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Mona Bates’s team-building method starts with a simple premise: technology organizations perform better when people understand the business problem, see a future for their careers, and are trusted to contribute their expertise. Her Collins Aerospace playbook combined business-led prioritization, permanent investment in talent, separate technical and management career paths, embedded inclusion, deliberate listening, and visible attention to learning and wellbeing.
The original interview, published August 8, 2024, described Bates as Collins Aerospace’s vice president of digital technology and CIO. On February 23, 2026, she became senior vice president and chief information and digital officer at BAE Systems, Inc. The Collins examples remain useful evidence of her approach; public information does not yet establish which programs have been implemented or what results they have produced at BAE Systems.
Read the original CIO interview and BAE Systems’ appointment announcement.
1. Lead as a business executive before acting as a technology specialist
Bates argues that CIOs should connect every significant technology proposal to an important business problem. Technology is not funded merely because it is new or technically elegant. The leader must explain which operational, financial, customer, employee, risk, or strategic outcome the investment is intended to improve.
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That discipline also means saying “not yet.” A compelling idea may still be deferred when another investment has greater value or urgency. Bates describes repeated presentations—and learning from rejection—as part of becoming better at communicating value. Persistence matters, but so does acknowledging legitimate trade-offs.
For the team, this changes the daily question from “What system are we implementing?” to “What outcome are we improving?” Employees can then act as partners to operations, finance, engineering, and business-unit leaders rather than as a back-office service group. Leaders should make the connection explicit in annual priorities, portfolio reviews, project charters, and individual goals.
2. Make talent a permanent strategic objective
At Collins, Bates described attraction, retention, and development as goals that stay on the agenda year after year while the roadmap evolves. That is different from commissioning a one-time training course to close an immediate skills gap.
A capability system asks which skills the organization will need next, which can be built internally, and how people can practice them while delivering current work. It also gives employees more than one way to grow: stretch assignments, mentoring, internal mobility, technical specialization, and people leadership.
For an IT leader, the operating questions are practical:
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- Which emerging capabilities are strategically important?
- Where can internal development reduce dependence on scarce external hiring?
- How will learning time be protected during delivery peaks?
- What roles will be available after a development program ends?
- How will experienced contributors receive growth opportunities without entering management?
Development becomes infrastructure for the future organization, not an optional employee perk.
3. Use project-based programs to grow technical leaders
Tech Tracks: a concrete model
Bates said Collins launched a digital Tech Tracks program modeled on an established engineering initiative. Approximately 12 high-performing employees, nominated as future technical leaders, received protected time during the workday to build skills. They worked on projects outside their normal responsibilities, shadowed other technical leaders, and learned through on-the-job knowledge transfer.
| Program element | Why it matters | Implementation risk |
|---|---|---|
| Selective cohort of about 12 | Creates focus, peer learning, and visibility for emerging technical leaders. | Others may perceive favoritism unless selection principles and alternatives are clear. |
| Protected workday time | Makes development part of the job rather than unpaid extra work. | Delivery capacity falls temporarily unless coverage is planned. |
| Projects outside normal duties | Builds cross-functional judgment and exposes participants to unfamiliar stakeholders. | Projects can become symbolic if they lack ownership and useful outcomes. |
| Shadowing and knowledge transfer | Converts tacit expertise into teachable practice and expands networks. | Requires committed mentors and time for reflection. |
A cohort of 12 cannot serve a 2,200-plus-person organization by itself. A scalable design pairs selective cohorts with open learning resources, mentoring, internal mobility, and rotating opportunities for dependable mid-career contributors. Participants also need post-program assignments; otherwise the organization signals that development is ceremonial.
4. Build parallel technical and people-leadership paths
Bates distinguishes future technical leaders from future people leaders. That distinction prevents a common failure: promoting the best engineer or architect into management simply because management is the only visible route to status and compensation.
Technical fellows, principal engineers, architects, and other expert tracks let specialists expand influence without abandoning their craft. Management tracks should provide different preparation—coaching, staffing, performance management, conflict resolution, and succession planning.
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Collins had one Fellow when Bates arrived, and she said four additional Fellows were later graduated through closer partnership between digital technology and engineering. The public account does not specify eligibility, duration, compensation, or outcomes, so those details should be designed locally rather than assumed.
Parallel paths work only when they offer comparable recognition, pay opportunity, executive access, and advancement. Role clarity matters: an architect, product leader, engineering manager, and people manager may all lead, but their accountabilities are not interchangeable.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems5. Put inclusion inside the talent engine
Bates described a Collins DE&I council with four committees focused on attracting talent, developing employees, retaining employees, and supporting women in digital. Structurally, that places inclusion inside the same system that governs workforce capability rather than in a detached communications or compliance effort.
The distinction is important:
- Representation: who is hired and promoted.
- Inclusion: who receives meaningful assignments, visibility, and voice.
- Retention: who remains and advances.
- Belonging: whether employees feel connected to the mission and team.
- Accountability: whether leaders review data and act on gaps.
Bates also mentioned organic events intended to keep employees connected. Such events can support relationships across a distributed workforce, but a council is not proof of improved diversity or retention. The available account supplies no demographic, promotion-gap, retention, or audited outcome data. Line managers still own inclusive hiring, work allocation, performance reviews, compensation, and promotion decisions.
6. Become the “chief interested officer”
Bates describes intentional listening: asking questions before dominating a meeting, recognizing that specialists may know more than the CIO in their domains, and combining distributed expertise into an organizational result. She gave the example of planning time in an AI lab in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to learn directly from the team.
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Curiosity is useful when it is scheduled and consequential, not merely personable. A CIO can:
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →- Hold recurring “teach me” sessions in which teams explain both the technology and its business consequence.
- Visit operational sites, labs, and support centers as a learner.
- Ask questions before offering recommendations.
- Credit subject-matter experts publicly.
- Document themes, make decisions, and explain what changed after listening.
Closing the loop distinguishes genuine listening from performative listening.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.7. Sustain the leader and the organization
Bates treats continuous learning and mental wellness as leadership responsibilities. She uses executive meetings to learn about the business, listens to CIO podcasts, and uses book summaries to screen material before committing to a full book. She also runs and makes room for short exercise sessions during busy periods.
At Collins, she described the Accumulator, a twice-yearly wellness event in which employees set a mileage goal and track running, walking, elliptical, or similar activity. One cited event involved a 15,000-mile target and 300 participants. That is an example from the event, not evidence of a permanent statistic or a causal link to delivery performance.
Wellness activities can build connection and energy, but they cannot compensate for chronic understaffing, poor prioritization, constant incident response, or unsafe on-call practices. Pair them with workload reviews, manager training, psychological safety, and clear priority decisions.
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8. What changes with Bates’s BAE Systems role?
BAE Systems announced that Bates became senior vice president and chief information and digital officer effective February 23, 2026. She reports to President and CEO Tom Arseneault and leads the company’s technology and digital strategies and IT function, including alignment of technology investment with business priorities, user-experience improvement, and delivery excellence. The announcement also cites more than 20 years of IT and business experience, including 15 years with RTX companies.
Her Collins-era playbook suggests how she may approach the broader defense-company mandate, but the appointment alone does not show that Tech Tracks, the Fellows model, or the Collins DE&I structure has been replicated at BAE Systems.
9. A practical implementation sequence for CIOs
- Define business outcomes. For each major technology priority, state the business problem, expected value, risks, and what will be deferred.
- Set annual talent priorities. Identify critical future skills, internal-build opportunities, and succession gaps.
- Launch a small technical-leadership cohort. Publish selection principles, reserve workday capacity, and assign real cross-functional projects.
- Add shadowing and knowledge transfer. Give participants access to experienced technical leaders and require documented lessons.
- Create dual career ladders. Establish expert and management paths with comparable status, compensation opportunity, and sponsorship.
- Connect DE&I to operating decisions. Review attraction, development, retention, promotion, and belonging—not only representation.
- Schedule executive learning. Make “teach me” sessions, site visits, and follow-up actions recurring responsibilities.
- Measure capability, not activity. Track participation, internal mobility, skill attainment, retention, succession coverage, delivery quality, and relevant business outcomes.
- Refresh the roadmap. Review evidence annually and change programs that are not producing capability or access.
10. What the public evidence does—and does not—establish
The CIO interview documents Bates’s philosophy and the structures she described at Collins: a 2,200-plus-person IT organization with a workforce described as 60% domestic and 40% international, Tech Tracks, Fellows development, a four-committee DE&I council, listening practices, and the Accumulator. It does not provide program-level retention figures, engagement scores, promotion data, delivery metrics, or independently verified causal results.
Accordingly, the strongest conclusion is about design. Bates’s method links business purpose, capability creation, leadership depth, inclusion, knowledge transfer, and leader behavior. Whether each initiative produced a particular outcome requires additional evidence.
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