter what kind of happens, I generally have a view that, well, that's the hand we got dealt today or this week, and let's play this out. As stressful as that can be, where the greatest learning happens, and on the other side of it, it's always the most memorable times.

I mean, that's where you really develop. And so, I think we too often are in these roles and in these companies leading and it becomes really stressful because things don't go as planned and something unforeseen happens and it can affect a lot of people think we try to control that too much versus understanding that if you look at the landscape there is a lot we don't control. So the stuff we don't control, we'll have to deal with it as it comes up. The stuff we can control, we should be great at.

And so be great at what we control and accept what we don't control. And we'll figure that out as we get hit with it. Dr. Josh Elmore Makes sense.

And a question I like to ask all of my guests, and just for context, you've been in the organization two years, you were in the chief administrative role for one year, and you've been in the role for the president for how long? Kurtis S. Krentz So have been only in the president role a couple of months and I've been with the organization about two years. Dr.

Josh Elmore Thinking about kind of your time and role, time in the organization, because it's I see it and it sounds like you also see it as kind of like a journey. The roles may have changed, but kind of your contribution and the way that you were being brought in by Brad, you know, that kind of was always a core thinking and it was just through name that things kind of changed. Is that right? So in the 1980s, John Gabarro ran a few studies focused on general managers and presidents as they pursue new roles and wrote the results up in the book, The Dynamics of Taking Charge.

Gabarro explained that an executive has fully taken charge when they have mastered the new assignment in sufficient depth to be managing the organization as efficiently as the resources, constraints, and the manager's own ability ALLOw. Thinking about this definition where 100 % is having fully taken charge in your new role, what percent would you say you're at now? Kurtis S. Krentz Yeah, probably because of the way this happened as we've described, guess that it's around say though is I don't think I will ever say 100.

So my scale, it's where am I at between zero and 90 or 85 maybe. I think what in that question, what also comes to mind is the contrast of my previous leadership roles. you know that, you know, I think even six months in, I felt like I was at zero, probably the first leadership role I had was, there was a lot of adjustment without a lot of assistance to the journey in that first time as I reflect on it. And I think here, because of the way we've done it and my past experiences, every time you do something, you're a little more efficient, a little more efficient.

And there's some great leaders out there that have either founded and led multiple companies or came in and bounced around and go into various companies and they just seem to be extraordinarily effective and that's just the accumulation of lot of experiences. I think that for me, the mastery question, one, I think mastery is great to chase. I don't think you ever catch the rabbit, probably take exception with where I've talked to some leaders in the past where they've been in a role for four years.

I can remember a conversation with somebody and they're just like, I've kind of done everything I can do in this role. I'm kind of ready for a change. I just thought there's no way. What we were talking about, it was too big of a universe that you could spend unlimited years always finding better.

I talked about always the pursuit of better and always the pursuit of better and because you can always be better and until that became there was nothing left to pursue which is impossible I think I'd still say I hadn't mastered it. But for me I shift that concept a little bit that I think, if a leader comes in and surrounds himself or herself with a really highly competent, high integrity team and can create the cohesion and collaboration across that team and then support that team's success, you'll never achieve more than that, it's such a greater outcome than some of the parts.

there's leaders that try to do it themselves and direct people and it's all about them. And I think for any leadership role, your first most impactful task is to have the right people in the right places at the right time. And if you do that as leader and didn't do anything else, the organization is going to be wildly successful you're one person. You can just do so much.

Right. I think for an entrepreneur, that journey is one from having to do everything and be willing to do everything, even if that you're working 20 hours a day and the work ethic of entrepreneurs and all that it takes. But you get to a place of scale and size, you can't do it all anymore and you have to be able to let go and let others. And so that's certainly what Brad and I have been working on.

Dr. Josh Elmore Right, yeah, and the idea of kind of empowering the team to help you reach higher percentage points, super powerful insight. So kind of final question here, what advice would you share with leaders currently entering a new high stakes role? Kurtis S.

Krentz If it's your first time, it's extraordinarily exciting time to get named into that role and to be there. I'd say that the honeymoon will last for a little while and then, you know, and you're the new person and everybody's going to want your attention and you're going to be told you're good looking and you're funny and everything else because they all want you to like them and keep your ego in check. You're not as smart as everybody's gonna act like you are and good looking as everybody acts like you are.

You're the same person as you were the day before you got the role. And what you've been given is an opportunity to earn that. And whether or not you were the right choice will be decided years from now, not today, or you just got named. Somebody else could have got named and it would have been their opportunity.

And I think keeping that in mind when I had my first leadership role, I knew I wasn't the first selection. don't know who else was and I was never told. I just, I got a sense that I'm confident enough I wasn't the first choice. And that's okay.

I came in, was like, well, this is my opportunity. I just decided to, regardless if I was the hundredth choice or the first choice, it was the same, it was just an opportunity. Whether I was the first choice or the hundredth choice doesn't make me any better or worse until I prove that answer. so I think to keep in mind the opportunity you've been given and do more listening than talking.

Do not feel compelled to do something grand and big to announce your presence or to show you were the right person. Take your time, be patient, and then assess the team around you and where your strengths are and where your weaknesses are. You're going to have to address those. And then develop where you can, the people, after, give it enough time to know, to get comfortable in the role, to get to know the people, the organization, and then start to formulate some of your decisions and your moves.

But listen to the voice inside the imposter syndrome. You've been given an opportunity to make the most of it. It's nothing else. And I think if you're coming into the role for the third time, fourth time or whatever, you know, use all those experiences, but know that this time's different and, you know, still take those learnings, the things I mentioned for the first time leader and, and those still apply.

do think that if like me, I was in my early forties when I had my first leadership role, and I think that, you know, I would admit. I felt like I had a lot of time left in my career. So I was going to do this, but I had in mind what would be next, what would be next. And you're still in that chase.

And that's a healthy thing to be chasing something. But don't lose sight of what's in front of you. It's a lot different when you come in later and depending on your listeners and those listening to the answer to the question, if you're like me in late 50’s…there's a lot of freedom in that. And so as you come into the role, you know, what I want to do, and I would hope others would have similar aspiration is use the role to help others succeed and to help others be the best version of themselves, take my experiences and help develop others and just find where I can contribute to the organization because the people around me are extraordinarily talented.

They'll know more than I'll ever know about what they do. I'm not the smartest person in the room in this industry. so my role is not anything in that technical sense. It's how do I use my role to coordinate and collaborate across the organization?

And I think that that's, you know, one of the things in me stepping into this role that we have these really terrific leaders across their functional areas. And I have the opportunity to create enhanced collaboration across those silos so that we're not a golf team, but we're a true team and not a collection of individuals. And they all get along well and they all work together, but you still need somebody at the center that can see what's happening across the different functions, connect dots and bring together the decisions because, what I learned is everything you do, connects to everything else, directly or indirectly.

So if I make a decision over here, it doesn't stay just over here. It's going to affect the other functions and people. And so that collaboration and be the conductor of the symphony kind of thing, and I'll never be a great instrument player, but I can at least maybe conduct. And that's what I'd say in a very long-winded way, maybe some of the advice share or viewpoints anyway.

Dr. Josh Elmore Yeah, I hear a lot of care and tact right? If you're a first person coming in or later or the retirement age, but then also just that orientation around being careful, looking, treating it like an opportunity and bringing care to the role. Really powerful.

for joining us, Kurtis. Is there anything you'd like to share that's coming up for you or ALLO Fiber? Kurtis S. Krentz Yeah, for sure.

Well, you know, ALLO, we're in ⁓ four states, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, and Arizona. And so any listeners out there in our communities that we're serving, we are a terrific company in both the internet voice and all the other things I mentioned that we do. And I think you I think ALLO provides a level of customer care that's second to none in the industry. So for anybody out there in those markets, I hope we get to serve you.

ALLO, I think there's a lot on the horizon, I think, for us that hopefully those four states, the next time we talk, it would be eight states or nine states. Dr. Josh Elmore Yeah, well, thanks for joining Kurtis. It's been great to chat with you and hear all of your ⁓ reflections and wisdom.

Kurtis S. Krentz Thank you, I appreciate it. Dr. Josh Elmore Land and Lead podcast is supported by my advisory work at Court Street Consulting.

I work with new presidents, executives with expanded mandates, and leaders facing complex change to help them think clearly, learn in real time, and make consequential decisions. If you're navigating complexity, where the stakes feel high, and the path isn't obvious, that's the work that I do. Thanks so much for listening to the Land and Lead podcast. I'm your host, Dr.

Josh Elmore. Tune in next time for more stories from leaders navigating high-stakes role transitions.