Zach on Leadership

It’s Thanksgiving: a time to count our many blessings. Undoubtedly, we all have a lot to be thankful for; however, many of us struggle to muster that attitude as we confront loss, disappointment, and pain. Last weekend at church, I was reminded of a pertinent scripture: “Give thanks in all circumstances” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 That’s easy to say but hard to do. My company, CHS, just announced an annual earnings drop of 46%. This follows several years of continuous…

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When I take inventory of my career successes and failures, I often reflect back on formative experiences that significantly shaped who I am and where I am today. These are only things we can understand in retrospect. At the time, they only seem to be momentary or temporary. Only in the long-view can we understand the significance. I’ve looked back at various points in my career in previous blog articles. I chronicled my educational journey. I reminisced about my first…

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Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, was released to theaters in 1999 and pretty much bombed. I didn’t see it in the theater. However, when it was released to DVD it gathered a cult following. I’d consider it more of a generational following since I barely know any Generation X men who haven’t seen it. I know plenty of women who are fans too, but that’s hit or miss. It’s one of my favorite movies. I recently read the 1996…

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Succession is something leaders typically start to think about at the end of their careers. They think, when I retire, who am I going to pass this on to so my legacy survives and the vision is carried forward? While that is a very good thought, career-end is way too late. Effective leaders think about succession every day. At one point in my career, the next five levels of management above me were all in their 60s. Assuming they were…

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It’s been over four years since I got my first private office. Prior to getting it, I often thought about the perks of having an office. The prestige of it didn’t really motivate me, but more the convenience. I found myself needing to have private conversations all the time and struggled to find open conference rooms when I needed them. I’d often go outside if the weather was decent. If not, I’d go in my car. Sometimes I resorted to…

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Over the years of working in enterprise technology, I’ve learned that I need to wear many hats. One of those key responsibilities is firefighter. It’s a baseline expectation that comes with the territory. Even though high availability and disaster resiliency technologies have evolved our capabilities over the years, we still deal with things that go bump in the night. Over the years, I’ve responded to (and caused) complete Data Center failures and have lost entire environments of data only to…

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It’s been more than a decade since I’ve been an engineer, but I remember being frustrated that I could never get the attention of technology vendors. They always wanted to talk to “the decision maker.” I thought to myself, when I become a leader, it will be great because then I will get their attention. I, of course, had no clue what on earth I was asking for. I’m the decision maker. I’m the person with the budget. I buy…

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In today’s digital economy, if you don’t exist on social media, you don’t exist. Personal brand management is sometimes a tough concept to get your head around. Many of us work for corporations and do not run our own businesses. Personal brand management is a bit like “you, incorporated.” The irony is, most of us hate sales and marketing. That’s why we work in enterprise technology, you know, so we don’t have to do that annoying stuff. But alas, in today’s…

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In Western culture, we are used to a certain kind of leadership persona. We are used to loud, charismatic, bigger-than-life leaders. The idea of a quiet, humble, but strong leader is something we are still learning how to embrace. Something about that doesn’t seem quite like leadership to us, but that is starting to change, and that is good news for us. No longer do you need to be able to wow a crowd or be the life of the…

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I’m a techie. I like talking to computers more than people. I’m also a strong introvert and spent a good portion of my childhood fighting social anxiety. Fortunately, through a lot of focus and practice, I can perform well in social situations, although it still exhausts me. I know I’m not alone. Enterprise technology is filled with people just like me. We are intelligent but have a hard time communicating our ideas with others, and that makes us frustrated. Being…

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