Tag Archives: Leadership

What Professionals Do

…which describes the essential ingredients to what serves as not only differentiators in your workforce, but the “difference makers”. I believe the few people that get the lion’s share of work done exhibit these behaviors. Being a professional involves a code of conduct. While consultants (Blood Type of a Consultant) and contractors (Blood Type of a Contractor) are defined in the referenced posts terms of what it means to carry their associated profession’s badge, Seth does a good job of providing attributes of “being professional” Continue reading

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IT Organization of the Future

In a world where we often don’t look beyond the next set of quarterly financial statements, it is occasionally refreshing to take a pause and fast forward the tape to imagine what out world will be like in three or five years… Continue reading

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Values – The Softer Side of Strategy

…Powerful words. They set the stage for big things to come, especially when everyone believes in these values and they cause people to take actions toward a unified set of goals – or more importantly, drive an organization to a desired set of behaviors. Continue reading

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Strategic Intent – IT Strategy’s Business Alignment

…When you align your must-do initiatives with business intents (strategy or direction) the first realization is that you now have a North Star for driving your IT organization. The next realization is that the funding mechanism for your organization becomes very clear. Continue reading

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Elements of IT Strategy

Type “IT Strategy” into Google and the search engine will return over 140 million entries. These results indicate there is no single way to draft an IT Strategy. Continue reading

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The Art of Problem Solving

…while there are many frameworks which have been developed which attempt to get to sought after answers in a methodical manner, the reality is there is less hard science behind this than we would hope. Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato were philosophizing about this long, long ago. Debates brought out valid points in different approaches, but no consensus… Continue reading

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Decisions are Made by Individuals

Let’s be clear. Decisions are made by people – by individuals. Decisions are not made by groups or committees… Continue reading

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Leading at the Edge

…At the edge, the action is about change. The action is about identifying a vision and working towards transformation of an organization. In the post noted above, Edge IT is defined as functions and services that rhyme with IT Strategy, workforce planning, financial and operational modelling, scalability and capacity planning. This is an area where leadership makes all the difference… Continue reading

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Arrows of Change

It takes courage to stand up for what you believe to be right, for what you believe needs to change, or to the actions and decisions the authority figures and decision makers which you are accountable to. The movie Jerry Maguire opens with the lead character creating a manifesto for change. His vision was bold and would change much of how his company would conduct business. While this manifesto did not turn out too well for him personally in the short-term, in the long-term he was able to put his vision into practice and the industry was far better… Continue reading

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24 Months

A recent Forrester study has shown that the average job term for a CIO is on the rise. I believe there is more to the story. Going with the assumption that both the employer and employee need to realize a value in what they receive in exchange for what they give there is an implied necessary balance and harmony required for a strong and long-lasting working relationship. Continue reading

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