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...

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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...

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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...

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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:...

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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....

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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The post From Bleeding Edge to Dinosaur: A Tech Leader’s Pledge to Stay Relevant and Open appeared first on Zach on Leadership.