Zach on Leadership

Because I said so I remember as I child, I hated those words. It was the ultimate exercise of authority. No explanation, no “start with why,” just pure authority. These words are designed to end discussion and leave the subject with two choices: comply or rebel. I often write about leadership outside of the context of hierarchy. I believe formal authority structures have little to do with modern leadership. Despite that belief, all of us operate in a formal hierarchy, and it…

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I’m writing this article to show my readers that leadership isn’t just my day job, it’s also my lifestyle outside of the office. In fact, the leadership I do outside of the office makes me a better leader in the office. For eight years in a row, I’ve taken my boys camping in the wilderness for a weekend. While it’s always good to have father-son time, our trips have a few specific purposes: We get out of our comfort zone….

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Congratulations, you clicked on this article. You must really want to know if there’s some deep leadership wisdom you can gain from an obscure dragon drawing. Well, if you’ve gone to the trouble to click, then I better deliver. Here it goes. Before I get too deep, I better explain Trogdor. I’m guessing you probably already get the reference, since you clicked on the article, but just in case you have no idea who Trogdor is, and you just click…

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It started as an idea. Then it picked up momentum. Finally, it happened. Just yesterday, CHS held its first-ever internal technology conference. We called it CHS TechKnowledge 2018 and it was awesome. While the term, Digital Transformation, is over-used, it is a relevant impetus for this event. As an IT organization, we realized that simply being great technologists isn’t going to do it. As much as we need to continuously improve as a department, that still won’t cut it. For…

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Corporate IT is a tough place to work. The hours are notoriously long. The blame is thick and the gratitude is seldom. Business people don’t talk to you when they are happy. They only come around when they are upset. And that’s just life within the four walls of your office building. Every once and a while, you get to go out and network, talk to a vendor, or attend a conference. Then you come to realize that your processes…

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I recently took a three-week break from work and this blog to tour the east coast with my family. Now that I’m back, I thought I’d start with an article inspired by one of the stops on our journey: Boston. Boston is known for many things, but at the top of the list is what happened on December 16, 1773: The Boston Tea Party. The Sons of Liberty protested taxation without representation by destroying an entire shipment of tea from…

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I love Star Trek, especially The Next Generation. This was the series that was televised during my childhood, and I was hooked. Captain Picard is such a model leader. Some of you may have wondered why I never wrote “Leadership Lessons from Jean-Luc Picard.” The reason I haven’t is because someone already did. It’s a great work, and I felt no need to duplicate or improve upon it. Check it out here. Across the various Star Trek series, the crew…

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I’ve made it to 100. I’ve been at this for two years now, writing weekly musings on technology leadership issues. On this milestone article, I believe it’s worth reflecting on why I am doing this and how it’s going. Why I like to write. My normal day-job requires a lot of in-person interaction, which I enjoy, but it taps my energy. Writing this blog forces me to draw inward periodically to focus my thinking and form ideas. It’s restorative for…

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I love the world of the X-Men. There are two groups of people on the planet: normal humans, and mutants. Mutants have superpowers. The fact that they have superpowers means they are treated like freaks and are therefore outcast from society. Most withdraw completely, or find creative ways to hide their differences and blend in. Technology geeks have some similarities. It’s usually quite obvious that they don’t quite fit in with the business crowd. They also have technical superpowers. Of…

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Happy Star Wars Day. May the 4th be with you! Boba Fett is one of the coolest characters in Star Wars. He’s mysterious. He’s independent. He has his own unique style. Best of all, he’s a bounty hunter. That profession may give you the impression that Boba Fett is a not very nice, but to the contrary, he is actually a very caring individual. Case-in-point, Darth Vader wanted to test his carbonite freezer to make sure it was safe for…

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