Since most of us have been working from home for nearly two months now, I thought it would be a good time to share my personal journey through this era. If you are like me, this hasn’t been a static experience, but has evolved little by little along the way. I’ll share my insights with the hope that some of this will be relevant for enriching your experience. Evacuation mode I left the office the afternoon of March 12th and…
I received a call from my big brother, Jonathan, this past week after he read my previous article about our fourth annual innovation event that we call Invent. He works in the technology field, so we often talk shop. We talked a little bit about some of the innovative projects we are working on. We also briefly discussed the process of how we manage innovation, but we spent the most time talking about why. I launched into a thorough explanation…
Undoubtedly for everyone, COVID-19 hit at an inconvenient time. We were all working on our strategies and plans, and suddenly everything changed. We adapted and refocused our efforts on core and critical activities. For many of us, “nice to have” programs got put on hold or cancelled outright. In this article, I’d like to share a brief story about an important program that we rescued from the ashes. Innovation must go on For the past four years, my team sponsored…
Many are using this time in quarantine to do some spring cleaning at home. Since we don’t have anywhere to go, we might as well do some of those chores we’ve all been putting off. Personally, I’ve been cleaning out my garage, but still have a long way to go. Many of us who are working from home are working harder and longer than ever. However, we are also working without commutes and without some of the typical distractions that…
Data-driven leadership is a concept we’ve all been talking about for a while now. The term has been popular in management jargon for at least a decade. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, it’s mostly self-explanatory, but I’ll expound briefly. Many leaders (myself included) have a tendency to lead from experience, training, expertise, instinct, and relationships. These sources often serve us well, further reinforcing their continued use. These sources also work pretty well in the absence…
Here we are, another week of trying our best to lead our teams from the confines of our laptop screens and webcams. By now, this is slowly becoming the new normal. Last week, I shared some of my core tips and techniques for leading effectively from quarantine. If by chance you missed it, I highly recommend reading it first, then coming back here. Leading effectively means tapping into human nature and relating to people on an emotional level. Leadership isn’t…
Leadership is, by definition, a people-centric activity. We know we are effective as leaders when people willingly follow our influence. Leadership in a condition of isolation seems like a self-contradiction, don’t you think? Well, most of us, who call ourselves leaders, now find ourselves in this self-contradictory position, thanks to COVID-19. So, how should we approach this challenge? I hesitated to write this article. There are ample articles already written on how best to manage a team remotely amid COVID-19….
I’ve been fighting computer viruses on behalf of the companies I serve for over 20 years. This is the first time I’ve had to deal with the impact of a biological virus. It’s interesting. There are some similarities, and some differences. While this experience has yet to fully unfold, I thought it would be timely to share my thoughts. When it comes to the coronavirus, we’re all in this together. The adversary With computer viruses, I know my adversary. There’s…
Some of you are well-aware that the Zach on Leadership blog that you know and love is also available as a podcast. If that’s news to you, feel free to check out the podcast here. Don’t worry, I’m not writing this entire article as one big advertisement for my podcast. Instead, I’m going to tell you the story on how it came to be. The history of podcasting Back in the mid 2000’s I had a first-generation iPod Nano. It…
I have the privilege of being a Lego robotics coach in the FIRST Lego League. There are over 40,000 teams in the First Lego League in 98 countries, and 640 teams in Minnesota alone. Our team is called the Plaidiators. We’re made up of five homeschoolers between the ages of 10 and 13. We just wrapped up our season recently, and I’d like to reflect on the leadership lessons I learned through this experience. This is all for the kids…