Zach on Leadership

Ownership. It means, “I’ve got this.” It’s the words, actions, and attitude. It’s the competence and the confidence. It’s not associated with any particular job title or level. When it’s there, we feel good. When it’s not, we’re lost. In the world of information technology, ownership can be elusive. Development blames operations. Operations blames development. The business blames IT. IT blames the vendor. The vendor blames the other vendor. People suffer. At the end of the day, all we want…

Read More Read More

True story: Generative AI recently hallucinated, claiming that I wrote an e-book entitled, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Technology Leaders.” That was totally made up. But I liked the idea, so I decided to defictionalize it. Or here’s a creepier explanation: GenAI knew the future… Never mind. Let’s not go there. Back in the day, when I started my career, Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” was hot. I remember taking a corporate classroom course on…

Read More Read More

I was just talking to a friend recently who didn’t get a leadership role he applied for. In this particular case, the fact that he went for it was very public among his peers. It was a long shot. There was an incumbent with a clear advantage. My friend was the underdog. He put all he had into it, but it didn’t work out. Not this time, anyway. This story stuck with me, not because it’s a unique story. I’m…

Read More Read More

I just got back from a two-week vacation with my family and another family that we are close friends with. There were 13 of us in all, exploring the beauty of Costa Rica. Early in the trip, I earned the nickname, “Nature Guide.” When we went on hikes in the jungle, I naturally looked at the map, figured out the path, and pointed out interesting flora and fauna along the way. No one asked me to do that. It just…

Read More Read More

In the 1999 film, The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo, “There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” As leaders, we do all sorts of things to develop better productivity for ourselves. We read books, listen to podcasts, and discuss best practices with each other. That’s all great. It’s a necessary first step in the process. It’s hard to improve if we are ignorant. But what if we find a gap between our newfound knowledge and our actual behavior?…

Read More Read More

Have you ever commuted to the office to attend a meeting, only to wish you hadn’t? Have you ever joined a meeting remotely, only to realize that you should have been there in person? If you answer yes to those questions, this article is for you. We are more than a year into full-blown multi-persona flexible work. I’ve written about the topic on many occasions already. The article will go deep and attempt to solve a very specific problem. But…

Read More Read More

I am a personality & leadership assessment junkie. I’ve written about MBTI and StrengthFinder on this blog. I’ve also taken DiSC, InColor Insight, Enneagram, and countless others. I take Greek philosophy’s maxim, “Know Thyself” very seriously. I also believe that there’s no such thing as a well-rounded person. Sometimes our performance management and education systems are designed to create well-rounded employees, but that’s a fool’s errand. People aren’t well-rounded. But teams can be. This has been a theme on this…

Read More Read More

I am here to help. I like being helpful. It makes me feel useful. I like doing for others what they cannot do for themselves. This may not seem like much of a leadership attribute, at least not in the traditional sense. You may think that leaders don’t give help, they get help. In many ways, that’s true. They hire people who help them achieve their desired tasks. However, when adhering to the principles of Servant Leadership, leaders take the…

Read More Read More

I caught myself saying something peculiar this week. I said, “I like busy managers.” At first, that may give you pause. It may seem a bit odd, and perhaps even a little cruel. After all, managers tend to be some of the hardest-working people at a company. They often show up before their team, leave after everyone is gone, and carry the burden of stress on top of it all. So, why would I take pleasure in the massive workload…

Read More Read More

I am from the email generation. I came of age and joined the workforce in the late 90s right around the time that email became the standard-issue, de facto communication standard. When I attended college, students were issued email addresses. When I got my first professional job, it came with an email address. Folks a few years older than me didn’t have that experience. I was right on the edge of it. Faxing and inter-office memos were on their way…

Read More Read More