Zach on Leadership

A leader’s reputation is everything. Without a good reputation, no one will listen to you, no one will willingly follow you, no one will give you a stretch assignment, and no one will promote you. Understandably, leaders care a lot about their reputations.   Leaders can do things that completely destroy their reputations. Those make for interesting headlines, and they keep public relations teams very occupied. This article isn’t about that. I’m writing about the moderate issues that can be... Read More Read More The post How to Recover from a Damaged Reputation appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

You always remember your first real promotion. It’s a big moment. It’s bigger than just landing your first real job. To do that, you need a good resume and interview. To get promoted, you have to prove yourself. I remember mine. I started my career as a contractor working on the Y2K crisis. After doing that for about a year, I decided I wanted to be real employee at a real company. Some people love contracting, but it wasn’t for... Read More Read More The post Life After Help Desk: My First Big Promotion appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Last week, I had the opportunity to teach SQL (Structured Query Language) to 14 middle and high school students in our homeschool co-op. I use my company’s Volunteer Time Off program to make this possible. In a previous article, I shared how I helped one of my students repair his broken laptop with a soldering pencil. If you missed that article, check it out here. I am teaching a digital literacy course, which covers a wide variety of subjects. Just... Read More Read More The post Leadership Lessons from Teaching SQL appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Many of you can relate to this picture. I certainly can. I spent many hours of my childhood helping my dad fix the car, repair broken appliances, and assemble furniture. My job was to hold the flashlight, fetch a screwdriver, and otherwise assist in the effort. I use the word, “assist” in the most liberal sense possible. At the time I was oblivious, but now I know the truth. I distinctly remember finishing many projects that Dad and I worked... Read More Read More The post Leadership Lessons from Holding a Flashlight appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

The 2003 film, Elf, starring Will Ferrell and directed by Jon Favreau, is one of the most beloved Christmas films. My family makes a tradition of watching it every year. As with many of my favorite movies, I cannot help but notice the subtle leadership lessons sprinkled about like candy in spaghetti. Elf is packed with too many leadership lessons for just one Zach on Leadership article, so I’ve thoroughly covered it over the past three weeks. You may not... Read More Read More The post Leading from the Naughty List: Leadership Lessons from Elf, Part 3 of 3 appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

The 2003 film, Elf, starring Will Ferrell and directed by Jon Favreau, is one of the most beloved Christmas films. My family makes a tradition of watching it every year. As with many of my favorite movies, I cannot help but notice the subtle leadership lessons sprinkled about like candy in spaghetti. Elf is packed with too many leadership lessons for just one Zach on Leadership article, so I will thoroughly cover it over three weeks. Last week, we explored... Read More Read More The post Work is Your New Favorite: Leadership Lessons from Elf, Part 2 of 3 appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

The 2003 film, Elf, starring Will Ferrell and directed by Jon Favreau, is one of the most beloved Christmas films. My family makes a tradition of watching it every year. As with many of my favorite movies, I cannot help but notice the subtle leadership lessons sprinkled about like candy in spaghetti. Elf is packed with too many leadership lessons for just one Zach on Leadership article, so I will thoroughly cover it over the next three weeks. You may... Read More Read More The post Leadership Lessons from Elf, Part 1 of 3: What to Do When Your Team Member Feels like a Cotton-headed Ninny-muggins appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I received a phone call from a former team member this week. He called for tech support on his iPhone. After I addressed that matter, the conversation moved on to how things have been going in his retirement. In that conversation, I remarked, “Retirement is still a long way off for me.” He replied, “How old are you nowadays?” “43.” “Huh. If you are 43 now, how old were you when you hired me?” “30.” “Really? Well, you were a... Read More Read More The post A Leadership Style for the Young and Old and for Teams Big and Small appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

This week, I had the opportunity to represent CHS on a Product Transformation Community Panel hosted by Slalom. I was joined on the panel by Brett Brunick of Thrivent and Stacie Peterson of U.S. Bank. I’m not going to recap the discussion but will instead offer some reflections and thoughts I’ve had since the event. The whole premise of an event like this is that many tech leaders are facing similar challenges in Product Transformation, and we can listen to... Read More Read More The post Leaders See the Future, Doubt is Part of the Deal, and Change Resistance is like Gravity appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I wrote a short post earlier this week on LinkedIn. The post attracted more reactions than usual, so I thought I’d use this week’s blog article to expound upon it. But first, I’ll share the post in its entirety: Repaired a laptop with a soldering pencil today. Still got it. I teach a digital literacy course through our homeschool co-op. One of my students couldn’t do his homework because his laptop was broken. He came to me for help. The... Read More Read More The post Leadership Lessons from Soldering a Broken Laptop appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

In the 2006 film, The Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith portrayed Chris Gardner, a struggling single parent, who through sheer will improved his circumstances for himself and his son. Early in the film, he encountered a successful stockbroker. While inspired, Chris assumed that to be a stockbroker, he must need a college education, which he did not have. The stockbroker responded, “You don’t have to. You have to be good with numbers and good with people. That’s it.” That scene... Read More Read More The post You Have to Be Good with Technology and Good with People. That’s It. appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I read a fascinating article written by Nicolas Chaillan, who is a highly accomplished Chief Software Officer in the Department of Defense. After 22 years of service, he decided it was time to move on. You can read his farewell article here. I do not know Nicolas, but his story was shared by Elwin Loomis, Head of Digital at Bremer Bank, who summarized it in his post. There is so much about his story that resonated with me. He exposed... Read More Read More The post Why Do the Brightest Tech Leaders Leave Their Jobs? appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I didn’t grow up on a farm. I grew up in a city and now live in an even larger city. Yet, because I work at CHS, I work for farmers. They are both my customers and the company owners since we are a cooperative. I work hard at my job because I know that the farmers we serve, work incredibly hard. Since I am a city-dwelling technology leader, you may think I am the least qualified to write about... Read More Read More The post How to Work like a Farmer appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

All of my blog articles start out the same way. I open a brand-new Word document on my computer. The bright white page fills my screen. The brightness makes me squint. In the upper-left-hand corner, the cursor blinks persistently. The emptiness of the page is overwhelming. The cursor just keeps blinking. It blinks as if it were mocking me. I stare at my computer. The computer stares back at me. I imagine the computer looking back at me in desperation:... Read More Read More The post The Tyranny of the Blinking Cursor: Leadership Lessons from Writer’s Block appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I love automation. I love it for the efficiency it brings. I love it for the freedom it brings to humanity. I’ve observed over the years, that not everyone shares my passion for this subject, so I thought I’d write a brief defense of automation and offer a few cautions. I tried to think back to my first real encounter with the power of automation. It goes back to my childhood. Once upon a time, I was terrible at math.... Read More Read More The post Automation Is for Humans, Not the Other Way Around appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I used to work in a data center. My office was on-premises and the servers were on-premises. My physical proximity to the subject of my work and my co-workers was supremely important. Little by little, over time, this changed. Changes in technology allowed me to physically decouple from the data center. Remote console technologies allowed me to do the majority of my work from my desk. I rarely needed to physically go into the data center and stand in front... Read More Read More The post Working from Cloud: The Past Is Clear, the Present Is Complex, and the Future Is Uncertain appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I do one thing every day. That one thing makes all the difference. This article is about that one thing. By now, I’ve got you thinking, “I wonder what it is. Does he wake up at 5 AM? Does he run 5 miles? Does he take a cold shower? Does he meditate? Does he drink a gross green smoothie?” Good guesses. None of those things. It’s popular to talk about life hacks and habits that high-performing leaders do to enhance... Read More Read More The post One Thing Every Day Makes All the Difference appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I support medical freedom. I believe it is a basic human right for each person to determine their own medical choices. No government, employer, or educational institution should discriminate against anyone because of their choice. This past Saturday, I joined thousands at the Minnesota State Capitol who feel the same way. Why am I bringing this up? People are losing their jobs. Students are being denied an education. Many sit back, watch, and say nothing. I cannot. I can no... Read More Read More The post Medical Freedom is a Leadership Issue appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

What is your company’s culture? If you are honest with yourself, it’s probably a mixed bag. Some aspects are great. Those are probably the reasons that caused you to join the company in the first place and are the reasons why you stay. Some of the other cultural aspects aren’t so great. That’s normal. The question is, what can you do about it? Or even more importantly, what will you do about it? For most, the answer is nothing, but... Read More Read More The post Leaders Make the Culture appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Sometimes, engineers have ideas that can truly revolutionize everything, but management is too dumb to understand it. Once upon a time, I was that engineer. For a while now, I’ve been in management and at times, I am dangerously close to being too dumb for my engineers. I try hard not to let that happen. Early in my career, I worked as a systems engineer. Back then, everyone installed operating systems directly onto server hardware. Then in the early 2000s,... Read More Read More The post From Bleeding Edge to Dinosaur: A Tech Leader’s Pledge to Stay Relevant and Open appeared first on Zach on Leadership.