Zach on Leadership

Hackers are bad, scary, criminal, and worst of all, they wear hoodies, right? Hackers don’t belong in enterprise technology teams, right? Wrong! Personally, I’ve been fascinated by hackers my whole life, probably since I first saw WarGames. While I don’t consider myself a hacker, I’ve done some light hacking over the years. Shortly after I went to school and learned Windows networking, I visited a friend’s house and he showed me his new computer. I noticed he had high-speed internet (somewhat…

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Some technology leaders come from the business. Other technology leaders come-up through the ranks of technicians, engineers, and developers. For those of you in the second category, this article is all about how letting your “geek flag fly” can help you be a better leader. You may think that being a geek isn’t an advantage, and you need shed your geeky ways to fit in with the mainstream business leadership crowd. While aspects of that may be true, I’ll argue…

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My all-time favorite leadership film is Jerry Maguire. Many of you may find this a bit surprising and would think I would name Star Trek, Star Wars, The Matrix, or Aliens. All of those are near the top of my list, but there is something about the story of Jerry Maguire that I find so incredibly relatable, especially from a leadership perspective. Jerry Maguire is a sports agent, which he describes as a behind-the-scenes job. “You know those photos where…

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Leaving a good job is hard. It’s been one year since I left RCIS/Wells Fargo to join CHS. It was a very tough decision. It was a leap of faith from the good thing I had going to the potentially great thing I was going to. There were no guarantees, but I took the risk. In this article I will revisit the reasons I left RCIS, reflect on the last year at CHS, and look forward to the years to…

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This is a continuation of my blog series on advancement. As a technology leader, I am frequently asked how I advanced through the ranks and climbed the corporate ladder. Last week, I covered what it takes to go from Newbie to Tech Lead. In this article, I will discuss the next step to Manager. From Newbie to Tech Lead (last week) From Tech Lead to Manager (this week) From Manager to Director (next week) I left off last week 7…

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As a Technology Leader, I am frequently asked how I advanced through the ranks and climbed the corporate ladder. This is a great question, and something I eagerly share, as I am passionate about seeing talented professionals advance through their careers. There is a lot to discuss, so I will break this up into sections and cover it in three articles: From Newbie to Tech Lead From Tech Lead to Manager (next week) From Manager to Director (in two weeks)…

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Everyone wants to be a great leader, but who cares about being a great follower? Leaders are winners and followers are… dare I say, losers? Growing up in the 90’s, all the kids wore No Fear shirts. I remember one of them read “second place is the first loser.” I think that’s how we look at followership. If we can get past the “followers are losers” mentality, then we may be tempted to look at followership as a stepping stone…

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It’s fun to look back and remember that first tech job. The entry-level position with little pay and little respect, but a necessary rite of passage in every IT professional’s career. Mine came at an opportune time, January 1999. This was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity to cash in on the unlimited funding that was thrown at squashing the ubiquitous Y2K bug. So there I was, after three semesters of college and no experience, ready to start my first full-time tech gig….

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