Leadership Sovereignty Podcast: Career Growth and Promotion

Curiosity is the differentiator. But it only works when everything else is already in place.

In this episode of the Leadership Sovereignty Podcast, host Ralph Owens and co-host Terry Baylor continue their conversation with Shachella James — VP of Enterprise Systems at CenterPoint Energy. This is Part 2 of 5.

Shachella introduces the SPICE framework — Sponsorship, Performance, Image, Curiosity, and Exposure — the five-part career acceleration model she built from Harvey Coleman's PIE framework and has used to guide her own advancement and the advancement of others. She also draws a powerful parallel between artificial intelligence and strategic leadership: the breadth and depth of what you can get out of AI is entirely anchored in the power of the question you ask. So is your career.

What you will learn in this episode:
- The full SPICE framework and how each component builds on the others
- Why curiosity is the differentiator once performance and image are already locked
- How to replace "I don't know" with language that signals a growth mindset instead
- Why asking bold strategic questions builds your confidence and pulls others into the conversation
- How AI and leadership curiosity are powered by the exact same thing — the quality of your questions

This episode is for you if:
- You are performing well but not advancing and want to know what is missing
- You want a complete career acceleration framework you can apply immediately
- You are the only one in the room who looks like you and want tools that work at every level
- You are ready to stop asking flat questions and start asking questions that move the needle

👤 View Shachella James's guest profile

🧾 Chapters
  • (00:00) - Power of the Question
  • (01:06) - Finding Your Voice in the Room
  • (03:49) - Replacing “I Don’t Know”
  • (04:10) - What Sparked Her Path
  • (05:46) - From PIE to SPICE
  • (07:18) - Curiosity as the Differentiator
  • (09:23) - Why Organizations Stagnate
  • (11:36) - The Power of the Prompt
  • (12:36) - Curiosity That Opens Doors
  • (14:30) - Curiosity and Career Promotability

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📄 Full Episode Transcript




Creators and Guests

Guest
Shachella James
Shachella James is an award-winning technology professional with well over a decade of professional experience across multiple industries, consulting services, manufacturing banking, telecommunications, and now utilities. She is responsible for information and operational technologies, and enterprise architecture. Her expertise also spans strategic and capital planning, cloud services, data center operations and infrastructure operations. She is keen on workforce management and serving up the talent pipeline for the future.

What is Leadership Sovereignty Podcast: Career Growth and Promotion?

The Leadership Sovereignty Podcast, hosted by Ralph E. Owens II and co-hosted by Terry Baylor, is a career acceleration platform

Leadership isn’t just a skill — it’s a career strategy for professionals seeking growth, influence, and promotion.

Hosted by Ralph Owens, Chief Information Officer, and Terry Baylor, CEO of a healthcare technology startup, the podcast delivers practical, real-world leadership strategies you can apply immediately. Each episode focuses on increasing visibility, navigating corporate dynamics, preparing for promotion, and leading beyond your title.

Expect short, high-impact conversations designed to help you think, act, and position yourself like a senior leader before you’re given the title.

You’re not just an employee. You’re the CEO of your career.

New episodes are released bi-weekly.

Shachella Jamens:

The whole heart of artificial intelligence as a parallel to leadership guidance is the power of the question that you ask.

Ralph Owens:

Oh, that is good.

Shachella Jamens:

Curiosity, the breadth and the depth of what you can harness out of artificial intelligence is literally anchored into the power of the question that you ask.

Ralph Owens:

Welcome to the Leadership Sovereignty Podcast, where professionals learn to navigate challenges at work through the power of leadership principles. I'm Ralph Owens, Chief Information Officer in the financial services industry alongside my cohost, Terri Baylor, the CEO of a healthcare tech startup. Together, we've spent decades building teams, transforming organizations and coaching individuals through the moments that define their careers. We impact the mindset, strategies and habits that help you lead with confidence, expand your influence, get promoted and increase your income. Now let's dive into today's episode.

Shachella James:

Excuse me.

Shachella Jamens:

No longer the youngest person in the room but you know you've been that superlative, the only And that in itself can be intimidating if no one else pulls you into the conversation and you may not have that benefit, how do you insert yourself in the conversation in a way that's not even intimidating to other people? You don't even, in terms of self awareness, how do you even come across? So being able to ask a strong and powerful, bold question, again, that's strategic, brings other people along. And it's a confidence builder because can see, I think you can see that energy percolating and you can see other people engaging because you're asking the question, but they're answering it too.

Ralph Owens:

Yeah, wow, that's good.

Shachella Jamens:

So that inclusion is a wonderful way of not only getting yourself in it, bringing other people along and then using that as a building block. Yeah. Build confidence.

Ralph Owens:

Yeah.

Shachella Jamens:

You see what I'm saying?

Ralph Owens:

That's good.

Shachella Jamens:

Use it as a building block to build confidence.

Ralph Owens:

That's really good. Terry Terry and I long ago worked for a leader, and I'll never forget, he told me, because I was having some confidence issues. It was the first time I was in a role with a title manager, and I felt like I needed to know everything. Every question that he asked, I wanted to be able to answer it. He said, Listen, I didn't hire you because you know everything.

Ralph Owens:

I hired you because you have the ability to go figure it out. And that changed my life because what it showed me is that as long as I could be curious and I could ask the right questions, there is no situation that I can't deal with, instead of having to come in prepared and know every single thing all the time. I love that, and I love that about you, because since I've met you, I've always noticed that you always had the bubbly personality, but you always could engage yourself with other people and pull them into your world through questions. So I just think that's fantastic.

Shachella Jamens:

I like that too. I have to be careful with my bubbly personality because it gets misconstrued as a meekness kind of thing.

Ralph Owens:

I understand.

Shachella Jamens:

But being able to come back with that with some inviting questions gives a powerful wow to that person. Oh wow, okay.

Ralph Owens:

Yeah.

Shachella James:

She's more than just that personality. So yeah, it has worked really well for me, Terri Ralph. When you don't know something simply, instead of saying, I don't know, you can replace I don't know with something like, I'd like to learn more about that. Can you talk with me Oh, that's good. About Can you help me through that?

Shachella James:

And again, it keeps the conversation going, but you know what it also is? It's a symbol and a signal of a growth mindset too. Right? That's Right. So yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

Terry Baylor:

That's good. That's good. I'm listening, right? And I'm thinking, okay, so at what point did you kind of understand the philosophy that you've been living your life with? Is it when you, you know, and then there's so many parallels to that, right?

Terry Baylor:

I wanna know, okay, how'd you get into technology? What was your motivation? You know, what was the curiosity there? You know, Who in your life kind of helped you develop these things? What books, what movies?

Terry Baylor:

How did you get this?

Shachella James:

My heart is beating so fast. I was hoping somebody would ask me this question today. I've had the benefit of just being around a lot of good people, not met this person in person, but acquainted with a gentleman named Harvey Coleman. And he wrote a book about, I'll look it up before we finish the call, but it's Empowering Yourself in the Workplace, the Games that We Have to Play. Again, his name is Harvey J.

Shachella James:

Coleman, worked for IBM for a while. Through him, I was introduced to a concept called PIE, performance, image and exposure. That was years ago that I was acquainted with that, and I've actually translated that into some other leadership sessions and panels that I've done with women when I talk about grit and grace, I can explain that later in another time, but that performance image and exposure has really been a big framework that's helped me to build up to who I am right now. What are you saying, Shachella? Is I extended that framework and now I call it SPICE.

Shachella Jamens:

Okay. SPICE is sponsorship, performance, image, curiosity, and exposure.

Ralph Owens:

Oh, that's powerful.

Shachella James:

All right, now let me tell you a little bit more about the SPICE. These five things together, so I had always appreciated, again, the question was, how did I get here? What framed, what kind of influenced me? So Harvey Coleman and his PIE Framework, and I expanded that to SPICE. So sponsorship is, I think we all familiar with just having that person that's gonna advocate for you when you're not in the room.

Shachella James:

That performance, you gotta do your job, right?

Ralph Owens:

Right,

Shachella James:

You have to deliver with consistency and excellence, and do that reliably. Your image is your gravitas, how you present, how you show up, curiosity, again, sparking that innovation, that growth mindset, demonstrating readiness through questions, and the exposure. You're doing the good work, who knows about it outside of your immediate circle? So I know here today, we're here to focus on curiosity, but as I've gone through all of these stages, getting past a mentor to sponsor, getting past just showing up and actually having that image that people are like, okay, your credibility speaks to you in the industry, in the company, outside the company, and performance, like I said, is table stakes and doing that. That curiosity then became the real differentiator again, Terri, back to the earlier point that we had.

Shachella James:

So as you're emerging in your career, and we appreciate that it's not just about results anymore, but engaging and being with people and having those relationships where they feel more comfortable engaging with you because you brought them along, you've asked them really good strategic questions, you've challenged the way that they think in respectful way, but that constructive, crucial conversation is what really moves the organization forward. If you don't have curious people, there's a time in every situation for stability. You go through this curve, a life cycle of when you're starting something new, you got all the startup energy, and then you plateau, but then you gotta level up for that next season and that next It's the curiosity that really propels the organization forward. So if you have people who are comfortable with the status quo for too long, then the organization is stagnant.

Ralph Owens:

That's good.

Shachella James:

So you have to be at a place where you're challenging with constructive questions and moving the organization. And the curiosity does that. So the framework, so pulling all those things together where your performance is locked, your image is unlocked, your exposure, people know what you're doing inside your company, in the industry that you're in, across industries, whatever your networking circle is, people know about you. But you gotta get in that curiosity to make that spice really work for me, that seasoning and that cake.

Ralph Owens:

That's so powerful. Oh my God. Oh, that is life changing.

Shachella James:

I'm just trying to stay focused on curiosity. I'm like, going back to that red wine and that dinner, this is really, really deep because there are so many people who abuse questions. You're sitting in the meeting and you have that one person say, We know you're here. You don't need to ask another flat question. We see you, so the fact that you're here and you're not contributing is a whole another conversation.

Shachella James:

But if you're gonna be here, I would appreciate just one good question as opposed to peppering me with 10, just so that people feel like you added value when you really didn't.

Ralph Owens:

So true.

Shachella James:

So having the question And you know what too, Ralph, how we got started, because we were at a technology dinner, is we were talking about artificial intelligence, and that set it off for me for sure. That is exactly what we're talking about today. Before we get to dispositioning anybody and talking about new careers that are available, the whole heart of artificial intelligence as a parallel to leadership guidance is the power of the question that you ask.

Shachella James:

Oh, I

Ralph Owens:

was trying to see where you were going with that. I didn't see that coming. That is good.

Shachella James:

Curiosity, artificial intelligence. The breadth and the depth of what you can harness out of artificial intelligence is literally anchored into the power of the question that you ask.

Ralph Owens:

That's good. That is so good.

Shachella James:

So when you can get in the mindset of cultivating that deeper question, the broader question, and it can be erative too, that's one of the jewels of artificial intelligence, but that's a real game changer in artificial intelligence one example.

Ralph Owens:

I think you just surfaced probably one of the most critical requirements for being successful with the whole industry of artificial intelligence is tied to the power of the question that you ask.

Shachella James:

Yes. And we're gonna make that a tagline, the power of the prompt.

Ralph Owens:

The power of the prompt.

Shachella James:

The power of the prompt. That's what curiosity is really doing for us.

Ralph Owens:

Is so good. That is so good.

Ralph Owens:

So talk about in your own life, how this curiosity led to other opportunities for you, based on you just taking the time to being intentional about asking great questions.

Shachella James:

We are in the midst of transformation, I would say we in terms of the current space that I'm in, but as people too, we're in a power transformation. For me, it's as simple as experiencing the day in the life of, and you can fill in the blank. Right now is work order management for our field crews. Over time, it's been the customer experience in multi channels. Like what is the optimal experience on whatever device or with an agent or if you self serve?

Shachella James:

But being able to take those experiences has been transformational for my own career, because it has allowed me to demonstrate the ability to bridge the technology enablement with real business problems.

Shachella James:

So

Shachella James:

as a vice president, a more senior level leader, I then get to cascade that down to my people and helping them use technology in my example, and how we enable business activity. And that has really been the stair step for me, getting out there with the business, being acutely aware of what their challenges are, the problems that they're trying to solve, but using technology as a bridge to solving that has really helped me in my career. Then, just in terms of large project initiatives that we have right now in the utility industry, we're on the verge of the next generation of metering. You guys in Houston for sure, and in other parts of the country, have what's called advanced metering infrastructure, where it's time for the next generation of that technology. So how are we bridging the need to keep the lights on with the very human experience for comfort?

Shachella James:

That's really what you get with the light coming on and with the gas flowing, is that human need for comfort and then sustaining your livelihood. Being in positions where I ask those questions has led to my promotability.

Shachella James:

Got it. Ask Promotability.

Shachella James:

That's exactly asking the questions where I'm deep in a day in the life of, and again, you fill in the blank what works for you, and that's where I'm sitting right now, looking forward to the next level of transformation for our company and our industry, and for me it's more specifically about technology modernization in that metering space.

Ralph Owens:

Well said. Thank you for listening to the Leadership Sovereignty Podcast. If today's conversation helped you grow in your leadership, influence or your career, take a moment to visit leadershipsovereignty.com. There you'll find exclusive resources, free guides and ways to stay connected to our community of leaders who are building purpose and success. Don't forget to rate, review and share this episode with someone who's on the rise in their career.

Ralph Owens:

Until next time, lead boldly, lead with purpose, and continue to walk in sovereignty. Take care.