Zach on Leadership

Usually on this blog, I write about the human side of leadership. I write about the importance of caring for people on your team, serving them, casting a vision, and leading boldly into the future. That is the sort of thing that gets me up in the morning. I’ve never written about the “joy” of spending countless hours pouring over hundreds of lines in spreadsheets and financial management systems. I haven’t expressed to my readers the importance of understanding depreciation,…

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I used to directly hire a lot of technical talent. Now, that’s mostly done by my management team. When I did that, I asked a behavioral interview question that went something like this: “Tell me about a time when you were called upon to solve a high-pressure and complex technical issue where the solution was not immediately obvious.” The answers I got were usually pretty telling. Typically, this question elicits a bit of a pained smile, as if I just…

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I am the proud father of four children ranging in ages from 6 to 14. I’ve seen more than my fair share of animated movies and the soundtracks that accompany them. My youngest child, Elizabeth, is a big fan of the Frozen movies. There is a silly song in Frozen 2 that makes me think. Olaf is one of the most beloved characters in the Frozen series. He is a snowman that is alive thanks to Elsa’s magical powers. He…

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I brought donuts into the office on September 11, 2001. I brought them in, but no one ate them. I eventually tossed them in the garbage. There are many stories from that fateful day. My story isn’t particularly unusual, but it’s mine, and I remember it well. 19 year ago Back then, I was a young professional, less than three years into my career. I got married the year before and we had just purchased our first house a few…

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At work, I’m known for my love of advanced technology. I enjoy being on the cutting edge. I’m an early adopter of everything new. I volunteer to be among the first to try out the new tech, even when the bugs need to be worked out. I like to play with smart boards, mixed reality, tablet computers, mobile apps, and collaboration tech. I also push hard on our pursuit of cloud technology. Because of this reputation, people often make the…

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Have you ever been told that you need to “elevate your thinking?” What does this mean? Why is my current thinking not elevated? How does elevated thinking differ from what I’m currently doing? Is this just management-speak, or does it really matter? In this article, I will answer these questions from my perspective. When I write my articles, I picture my readers as somewhere in the middle of a complex hierarchical organization. You have people that report to you. You…

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I haven’t always been a technology leader. I used to be a systems engineer and I spent way more time in a data center than in a conference room. Approximately 15 years ago, I worked on a team that engineered and supported our enterprise application platforms. The job required some depth of knowledge, so we all specialize in different areas. One my specialties was the analytics systems. Analytics systems: back then Analytics systems back then are nothing like what they…

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The original Jurassic Park film was the summer blockbuster of 1993. I was 14 years old which put me at the top-end of age range to be captivated by this masterpiece. As an adult, I went many years without watching it, but since my third son, Josiah, first saw it (and other movies in the franchise), we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to watch it regularly, as it is one of his favorites. He fully plans to drive around in a Jurassic…

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Most of us focus all our time and attention doing our day job. What is your “day job?” It is on your job description. It is probably what you went to school for. It is on your goal sheet, and you talk about during your performance review. This is critically important, and it should take up most of your time, but not all of it. Other duties as assigned There is another category of work, which is the work your…

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I drive manual transmission cars. I always have. Everyone one of us inherits certain traits and ideas from our family of origin. We all learned about politics and faith from our parents. I also learned that drivers in the Hughes family prefer manual to automatic transmissions. My first car was manual. It made learning to drive harder, but I accepted the challenge. Nearly everyone else I knew started with an automatic. It didn’t matter that it only had a mere…

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