Zach on Leadership

You’ve probably heard a leader around you recently tell you that they aren’t the smartest person in the room. It’s a very fashionable thing to say nowadays but what does it mean? It’s management-speak for conveying humility and empowerment. You are humble because you are admitting that you don’t have all of the answers. You are empowering because you are implying that as a leader you are able to find and listen to the smart ones on the team. These…

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You’ve probably heard of the term, “high-capacity leader.” Leadership capacity is an abstract concept. You may wonder if you are a high-capacity leader or a low-capacity leader. How can I determine how much capacity I have? If I am low-capacity, is there anything I can do about it? I’ll use this article to explore those questions, share my experiences, and draw some conclusions. Let’s start with a cup of coffee Coffee cups come in all shapes and sizes. The fancy…

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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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I’ve been recently reflecting on some formative experiences that made me who I am. One of those experiences developed through a phase of my career where I gave my primary attention to one particular technology platform: Citrix. As I’ve come to look back, it’s not the technology itself, but some surrounding elements that really contributed to my career development. Circa 2000, Citrix released a technology product called MetaFrame. It’s the great-grandfather of the current generation of the product, called Citrix…

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I noticed something about myself. I change my mind a lot. I’ve noticed something else. I change my mind faster than I used to. What does that mean about me? I’ve only recently become comfortable with this idea. I had to challenge my own self-concept of what good leadership is. I used to think consistency was king. In order to lead with conviction, I needed to stick with my positions and advocate for them vigorously to the end. Or did…

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I love the future, but sometimes, it is important to recognize the past. More than most, I pay attention to company history. I love our origin story and the twists and turns along the way. Understanding our past can help us make sense of our present and realize our future. CHS is a 90-year-old company. That history is filled with a lot of mergers. The most significant merger happened in 1998 when Cenex and Harvest States joined to form CHS….

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I’ve written previously on the importance of using the time off that your company gives you. It’s so easy to just let it accumulate and it takes real discipline to plan ahead and use it. If you do, you’ll find yourself sharper and more creative at work. If you haven’t read that article, read it now, then continue on. Using your time off is critical, but how? There are plenty of right answers to this question. I’ve experimented with several…

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I’ve been leading infrastructure teams at CHS for nearly four years now. A little over two years ago I got the opportunity to lead our development teams too. Since then, we’ve been our on DevOps journey to align teams and invest in technologies that help us operate more effectively. We’ve made a number of slight adjustments along the way and have piloted a few different ways of working so we can learn what works best. You can read about some…

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We all have those memorable moments that mark our careers. Some moments are so impactful that we know while we are experiencing them, that we will look back and remember them for decades to come. I just had one of those experiences. I was given the unique opportunity to participate in my company’s executive leadership development program, CHS Leading for Results. This program was very special in several ways. Academics The program was developed in partnership with and held on-campus…

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Corporations like to make people jump through hoops to make changes. It may seem like a pain, but often a little process and bureaucracy is the very thing that makes an organization organized. Without it, we’d never be able to operate at the scale we do. For a decent part of my career, I fought bureaucracy. Every board approval I needed reminded me that I wasn’t empowered. That bothered me a lot. I’d drive home many evenings blasting Rage Against…

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