Zach on Leadership

Since most of us have been working from home for nearly two months now, I thought it would be a good time to share my personal journey through this era. If you are like me, this hasn’t been a static experience, but has evolved little by little along the way. I’ll share my insights with the hope that some of this will be relevant for enriching your experience. Evacuation mode I left the office the afternoon of March 12th and... Read More Read More The post Working from Treehouse: The Evolution of My Work from Home Experience appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I received a call from my big brother, Jonathan, this past week after he read my previous article about our fourth annual innovation event that we call Invent. He works in the technology field, so we often talk shop. We talked a little bit about some of the innovative projects we are working on. We also briefly discussed the process of how we manage innovation, but we spent the most time talking about why. I launched into a thorough explanation... Read More Read More The post We Are Planting the Seeds of Innovation appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Undoubtedly for everyone, COVID-19 hit at an inconvenient time. We were all working on our strategies and plans, and suddenly everything changed. We adapted and refocused our efforts on core and critical activities. For many of us, “nice to have” programs got put on hold or cancelled outright. In this article, I’d like to share a brief story about an important program that we rescued from the ashes. Innovation must go on For the past four years, my team sponsored... Read More Read More The post Innovation from Quarantine: Challenging Times for Our Most Creative Work appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Many are using this time in quarantine to do some spring cleaning at home. Since we don’t have anywhere to go, we might as well do some of those chores we’ve all been putting off. Personally, I’ve been cleaning out my garage, but still have a long way to go. Many of us who are working from home are working harder and longer than ever. However, we are also working without commutes and without some of the typical distractions that... Read More Read More The post Your Inbox Needs Spring Cleaning. Now Is the Time. appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Data-driven leadership is a concept we’ve all been talking about for a while now. The term has been popular in management jargon for at least a decade. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, it’s mostly self-explanatory, but I’ll expound briefly. Many leaders (myself included) have a tendency to lead from experience, training, expertise, instinct, and relationships. These sources often serve us well, further reinforcing their continued use. These sources also work pretty well in the absence... Read More Read More The post Finally Learning to Lead with Data appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Here we are, another week of trying our best to lead our teams from the confines of our laptop screens and webcams. By now, this is slowly becoming the new normal. Last week, I shared some of my core tips and techniques for leading effectively from quarantine. If by chance you missed it, I highly recommend reading it first, then coming back here. Leading effectively means tapping into human nature and relating to people on an emotional level. Leadership isn’t... Read More Read More The post Make It So: How to Bring Humor to Your Virtual Workplace appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Leadership is, by definition, a people-centric activity. We know we are effective as leaders when people willingly follow our influence. Leadership in a condition of isolation seems like a self-contradiction, don’t you think? Well, most of us, who call ourselves leaders, now find ourselves in this self-contradictory position, thanks to COVID-19. So, how should we approach this challenge? I hesitated to write this article. There are ample articles already written on how best to manage a team remotely amid COVID-19.... Read More Read More The post Leading from Quarantine: Embrace the Opportunity appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I’ve been fighting computer viruses on behalf of the companies I serve for over 20 years. This is the first time I’ve had to deal with the impact of a biological virus. It’s interesting. There are some similarities, and some differences. While this experience has yet to fully unfold, I thought it would be timely to share my thoughts. When it comes to the coronavirus, we’re all in this together. The adversary With computer viruses, I know my adversary. There’s... Read More Read More The post From Computer Virus to the Coronavirus: The New IT Battle appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Some of you are well-aware that the Zach on Leadership blog that you know and love is also available as a podcast. If that’s news to you, feel free to check out the podcast here. Don’t worry, I’m not writing this entire article as one big advertisement for my podcast. Instead, I’m going to tell you the story on how it came to be. The history of podcasting Back in the mid 2000’s I had a first-generation iPod Nano. It... Read More Read More The post The Podcast Story: Making Leadership Lessons Accessible to All appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I have the privilege of being a Lego robotics coach in the FIRST Lego League. There are over 40,000 teams in the First Lego League in 98 countries, and 640 teams in Minnesota alone. Our team is called the Plaidiators. We’re made up of five homeschoolers between the ages of 10 and 13. We just wrapped up our season recently, and I’d like to reflect on the leadership lessons I learned through this experience. This is all for the kids... Read More Read More The post Innovation and Mentoring: Leadership Lessons from Lego Robotics (Part 3 of 3) appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I have the privilege of being a Lego robotics coach in the FIRST Lego League. There are over 40,000 teams in the First Lego League in 98 countries, and 640 teams in Minnesota alone. Our team is called the Plaidiators. We’re made up of five homeschoolers between the ages of 10 and 13. We just wrapped up our season last weekend, and I’d like to reflect on the leadership lessons I learned through this experience. This is all for the... Read More Read More The post Integrity and Automation: Leadership Lessons from Lego Robotics (Part 2 of 3) appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

In my role at work, there are many things that I’m asked to approve. Usually, I don’t think about that as being a core part of my job. I usually like to spend time on collaboration, strategy, building culture, and other fluid aspects. However, there is a large chunk of what I do that is simply binary: do I approve, or do I deny? I recently stopped and took inventory of all the things I need to approve. Here are... Read More Read More The post To Approve or Deny, That Is the Question appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I recently took a Change Leadership course along with my fellow CHS leaders. As a company, we’ve been investing in this leadership capability because it’s a fundamental skill for us to successfully navigate the future. Intuitively, most of us accept that the world is changing, the pace of change is accelerating, and as leaders, we hold a central role in enabling that change. It’s one thing to hold this intellectual assent. It’s quite another to learn and practice the skill... Read More Read More The post Leading Change: Don’t Just Focus on the Solution appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

“Speed. I am speed.” – Lightning McQueen I love speed. I like adrenaline-inducing sports of all kinds, but I especially love driving fast cars. I own a moderately fast car and find that a nice boost of acceleration and tight handling makes an ordinary commute, extraordinary. My wife, Wendy, knows this about me, and has on few occasions, given me the opportunity to drive an exotic car for my birthday. A few years ago, I drove a Lamborghini Gallardo on... Read More Read More The post How to Drive Your Team like a Rented Lamborghini appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I pick up hitchhikers. Not all of them, but several over the years. Many tell me that I probably shouldn’t. They may be right, but I have yet to give someone a ride that I wish I hadn’t. This blog article is going to be more personal than professional. However, I have a very relevant leadership lesson to share that I’m certain you can apply to your work. Before I get into that, I’m going to tell you a few... Read More Read More The post Leadership Lessons from Picking up Hitchhikers appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Every leader, by definition, is an agent of change. If you are just maintaining or running your group, you are a manager. Leadership implies change. Changing people isn’t easy, especially if you want to do it without coercion or authoritative power. How do you go about initiating change? In this article we will learn about change leadership from Obi-Wan Kenobi and see observe how he influenced Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, A New Hope. Please take a few minutes and... Read More Read More The post Lead Change Like Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

As a developing leader, I’ve taken many personality and leadership assessments over the years. These assessments are common tools for guiding development efforts, helping team members understand each other, and rounding out the diversity in a group. In the halls of corporate IT at various organizations, I’ve often encountered many who would rather take a pass at this introspective analysis and get back to work, but this sort of thing has always intrigued me. I love psychology and philosophy, and... Read More Read More The post What It’s like to Lead as an INFJ appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Last week, I earned my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification. AWS has a full array of certifications for various levels of expertise and specialties. This is the entry-level one. Many of you know that I am technology leader with overall responsibilities for cloud technologies at our company, but I am far removed from the hands-on work. It’s safe to say that I am not, nor do I plan to be, an actual cloud practitioner. So, why did I bother with... Read More Read More The post Why This Technology Leader Pursued His Cloud Certification appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I started my career nearly 21 years ago. The first year of my career was dedicated to preparing companies to cross the threshold from 1999 to the year 2000 without any glitches. Now that we are approaching the 20th anniversary of that event, I’d like to pause and reflect on what it was like. Demand 1999 was a great year to get into the technology field. Every company on the planet took inventory of their systems and realized that they... Read More Read More The post Remembering the Millennium Bug: 20 Years Since Y2K appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I had a fantastic opportunity this week to participate in the Lean Executive Leadership Institute through the University of Kentucky College of Engineering. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Lean is an organizational philosophy born out of the Toyota Production System, which was first developed by Taiichi Ohno in the 1950’s. Toyota has earned a reputation for operational excellence and has been transparent about their secret to success for generations. Why Kentucky? Firstly, it’s a whole lot closer than... Read More Read More The post Leadership Lessons from Lean appeared first on Zach on Leadership.