This week, I had the opportunity to speak to over 50 interns that just completed their summer internships at CHS. I thought long and hard about what relevant message I could bring to this group and landed on the subject of early-career leadership. Over the years, I’ve become known for my leadership lessons. When I speak with students and early career professionals, they often tell me that they aspire to be a leader, but they are unsure of the steps…
“I’m sorry I’m such a problem child,” my direct report says to me. In reply, I say, “It’s okay. I have many problem children.” What exactly is a “problem child?” In actual parenting, it would be the kid that gives his or her parents more than their fair share of trouble. In business, it’s an employee that brings up a lot of problematic issues to his or her boss. The idea is that an ideal employee would have no problems…
Over my career, I’ve watched information security grow from a part-time job within IT into a fully-fledged department with a complex set of accountabilities and disciplines. I’ve never been the primary information security leader at my company, but I’ve always been a close partner. You probably hear from your information security team from time to time. Depending on your role, you may hear about policies, security awareness, audits, assessments, compliance, risks, and threats. However, you probably don’t hear a lot…
These days, the War for Talent is real and it is as intense as it’s ever been. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a simple google search will render over 300 million results. In short, leaders are nothing without their teams. The effort that leaders put toward recruiting, hiring, retaining, and developing talented team members is on a war-like scale. I’m not going to write an article about how to win the War for Talent. Many others already have….
For many years on this blog, I’ve advocated for people taking time off from work. It’s critical to maintain a healthy life and optimal creativity and innovation. You can’t do your best work when you are worn out. If you aren’t familiar with my previous writings on this topic, you should check them out here, here, and here. Even though I do my best to teach on this subject and lead by example, I’ve recently discovered that my efforts are…
I was working with one of my teams recently on an exciting and important strategic initiative. Everything was coming together nicely. They had a solid approach, good stakeholder engagement, and a reasonable plan. There was just one thing missing. Apart from the direct team and the direct stakeholder group, almost no one knew anything about it. That’s when I said, “It’s time to come out of stealth mode!” What is stealth mode? This is a legitimate business tactic employed by…
Today is the fifth anniversary of the launch of Zach on Leadership. Why launch a new blog on the Friday before Memorial Day? Is anyone even paying attention then? There was a reason for this decision. In my leadership journey, this is an important date. 19 years ago, something happened to me that shaped my view of leadership forever. I made the biggest operational mistake of my career. I singled-handedly blew up my company’s data center. How I was treated…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working with one of my teams and an outside party to bring forward a proposal for approval. At one point in the process, there was some difference of opinion between the internal team and the external group. In that moment, I heard these words come out of my mouth: “alignment is more important than accuracy.” I was simply trying to be helpful, not profound, but after reflecting on the statement, I think there…
Back in high school, my days were broken up into several class periods. At the end of a period, the bell rang, signaling the time to transition to the next class. If I remember correctly, I had about 7 or 8 minutes to travel to my next class, use the restroom, swap books at my locker, and say “hi” to my band-geek friends. When the bell rang a second time, I was expected to be sitting at my desk at…
I often talk with leaders that are new in their roles. They aren’t new leaders, but for some reason or another, they are in a new role, due to a reorganization, promotion, or job change. When I ask how it’s going, I usually hear answers like “busy” or “good.” Occasionally, I get a very brave answer: “I’m overwhelmed.” I appreciate this answer because it’s completely normal to feel this way in a new leadership role, yet few are vulnerable enough…