Modelesis

As another year picks up steam, I’m once again reminded that “time flies like an arrow”.  For instance, though it feels like it was yesterday, in February 2015 it’ll be a year since Satya Nadella became Microsoft’s new CEO.  Tasked with implementing sweeping changes at the technology behemoth, some of his moves have been expected and applauded, while others have been surprising and controversial.  Most of us don’t run a large company for a living, but I think there are three very basic steps that can be inferred from Nadella’s style that are worth keeping fresh in our own jobs.

If you enjoy working with micro-managers, you can skip the rest of this post.

OK.  Now that I have your attention, let me offer a suggestion for dealing with the micro-managers in your environment by approaching them with a genuine intention to help with –not correct– this trait.  Help them deal with the impact it has on their time, as opposed of making it about the way they control their duties.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of being part of a few teams: development teams, architecture teams, management teams.  I’ve also been privileged to manage a few teams of my own.  In my experience, I’ve seen that staff meetings tend to fall within two distinct styles or “colors”, and of course there’s room for many intermediate shades as well.  In this post, I outline the styles and make the case for my favorite meeting color.

As an IT leader, I often find myself walking a thin line: I am the company’s voice before the employees, and the employees' voice before the company.  This extends to mediating between internal parties and vendors, auditors, consultants and other external entities as well.  While not an absolute situation (and certainly not at my current workplace), it is often the case that higher leadership pushes an IT management model that is ultimately a fallacy.  Curiously enough, other parties' retort is also deeply flawed.  Both are rooted in good intentions, but tangle up in a vicious circle that does more harm than good, even though no one overtly intends it.  In a sense, a lot of IT leadership and management efforts are spent bridging these two fallacies.