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.

Choosing the path of leadership means embracing change. Leadership implies movement. If you are standing still, you aren’t leading. You cannot lead people where you haven’t gone yourself. While the act of leading implies a journey, becoming a leader is a journey in itself. That journey is something we call growth. We embrace a growth mindset. We listen. We learn. We improve our skills. We never stop working on ourselves to be the best leaders we can be. Why? Because... Read More Read More The post Grow But Don’t Ever Change appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I believe that great leaders are made, not born. Many experience the drive and calling of leadership, but it’s the skills that make us successful. Many leadership skills are self-evident. Leaders need to be good collaborators and connectors. They need to be good at listening and communicating. They need to be good at motivation and encouragement. They need to be good at vision, goal setting, and strategy. The list goes on. In the brief sample of skills, I just listed... Read More Read More The post Digital Leadership Skills for Modern Times appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Our world continues to become more and more complex. We accept it. We expect it. We deal with it. Yet complexity bogs us down. It makes us slow. It makes us cautious. It causes all sorts of unintended consequences and fragility. Simultaneously, we applaud the simple. We embrace it. We yearn for it. We absolutely will pay more for it. Our primitive limbic system is hard-wired to conserve energy, and simple is a better use of our finite resources of... Read More Read More The post Run into Complexity, Return with Simplicity appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

It is that time of year when students get back into their classrooms and teachers resume their positions of prominent influence over students. Given our collective focus on “back to school,” I thought this would be good timing to discuss a leadership approach inspired by teachers. Before I get into that, I’d like to share that teaching is a large part of my identity and upbringing. My grandmother was a teacher in public schools. My father was a teacher at... Read More Read More The post The Heart of a Teacher: An Underutilized Leadership Approach appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

A few years ago, I borrowed my father-in-law’s fishing boat. Before I left, he showed me how to operate it and deal with any particulars. One piece of his instruction grabbed my attention: “After a few hours on the water, you’ll notice that it will start to fill up with water. When that happens, just bring it up to speed, pull the drain plug, and it will all drain out. Then put the plug back in before you slow down.”... Read More Read More The post Leadership Lessons from the Drain Plug Maneuver on a Borrowed Fishing Boat appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

We’re going big on the cloud. All in. It’s exciting. It’s futuristic. However, it’s downright difficult. I talk with leaders at other large enterprise organizations, and everyone is grappling with the cloud. Some are grappling better than others. Our “why” is simple. We can be more efficient, secure, resilient, agile, and sustainable in the cloud. Our cloud technology platform is an enabler to just about every other strategic initiative at the company. The “how” is not simple. It’s taken a... Read More Read More The post We’re Going Big on Cloud Technology. Here’s the Strategy. appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

You may have started out your leadership journey as the go-to person for the team. That works for a while, but it’s not sustainable, nor does it scale. In my team, I’m the leader of last resort. That’s not because I’m reluctant to lead or don’t know how to lead, but I’ve found that the best results come from empowered leaders closest to the issues. Let me provide a few examples to illustrate. The Incident Manager of Last Resort When... Read More Read More The post The Leader of Last Resort: A Leadership Lesson in Delegation and Empowerment appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I had a great opportunity to speak on behalf of the CHS Foundation at the FFA State Officer Summit this week in Washington, DC. FFA stands for Future Farmers of America but has a broader mission to develop all kinds of future agriculture leaders, not just production farmers. The group I spoke with consisted of about 375 elected student leaders from each of the 50 states. It was an absolute privilege to speak with and meet these bright young agriculture... Read More Read More The post The Future is Bright: Raising up the Next Generation of Cooperative Leaders appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Hello, Zach on Leadership readers! I took a few weeks off to enjoy some family time and new adventures, but now I’m back at it. Many have heard the leadership axiom, “Take all the blame. Share all the credit.” It’s good advice. It speaks to the importance of accountability, recognition, and humility. These leadership attributes are very visible. If you have work to do in these areas, everyone around you likely knows it. I’ve written previously on blame and accountability.... Read More Read More The post What to Do When You’ve Been Left Hanging: Leadership Attitudes for Missed Recognition appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

In 2022, most office professionals fit into one of three categories: Some work primarily on-site in an office building. Some split their time between home and the office building. Lastly, some work full-time remotely from their home offices or wherever they happen to be. The majority of my teams fit into the last category. They are fully remote. They are quite happy and productive doing so. As their leader, I’m quite content to offer as much flexibility as possible. I’ve... Read More Read More The post When and How Should Remote Teams Meet in Person? appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Many of you have heard the term, Digital Native. It refers to the recent generations of people that have grown up in the digital era. They don’t know a world without the internet, social media, e-commerce, and other digital capabilities. For them, digital seems normal and the analog equivalents seem foreign. Technically, I’m too old to be a Digital Native. I’m a young Gen-Xer. I grew up in the era of VHS tapes and MTV. The internet as we know... Read More Read More The post Digital is Normal: My Professional Career as a Digital Native appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

Everyone in a leadership position has been spending a lot of time in the last year hearing about the “Great Resignation.” Perhaps it’s just me, but most of the context around it is either defensiveness or acceptance. Here’s what I mean: Defensiveness: “Watch out for the Great Resignation. It’s going to get you! Here are the 37 steps that you should take to prevent the Great Resignation from hollowing out your team!” Acceptance: “Suzy just resigned. Oh well, I guess... Read More Read More The post Turning the Great Resignation into an Advantage appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

We humans have become quite accustomed to our technologies working for us all the time. It doesn’t matter if a service is available 99.9% of the time or even 99.999% of the time. That .001% of downtime couldn’t come at a worse moment. I work in Information Technology. Our industry is famous for building technologies that people rely on 100% of the time but are only available a high percentage of that time. How high? It depends, but generally, not... Read More Read More The post Misery Loves Company: Empathy in Incident Management appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

In 2004, the film Miracle was released, starring Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks, and directed by Gavin O’Connor. The film told the story of the USA Hockey team that triumphed over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics. I love this movie. It’s packed with leadership lessons. However, in this article, I’m only going to focus on one of them. For those of you unfamiliar with the film or the events that inspired it, I’ll provide a little background. Herb... Read More Read More The post I Know How Hard to Push My Team appeared first on Zach on Leadership.

I think one of the most important things leaders can do is remind their team about their purpose. Where does purpose come from? Practically speaking, usually, the top leaders of an organization put their heads together and come up with a powerful statement. Then, they put some effort into communicating that purpose to their teams in a campaign. I’ve personally experienced and participated in many iterations of these in several organizations. The purpose of purpose Why do leaders put so... Read More Read More The post Purpose is Everything appeared first on Zach on Leadership.