2 Very hard, but doable, steps to becoming a technical thought leader

What is an internal IT thought leader and how can I use it to accelerate my professional growth? One of the best ways to move ahead professionally is to be viewed by those at your company and those generally within your industry as a thought leader. This, of course, is not an easy task but is very doable with the right plan, a willingness to learn, and a willingness to share your hard-earned expertise with others. One advantage of being an IT professional is that you have the opportunity of becoming a thought leader in various areas including the following: In a specific technology, such as AWS, Azure, or Python In the use of a specific vendor’s software package, such as SAP, Microsoft, or Oracle In an IT area, such as datacom, cybersecurity, or AI In IT related practices and methodologies, such as Agile, Project Management, or ITIL In technologies related to a specific industry or profession, such as patient records, equity trading, accounting, manufacturing, sales, or social media If done correctly, from a personal branding and technical expertise perspective, becoming any of the above can help get you promoted, increase your income, get you a seat at the table when technical decisions are being made, provide you the opportunity to speak at professional conferences, get quoted in industry publications, and other similar activities and accolades. The first step in becoming a technical leader is to maximize your technical knowledge and truly become an expert: Get any formal credentials, such as certifications, [...]

By |2024-12-17T15:36:26+00:00December 17th, 2024|
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Is it me or is it AI?

It’s funny how things change over time.  Do you remember the marketing phrase “Is it live or is it Memorex?”  Memorex was a company that made blank audio cassettes to record music and such.  They said that the recording was so good, that you couldn’t tell the difference between the live performer and a Memorex recording. These days, there is a similar expression with a very different underlying technology.  The phrase is “Is it me or is it AI?” As the author of a productivity book, I’ve been telling people for years, to write a blog and use it as the basis for a webinar. Then, use the webinar recording to create a YouTube channel, and then strip off the audio to create a podcast. Well, I’m finally walking the talk! Over the years, I’ve written hundreds of blogs on IT management, management in general, and other related topics.  I really wanted to record myself reading them to create both a podcast and a YouTube channel.  The issue is that I’m moderately dyslexic and can’t read it well enough for you to want to listen to it. In comes AI!  Using best-of-breed AI tools, I have one tool that reads my post and sounds exactly like me.  I have a second AI tool that I trained to look and move like me. I fed my written post into the audio AI tool to create an MP3 for my podcast, and then fed the MP3 into a second tool to create an MP4, [...]

By |2024-12-14T22:21:06+00:00December 14th, 2024|
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10 Questions that can help your IT department be more innovative

There has been a big push by our new CIO for our IT organization to be more innovative. What things can I do in my department to enhance our innovative culture? Innovation doesn’t always require the use of new leading technologies, such as AI. Within IT, innovation most often comes from innovative ideas on how to use technologies and equipment you already own. Below are 10 questions you can ask your staff, maybe one question per weekly staff meeting, that may help you drive innovation within your department: How are other industries using technologies that our company currently owns? What technologies are our competitors using that are giving them a competitive edge against our company? How can we combine two or more technologies our company owns in creative ways to solve business problems? What open-source software can be inexpensively integrated into our existing infrastructure in a secure way that helps IT or organizational productivity? If budget was not an issue, what could we do to enhance your technical environment? Then, how can we do it less expensively? Are there any technical or business processes that could be done more efficiently? If so, how? What technologies are we currently using that should be phased out to make budget dollars available for new innovative initiatives? What can we do to help foster an innovative company culture? Can it be started today? What measurements can we use to show the return on investment of our innovative ideas? If we knew we would not fail, what [...]

By |2024-11-05T15:22:07+00:00November 5th, 2024|
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Overworked? Maximize your productivity by knowing your zone

Since my company’s layoff last year, my IT department has had more work than we can handle. We’re working really hard but can’t seem to keep up with it. Any thoughts on ways we can increase my productivity? Thanks for your question. My belief is that there are millions of other people asking the same question. I think the best way for me to answer you is to tell you what I do. I’m a big believer in working in your highest zone. Let me begin by explaining my concept of being in the zone. In the zone is being: Mentally clear on the task to be performed Highly focused on a specific task Physically able to perform the task Motivated to perform the task By Mentally Clear, I mean having an exact understanding of what you want to do. It could be something simple, like deleting spam email, or something intense, like designing the new structure for your company’s communication backbone. By, Highly Focused I mean single-mindedness, namely, being able to free yourself from mental distractions, such as thinking about other projects, all the emails you must answer, or a presentation you are making later in the day. By Physically Able, I mean that at this moment you are able to perform the task. For example, I know that if I’m very tired, I have great difficulty doing mentally challenging work like writing performance reviews, answering important emails in a concise manner, or making important technical or managerial decisions. By Motivated, [...]

By |2024-10-16T13:56:46+00:00October 16th, 2024|
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It’s ok to say “No”

I’m a software development manager who is continually being pushed by my business users to do more and do it faster, better, and cheaper. I can’t keep up with their demands and I think it’s putting my job in peril. Could I please have your advice on how to deal with this issue? This is a great question. My bet, is that because of the nature of IT’s role and the reduction of resources because of general economic conditions that this issue is on the minds of many IT professionals, tech leads, and managers around the country and around the world. I think this issue can be addressed in a number of ways, including the following: Provide transparency to your business users regarding what your group’s current projects and workload are Once transparency has been achieved, work with your users to prioritize your team’s work in a way that makes sense for both them and you Find creative ways to say “No” to your business users in a way that they understand and accept The remainder of this blog post will discuss this third point. Sometimes it’s not what you say; it’s how you say it. Learning to say “no” in an acceptable and positive way is one of these cases. Also, as an aside, learning to say “no” effectively is more than a tool for the workplace, it is also a life-skill that can potentially help you in all aspects of your life. This trick to say “no” effectively is to [...]

By |2024-09-10T16:01:40+00:00September 10th, 2024|
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Does working virtually make you invisible?

I work within a large IT organization and the people in my department have been given the opportunity to work from home. If I do, does it reduce my opportunities for promotion or increase my chances of getting laid off? In short, the answer to your question regarding the effect of working virtually on promotions and layoffs is that it depends on the following: Your company’s culture and norms regarding working virtually The percentage of people at your company that work remotely How visible you can be on a day-to-day basis to your boss and others How effectively you can perform your job remotely Now let’s discuss these items one at a time. Your company’s culture Companies, like people, have specific values, strengths, weaknesses, prejudices, and, dare I say, personalities. That said, consider the following questions when deciding if you want to work virtually: Is the company technically equipped with conference room speakers, remote computer access, and tools needed to facilitate efficient work from outside the office? Does your company conceptually support working virtually or does it simply tolerate it? Can you remotely participate in important department discussions? Is there an out-of-site-out-of-mind mentality for those working out of the office? Is your boss supportive of working virtually or begrudgingly providing the option because it’s company policy? Are virtual teams at your company managed well or managed poorly? Percent of people working remotely The reason I ask this question is that if a high percentage of people work from home or business groups [...]

By |2024-08-30T01:20:45+00:00August 30th, 2024|
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Value of technical conferences

Question: Are technical conferences wort the time and money? At their best, you get whisked off to cool locations like Las Vegas and New Orleans. At their worst, they are down the street from where you work, and you have to come back to the office in time for a 4:00 staff meeting. Cool locations aside, with proper planning, a technical conference can be of real value to you, your staff, and your company. This planning is divided into two parts; picking the right conference, and budgeting your time once there. Regarding picking the right conference, consider the following: Do you think the keynote speakers provide you insights that will help you at work as well as help you grow professionally? Will you immediately be using the technologies you will be learning at the conference? If not, the knowledge you have gained will fade by the time you need to use it. Will there be the opportunity of professional networking? If yes, is it with people that can be of value to you professionally? Given that all companies have limited budgets, is this the best conference for you to go to from your company’s and your professional perspective? Is the timing of the conference at a time that will not adversely affect your current work projects or deliverables? Is the timing of the conference at a time that will not adversely affect your family beyond standard traveling inconveniences? As you see, the nature of these questions are to try to assure that [...]

By |2024-08-15T19:40:45+00:00August 15th, 2024|
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IT productivity through project failure

This post was first published in my “Driving IT Productivity” column on CIO.com and has been updated from its original form. All too often when projects fail, people are reassigned, project managers and key team members fall from favor, and the company quickly moves forward toward other new and important business initiatives. This phenomenon, at least the “quickly moving forward” part, also often happens to a lesser degree when production systems fail, backup/restore procedures don’t work, security breaches occur, and other bad things happen.  In these cases, however, because they are ongoing activities, IT generally does an excellent job discovering the root cause of the issue and performing the needed corrective action. Production groups then take the additional step of analyzing what organization and/or procedural factors allowed the issue to occur to prevent it from happening again. This mainstay of organizational and procedural introspection should also be used more heavily when projects fail or fall short of the desired result.  If you do, it can enhance your organizational awareness as to why the project environmentally failed, unrelated to the work performed by the project members.  This increased knowledge can be captured by asking the following questions: Was the project team given the needed resources to complete the project? Was the project properly prioritized, thus having the ability to gain the needed information, approval, support and resources of those outside the team, but crucial to its success? Was the correct mix of technical and non-technical skills approved and included in the team’s original [...]

By |2022-01-02T22:05:32+00:00March 8th, 2022|
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Productivity linking and mapping

This post was first published in my “Driving IT Productivity” column on CIO.com and has been updated from its original form. Every department within IT is part of an overall technical ecosystem that is connected to all other departments in some way.    For example, Business Analysis provides functional specifications to the programmers. Trainers provide classes which help programmers learn their craft. Database Administrators design database schemas for use by the programmers and oversee the storage and movement of data in cooperation with Enterprise Architects and Production Operations. At a macro level, Data Security protects the computing environment, Data Communications maintains the computing backbone and the Help Desk keep all IT and user devices up and running. If any of these departments fall short in the execution of their responsibilities, then IT and the company it service could fail.  As a result of this interrelationship, productivity initiatives in any one department can positively affect other areas of IT and the company overall.  This concept is called “Productivity Linking”.  Understanding these connections allows you to strategically prioritize your productivity initiatives, based on what is best for IT as a whole.  The technique used to document and analyze these connections is called “Productivity Mapping”. The Productivity Mapping process begins by defining your primary goal, which, generally speaking, will loosely fall into three fundamental categories. General Productivity Enhancement Specific Department Productivity Enhancement Specific Process Productivity Enhancement General Productivity Enhancement is the goal of boosting the organization’s overall efficiency. This type of productivity can be attained using [...]

By |2022-01-02T22:05:50+00:00March 1st, 2022|
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3 Steps to enhance IT productivity through knowledge transfer

This post was first published in my “Driving IT Productivity” column on CIO.com and has been updated from its original form. Like data, corporate knowledge is created, stored, distributed and consumed.  Unlike data, however, it can also be easily lost. This lost knowledge is caused by multiple factors, including: Retiring IT staff Employee attrition Temporary contractors moving on to other assignments Vendors completing their software development engagement and moving on to new clients Employees with technical skills moving into non-technical roles, causing their technical ability to diminish Preventing knowledge loss within IT has three primary steps; Creation, Retention and Distribution. Knowledge creation comes from two primarily sources, mental and physical. Mental knowledge is generated via ongoing employee experiences, formal/informal training, innovation-related activities and through the implementation of new software, processes, and methodologies.  Physical knowledge are the artifacts created by employees as part of their jobs.  These include internally-built software, written documents, and formalized internal procedures. Physical knowledge has the potential to be used by the company long after the employee or contractor has left the scene. The retention of mental knowledge, however, is much more elusive. The issue with this mental knowledge, often referred to as “corporate knowledge”, is that it’s embodied in people.  As a result, it can easily fall prey to human frailties, employee career choices and non-work related decision criteria. This raises the question of how to retain this corporate knowledge when employees, contractors, vendors and others exit the corporate nest. The following activities retain human-based knowledge. Implementation of [...]

By |2022-01-02T22:06:01+00:00February 22nd, 2022|
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