Zach on Leadership

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 last weekend, and I’d like to reflect on the leadership lessons I learned through this experience. This is all for the…

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In my role at work, there are many things that I’m asked to approve. Usually, I don’t think about that as being a core part of my job. I usually like to spend time on collaboration, strategy, building culture, and other fluid aspects. However, there is a large chunk of what I do that is simply binary: do I approve, or do I deny? I recently stopped and took inventory of all the things I need to approve. Here are…

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I recently took a Change Leadership course along with my fellow CHS leaders. As a company, we’ve been investing in this leadership capability because it’s a fundamental skill for us to successfully navigate the future. Intuitively, most of us accept that the world is changing, the pace of change is accelerating, and as leaders, we hold a central role in enabling that change. It’s one thing to hold this intellectual assent. It’s quite another to learn and practice the skill…

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“Speed. I am speed.” – Lightning McQueen I love speed. I like adrenaline-inducing sports of all kinds, but I especially love driving fast cars. I own a moderately fast car and find that a nice boost of acceleration and tight handling makes an ordinary commute, extraordinary. My wife, Wendy, knows this about me, and has on few occasions, given me the opportunity to drive an exotic car for my birthday. A few years ago, I drove a Lamborghini Gallardo on…

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I pick up hitchhikers. Not all of them, but several over the years. Many tell me that I probably shouldn’t. They may be right, but I have yet to give someone a ride that I wish I hadn’t. This blog article is going to be more personal than professional. However, I have a very relevant leadership lesson to share that I’m certain you can apply to your work. Before I get into that, I’m going to tell you a few…

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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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As a developing leader, I’ve taken many personality and leadership assessments over the years. These assessments are common tools for guiding development efforts, helping team members understand each other, and rounding out the diversity in a group. In the halls of corporate IT at various organizations, I’ve often encountered many who would rather take a pass at this introspective analysis and get back to work, but this sort of thing has always intrigued me. I love psychology and philosophy, and…

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Last week, I earned my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification. AWS has a full array of certifications for various levels of expertise and specialties. This is the entry-level one. Many of you know that I am technology leader with overall responsibilities for cloud technologies at our company, but I am far removed from the hands-on work. It’s safe to say that I am not, nor do I plan to be, an actual cloud practitioner. So, why did I bother with…

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I started my career nearly 21 years ago. The first year of my career was dedicated to preparing companies to cross the threshold from 1999 to the year 2000 without any glitches. Now that we are approaching the 20th anniversary of that event, I’d like to pause and reflect on what it was like. Demand 1999 was a great year to get into the technology field. Every company on the planet took inventory of their systems and realized that they…

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I had a fantastic opportunity this week to participate in the Lean Executive Leadership Institute through the University of Kentucky College of Engineering. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Lean is an organizational philosophy born out of the Toyota Production System, which was first developed by Taiichi Ohno in the 1950’s. Toyota has earned a reputation for operational excellence and has been transparent about their secret to success for generations. Why Kentucky? Firstly, it’s a whole lot closer than…

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