In a recent news story, Paul Walker, famously of the “Fast and Furious” movie series died in a car crash when he and a friend wrapped a Porsche GT3 around a tree. According to reports, they were going too fast for the condition of the car when they lost traction and spun off the roadway. The Porsche GT3 is a highly capable sports car, capable of speeds exceeding 180 mph. It is a descendant of the famous Porsche 911 which shares a rear engine, rear drive configuration with the lowly Volkswagen Beetle. Continue Reading
Posts Tagged with leadership
Decision Rights
Spinning. Wheels are spinning. We go around in circles. Progress is illusory. Just when we think we are “getting somewhere”, we realize we are right back where we started. Its frustrating. I bet you’ve been there. I bet you’ve experienced this feeling in many different ways.
I have heard it called many things: “Paralysis by analysis”, “Chasing our tail”, “Go fetch”, “The circular imperative” to name a few.
The symptom is that no matter how we try, we can’t convince “them” to sign up and move forward. The team won’t adopt the recommended pattern. The boss won’t sponsor the proposal. The customer won’t sign the contract.Continue Reading
Customer as Boss
Periodically I have observed people complain about their employees or co-workers, and occasionally I have complained myself. Sometimes people at work act as if they are either ignorant of who their customer is, or as if they don’t care about their customer, it sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.Continue Reading
One Neck to Ring
This post is an extension of What Did The Boss Say. In that post, we explored why executives and managers tend to want a single point of control or responsibility, as well as some of the things that must be delegated to that single point. But there are disadvantages to the single point strategy.Continue Reading
What Did The Boss Say?
Last year, two goofballs from Norway released a song they thought would be funny, called “What does the fox say?” that turned into a viral hit. The concept for the song is that we know all the sounds the animals make, but not the fox.
Today, I want to talk about things our bosses say. Especially when things are not going well.
How did this happen? Who is responsible? Questions of disappointment.Continue Reading
IT Staffing Strategy Considerations
What are the elements of a staffing strategy? What are the the things to consider when developing a staffing strategy? These are the questions I want to address in this post.
Division of work: What is that taxonomy into which you divide the work into that helps you decide how to staff?
Often IT organizations divide along lines of administration and delivery. Sometimes delivery is divided between support and development. For product organizations that don’t support installed customer platform, administration includes platform or infrastructure. For enterprise IT delivery includes platform or infrastructure. For product companies that also host their product on shared infrastructure, platform may be divided between administration and delivery.
Occasionally, IT organizations will have a sales or relationship function, separate from administration and delivery. Sometimes an R&D function will included, separate from administration and delivery. Sometimes both of these are included in the delivery organization.Continue Reading
IT Staffing Strategy Principles
Posting about staffing strategy. I think that staffing strategy applies at any level of the organization chart, and there are some basic principles that are universal and intuitive. I think that in Information Technology we sometimes lose sight of those basic principles, and skew our staffing strategy or worse, don’t understand or misapply the principles. Continue Reading
What are you leading?
Differences Between Classes of Leadership
What are the essential differences between the act of leading an initiative and the act of leading a staff, a team, or an organization.
Hypothesis: the differences center around the goal against which that leadership is expressed.Continue Reading
A Fast Start
Sometimes, you have to get something started. At work, at home, where ever. You are starting something, because there is nothing. If there was something, you would just use it, do it, enjoy it, etc. Sometimes you can start by picking up where others have left off. Other times, you can start by putting together pieces that are unassembled. Once in a while, you have to start completely from scratch.
Starting from scratch is overwhelming. It can be overwhelming because you don’t know where to start. It can be overwhelming because you don’t know how to finish. It can be overwhelming because of all the things you don’t know yet. Starting is overwhelming because of the Unknown Unknowns. Continue Reading
Two Way Trust
A good friend called me from Austin last year to talk about a work situation. He was contemplating separating from his employer because of what he described as his boss not letting him do the job he was hired to do. As we discussed the situation, it sounded to me like his boss (the founder of a startup) has reached a point where he is afraid of losing control of the enterprise. The longer we talked, it sounded like the boss did not trust his direct reports. It also sounded like he, himself wasn’t trustworthy – he had put his directs in a trick bag, and when they called him on it, his response was not appropriate.Continue Reading