Every leader, by definition, is an agent of change. If you are just maintaining or running your group, you are a manager. Leadership implies change. Changing people isn’t easy, especially if you want to do it without coercion or authoritative power. How do you go about initiating change? In this article we will learn about change leadership from Obi-Wan Kenobi and see observe how he influenced Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, A New Hope. Please take a few minutes and…

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I’ve been writing this blog for over three years now and have produced 150 articles. A few of you have been with me this whole time, but most of you have jumped on the Zach on Leadership bandwagon somewhere along the line. Blogs are by nature, point-in-time articles. Few get read beyond the initial publication. I’ve written many that you have missed. While they are all nicely cataloged on my website, very few take the time to read through the…

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In the Star Wars universe, Jedi can use the Force to influence the weak-minded to comply with their will. The Jedi have a lot of cool Force powers, but this one tops the list as the coolest and most useful. It even has a name: the Jedi Mind Trick. The most well-known use of this power is in Star Wars: A New Hope when Obi-Wan Kenobi uses the Jedi Mind Trick on some imperial troopers at a checkpoint. If it’s…

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Happy Star Wars Day. May the 4th be with you! Boba Fett is one of the coolest characters in Star Wars. He’s mysterious. He’s independent. He has his own unique style. Best of all, he’s a bounty hunter. That profession may give you the impression that Boba Fett is a not very nice, but to the contrary, he is actually a very caring individual. Case-in-point, Darth Vader wanted to test his carbonite freezer to make sure it was safe for…

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In 1987, Mel Brooks released Spaceballs as a parody of Star Wars and other science fiction of that era. As much as I consider myself a Star Wars geek, I’ve probably watched Spaceballs more than the movies it parodies. It’s so quotable, and somehow, it never gets old. I was recently considering a common IT problem and for some reason, Spaceballs scenes kept coming to mind. IT is all about speed. More CPU, more bandwidth, faster project execution, tightened SLAs, on-demand provisioning,…

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Coaching means a lot of things to a lot of people. Of course, there are sports coaches. In my personal life, I’m a Lego robotics coach. There are also business coaches and life coaches. I’m not a professional coach, at least not as my primary job function. I’m a technology leader. However, to do that effectively, I often need to play the role of a coach. I’ll get into what that looks like shortly, but first, I’d like to take…

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I love the Back to the Future trilogy. It’s hard to admit this, but growing up, this trilogy was probably even more influential than Star Wars. Marty McFly was the guy that everyone wanted to be. He skateboarded, played in a rock band that I’m afraid was just too darn loud, and had time travel at his disposal. He basically had it all. Marty McFly was late for everything. As you think back through the series, just about every scene…

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Boba Fett is one of the coolest characters in Star Wars. He’s mysterious. He’s independent. He has his own unique style. Best of all, he’s a bounty hunter. That profession may give you the impression that Boba Fett is a not very nice, but to the contrary, he is actually a very caring individual. Case-in-point, Darth Vader wanted to test his carbonite freezer to make sure it was safe for people before using it on Luke. When Vader volunteered Han…

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Every leader is at the core an agent of change. If you are just maintaining or running your group, you are a manager. Leadership implies change. Changing people isn’t easy, especially if you want to do it without coercion or authoritative power. How do you go about initiating change? Well, let’s look at how Obi-Wan Kenobi did it in Star Wars, A New Hope. Some background information Luke is a rural farm boy, who is being raised by his Uncle Owen….

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Carrie Fisher’s iconic Star Wars role as Princess Leia has made such a tremendous impact on so many. I think the core reason is that she defied and redefined what it means to be a Princess. While many identify her as an icon for empowering women as leaders, these lessons are for every aspiring leader, male and female. Transcend Your Entitlement Leia was born a Princess, but I don’t think she thought of herself that way. When she introduces herself…

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