Zach on Leadership

For 24 years now, I’ve worked full-time in the tech sector. My work draws me into the inner workings of digital technology. I love my work. I get absorbed in it. That’s good, but too much of a good thing isn’t good. Dirt and its derivatives Early in my career, roughly 20 years ago, I remember taking a customer service training class. Sometimes, IT folks are known for being rude, arrogant, impatient, and disengaged. This class covered the basics of... Read More Read More The post High-Tech Work Needs an Antidote: Wildness Is a Necessity appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

In the past month, I’ve been going through one of the most intense and difficult leadership challenges of my life. The context is a leadership role completely outside of my duties at CHS. I’ve had to make some unpopular but necessary decisions. Since it’s still very fresh, I’m going to be intentionally vague on the specifics out of respect for those involved. However, I can be very transparent with my experiences and the lessons that I’m learning. As always, I’m... Read More Read More The post Leading Through Intense Opposition appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Confession time: I’ve become known on this platform as one of those tech leaders that is hard on salespeople. Some of my most successful blog articles have poked fun at the peculiar and annoying things that salespeople do to try and earn our business. You can read them here, here, and here. I’ve been told that some sales managers use that blog series as a training manual when they assign new salespeople to my account. I’ve taken plenty of shots.... Read More Read More The post I ♥ Salespeople appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

About seven years ago, I started intentionally developing my online presence as a tech leadership figure. There are a whole lot of factors that motivated me to do that, but I’ll cover just a few. Back in 2014, I wrote my Master’s thesis on the opportunity to leverage social media as an organizational leadership tool. Also, as a tech-savvy introverted leader, I figured I could probably do better and make a bigger impact online than in real life. Back in... Read More Read More The post How My Digital Presence Creates an Advantage in Real Life appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I’m not the quickest to comment on the latest tech trends. I read. I pay attention. I experiment. I take it all in. I read the hot takes just like everyone else. Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic, to say the least. I’ve intentionally waited a while to give my opinions some time to settle into shape. Enough time has passed, and now I’m ready to share my insights. Of course, as always, this is more about the technology leadership... Read More Read More The post The AI Article appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

What does it look like to live out your faith at work? It’s a challenging question. I’ve thought about it plenty. I’ve talked about it one-on-one countless times. This is the first time I’ve written about it on my leadership blog. Today is Good Friday, one of the most significant Christian holidays. I figured, if I can’t write about my Christian faith on a day like today, then I never will. So, here it goes. Faith is personal. Jesus Christ... Read More Read More The post How to Walk in Faith at Work appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Imagine you need to speak to a crowd without a microphone. It’s difficult. You must project your voice. You may have to yell to be heard in the back. You may have a hard time even getting everyone’s attention. You may have to wave your arms in the air or give an ear-splitting whistle. Then, if you are lucky, a humble A/V technician wanders up to the front and mercifully hands you a mic. You would stop yelling, wouldn’t you?... Read More Read More The post A Leadership Title Is like a Microphone appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

How would you do your job differently if you had nothing to lose? Would you take more chances? Would you be bolder? You’d definitely feel freer. The question is, what would you do with that freedom? For me, this isn’t a hypothetical question. I was in that situation. It was a while ago, and I haven’t written about it much until now. This experience shaped me, and I’d like to share it with you today. The setup I was leading... Read More Read More The post I Won’t Back Down: Doing Your Job like There’s Nothing to Lose appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Ambiguity is bad. Clarity is good. But the world doesn’t always offer us clarity. We are often faced with ambiguity. The question is, how do we deal with it? I’ll answer that. Related to all of this is the relationship between leaders and followers. I’ve often heard people criticized as “not able to deal well with ambiguity.” Have you ever said that about someone? Has anyone ever said it about you? In my opinion, it’s hard to assess that without... Read More Read More The post How Leaders Can Help Their Teams Deal with Ambiguity appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Today is International Women’s Day. Today, I’m grateful for the women I get to work with every day in my high-tech field. I appreciate the fortitude it takes to thrive in a field made up of mostly men. I recently attended a Minnesota Technology Association event for Women Leading in Technology. I attended for three reasons: #1, I wanted to support the women on my team. #2, The networking and speaker genuinely interested me. #3 I knew I would be... Read More Read More The post Leadership Lessons from Women in Technology Sixty Years Ago appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I’ve gone out of my way on this blog to explain that I’m not a salesperson, but that’s only partially true. My primary job isn’t revenue-producing. Yet to be successful as a tech leader, I sell ideas and strategies all the time. Even more than that, I spend an awful lot of time selling my company as a great place to work, with my existing team, and with prospective employees. If you haven’t figured it out by now, this is... Read More Read More The post Put out the Vibe: Recruiting in 2023 appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

So, what’s the priority? If you are in a leadership role, there’s a good chance you get asked that question regularly. That question doesn’t bother me. I enjoy making priority calls. I don’t agonize over it at all. How do I do that? Well, that requires some explanation. I was just in a meeting earlier this week where this subject came up. I started to talk through my thought process and afterward decided to write it down for you all... Read More Read More The post How to Make Priority Calls appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

The film, Tommy Boy, starring Chris Farley and David Spade was released in 1995. I was in high school at the time. My friends and I watched it constantly. Nearly 30 years later, people quote it, sometimes not even knowing it. I overheard my 11-year-old the other day say, “Brothers don’t shake hands. Brothers gotta hug.” I’m quite certain that he’s never seen the movie. Now, there are plenty of leadership lessons from Tommy Boy, especially for the sales crowd.... Read More Read More The post Cloud Computing and the Glue-Sniffing Guarantee Fairy appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

We live in a cynical world. A cynical world. And we work in a business of tough competitors. – Jerry Maguire The world of the corporate enterprise can be a cynical place. Week after week, I preach leadership. I do it for all of you, but I also do it for myself. By writing, I remind myself of the truth. Why do you and I need these constant reminders? Our world is cynical, and frankly, sometimes so are we. Cynicism is... Read More Read More The post A Time for Optimism: Lead Without Cynicism in 2023 appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

In the informal conversation circles of tech leadership, there’s a current topic that’s been just too juicy to resist. I can’t tell you how many times over the past few weeks and months I’ve been asked, “So, what do you think about Elon and Twitter?” This whole situation is unfolding in real-time, so I don’t yet have the luxury of looking back and evaluating what worked and what didn’t. Therefore, my analysis is simply a set of current observations. Before... Read More Read More The post Lessons from Elon Musk’s Leadership of Twitter appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Many enterprise organizations are implementing a product model to enhance their overall agility, customer satisfaction, and team health. In the product model, we often talk about the empowerment of product teams. The members of a product team have the autonomy to design, build, test, and deploy their product. They have the responsibility to gather customer feedback and strategic insight, then use that to make their product better. Empowered, self-organizing product teams are great. Everyone, regardless of title, is leading to... Read More Read More The post The Role of Leadership in the Product Model appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Production. I love production. Production is where I want to be. That’s where the magic happens. That’s where value is generated. I am highly driven to get to production. I’m going to explain this concept in the context of digital technology but let me make a few non-technical analogies first. Vacation You decide to take a vacation in Costa Rica. You book your resort and air travel. You pack your bags. You drive to the airport, park, go through security,... Read More Read More The post Ship to Production as Soon as You Can appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Many of my coworkers saw me wearing an Iron Man helmet at work last week. Many of my followers on LinkedIn saw my Halloween post featuring the helmet. This article is the story behind it. Yes, there will be leadership lessons, as always. Three months ago, my 16-year-old son, Caleb, asked me if he could buy a 3D printer with his own money. I wasn’t surprised by his request. For years, he’s been following several science and engineering YouTubers such... Read More Read More The post Leadership Lessons from 3D Printing and Motorizing an Iron Man Helmet appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

People, all people, are deeply flawed. We are all so far from perfection, that it’s not even close. Yet corporations exist with the understanding that we can assemble a vast array of imperfect people to achieve a great outcome. That task is something we call leadership. The body of theoretical and practical knowledge here is vast. There are a few foundational concepts that I’ll use to frame the topic. Theory X. People are extrinsically motivated. Through the use of rewards... Read More Read More The post The Business of Leading Imperfect People appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I’ve seen many early career professionals talk about how to break into cybersecurity, break into data engineering, and break into FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google). To “break into” means to get a legitimate job in one of those arenas. The language implies gatekeeping. It also implies that someone seeking entry must case the joint and look for weaknesses in the defenses like a cat burglar. Reconnaissance I’ve been in management for about 15 years now. Back when I was... Read More Read More The post How to Break into Management appeared first on Zach on Leadership.