The Two Most Powerful People in an Organization
These two people are the most powerful in your organization…
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Careers
Posts about career, jobs, interviews and success at work.
How To Find a Much Better IT Job, Even in Recession
It wasn’t long ago that I advised you to feel confident in moving jobs, if you’re a master at your subject . I thought it would be interesting to think about more than moving IT jobs, but getting a better IT job. How could you do that? I’m going to caveat this by saying the
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Do You Know If You Live Your Organization’s Values?
Good leaders know what they value and what their values are, and they recognize the importance of ethical behavior. The great leaders consistently and recognizably exhibit their values and ethics in their leadership style and actions. But what about the values that your organization declares it honors in corporate brochures, office posters and standard desktop
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Would You Back Your Business on Windows Vista?
What if bricklayers worldwide all upgraded their trowels for more ergonomic versions with gold-plated handles, but they weren’t compatible with some brands of mortar and were slower to use? The economy would slow down further as the brickies couldn’t complete their work, or on time. Well this is analogous to what Windows Vista could bring,
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11 Behaviors Most Disliked by IT Leaders
Last week I met with 20 CIOs and other senior IT leaders over dinner and we approached the subject of behavior in their departments. We went around the table sharing the behaviors we would most like to see the back of. So I noted them down to share with you.I should first say that, of
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How to Avoid Wasting Time When Selling Technology
This is my first article aimed at IT Sales. Selling technology is not easy, particularly in this Web2.0-fuelled, open-source aware, web-enabled environment. There is always a competitive product, and sometimes the competition might be available for free. Sales calls are a wonderful bevy of pleasantries and good intentions. Sales, though, are not won or lost
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How to Successfully Share Your Vision for IT
Successfully sharing your vision for technology in your business is a constant challenge. If there was a silver bullet to this, it would be worth more than its weight in gold (nice metaphor, eh?) The IT vision isn’t something owned only by the CIO, it is a product of many people in the organization. Once
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Is Virtualization a Buyer’s Market? Why it is a Real Opportunity for IT
The last six weeks have been an interesting time in the world of virtualization. In late June Microsoft released their final version of Hyper-V, their new virtualization platform built into Windows Server 2008. Hyper-V has been widely anticipated, as Microsoft’s absence from the enterprise virtual market has left VMWare and some smaller players free to
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Why IT People Don’t Move Jobs
The average tenure of an IT professional in an organization is still around two years on average, but there are exceptions where workers stay around what seems forever. Why?I know of several dedicated, experienced IT professionals in the US, UK and South Africa that are in a ‘trap’ – i.e. they feel stuck in a
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A Painful Reminder About Change Management
When you’re headlong into a programme of work which requires significant process change, it is so easy to forget about the people the processes have an effect on. I’ve just realized this to my dispeasure!Right now I am involved in a programme of working changing IT delivery processes, that covers the standard ITIL approach of Release
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Why I Prefer to Work with Darkworkers than ‘Greyworkers’
Lightworkers and Darkworkers are rare(ish) people who are polarized around a deeply ingrained intent. Lightworkers live and breathe to service humankind, whilst Darkworkers live and breathe to serve only themselves. The remainder of people on this earth could be described as Greyworkers, who tend not to know who they serve.I’ve written about Lightworkers and Darkworkers
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Freelancers Tend to Have Their Head In The Sand (and Nine Free Course places available!)
The majority of freelancers in IT have their head in the sand, as far as their personal performance goes.IT leaders from across several industries have commented to me that freelancers tend to move from appointments without seeking feedback on their performance. It’s estimated that over 60% of freelancers do not receive regular feedback on their
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SOA Demands Different Leaders
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) isn’t a new concept, but its emergence in organizations is demanding transformational leadership to be applied at all levels.I’m assuming you already know about SOA, but I want to recap one important point. The nature of SOA is that it demands server-based technology functions, such as an accounting suite, to become the
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Industrialization of IT Will Create a Blue-Collar Sub-Class of IT Workers
The Industrialization of IT is one of my current favorite topics as I think we are at a turning point of the whole industry. But one of the biggest implications of this change is that it will reshape the workforce towards blue-collar working.Industrialization of the IT department and the services it provides is a good
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How Do You Network?
Networking is an important part of professional life – it’s how you build useful relationships, extend your influence, and gain information outside of your line. So how do you do it? I want to ask this question to find out if there is a ‘best’ way of networking, irrespective of personality type. I must admit
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Is CRM On Your Agenda?
IT Leaders have been burnt badly over CRM (Customer Relationship Management).There are many failed CRM initiatives to dine out on. But CRM is set to face a resurgence as technology and business has matured towards being really ready for it. And this I think is they key reason why. CRM in the late 90s and
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How To Win the War on Disaster Recovery!
How important is DR to your business? Probably not important enough!
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Can You Afford the Cloud?
Cloud Computing, where the architecture of your technology estate is based upon the integration of third-party technologies and services, is gaining momentum in the industry. It’s a natural extension of outsourcing where an organization uses technology within it’s own physical boundary (i.e. its data-center) but the technology is owned and operated by the vendor. The
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Is the Road to Hell is Pathed With a Leaders Good Intentions?
A leader’s word is their bond. That’s what their followers expect, but when that commitment continually fails, it’s a slippery slope.Has your boss ever agreed to deliver something, and then let you down? Annoying isn’t it? A position of leadership is a privilege and a responsibility, and that responsibility is to create the environment for
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Beware of the Danger of Blocking on the Web
I found an interesting article on mashable.com where the blocking of content is discussed. With the rise of cloud computing and increasing number of teleworkers, IT leaders might be putting their business at risk if they are not in control of their ISPs, who may act on their own discretion to block connectivity. The link:
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Enabling Action-Orientation with Collaborative Technologies
Web2.0 and collaborative technologies promise a new world of integrated thought leadership. However they are not without their flaws. There are three key weaknesses in the typical use of collaborative technologies. The weaknesses are in the way decisions are made that lead to action. Decisions are made by committees. The larger the group of contributors
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