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…
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…
This is the final post 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 Tech Lead to Manager. In this article, I will discuss the next step to Director. From Newbie to Tech Lead (two weeks ago) From Tech Lead to Manager (last week) From Manager to Director (this week) I left off last…
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…
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)…
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…
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….
Talking about leadership styles is something leaders do. I have this style, you have that style, etc. I like to talk about Servant Leadership, not so much as a personal preference, but as an aspiration. Servant Leadership is the most ideal way to lead, but it’s not very easy to pull-off. What is Servant Leadership? The concept of Servant Leadership is as old as Scripture. Jesus Christ turned the world upside down with a radically counter-cultural way to lead: “Jesus…
I’m an introverted technology geek, so by nature I enjoy talking to computers a whole lot more than talking to actual humans. However, as I started to emerge as a technology leader, I realized that in the marketplace of ideas, it’s not the best ideas that win, but the best communicated ideas that win. Generally, I feel that I am a pretty effective communicator, but there was one form of it that strikes fear into my heart: public speaking. About five years…
The Friday before Memorial Day, in 2002, I blew up the data center. It happened when I lit the PDUs for a new row of equipment that I had spent a week racking and cabling. A 110v power strip didn’t like the 220v I was giving it. The surge filled the room with a haze of smoke. The distinctive smell of fried capacitors and the sound of menacing alarms filled the room. In an instant, the entire enterprise was down….
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