Month: July 2011

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Forbes: 10 Things They Don’t Tell You In Business School

Forbes: 10 Things They Don’t Tell You In Business School

6. If No One “Owns” A Project, It Won’t Get Done

… Which is why all projects need champions. Not the kind who beats his chest and spews happy mission statements. The kind who’s backside is on the line if things don’t pan out. More importantly, the kind who has the authority and resources to make decisions that other people have to follow, else their backsides are on the line.

7. Be Clear

They actually do tell you this one in b-school, but not in so many words and not vehemently enough. The clearer you are, the more thoroughly you probably understand what you’re talking about, and the more capable and trustworthy you will seem to customers, colleagues and employees.

Being clear has immense ramifications–on productivity, customer satisfaction and employee morale. If your Power Point deck contains the word “ideate,” cut, and do not paste. In fact, eliminate all jargon from everything you do. (If you think the word “utilize” is a smarter version of “use,” please, please read The Most Annoying Business Jargon.) This applies to electronic exchanges as well. The simplest, most straight forward emails can, and will, get twisted beyond meaningful comprehension. If the message is mission-critical, communicate face-to-face, or by phone, as best you can.

Hat tip to @DougStanley14.

Forbes: 10 Things They Don’t Tell You In Business School

From this Forbes article… (Source)

6. If No One “Owns” A Project, It Won’t Get Done… Which is why all projects need champions. Not the kind who beats his chest and spews happy mission statements. The kind who’s backside is on the line if things don’t pan out. More importantly, the kind who has the authority and resources to make decisions that other people have to follow, else their backsides are on the line.

7. Be Clear. They actually do tell you this one in b-school, but not in so many words and not vehemently enough. The clearer you are, the more thoroughly you probably understand what you’re talking about, and the more capable and trustworthy you will seem to customers, colleagues and employees.Being clear has immense ramifications–on productivity, customer satisfaction and employee morale. If your Power Point deck contains the word “ideate,” cut, and do not paste. In fact, eliminate all jargon from everything you do. (If you think the word “utilize” is a smarter version of “use,” please, please read The Most Annoying Business Jargon.) This applies to electronic exchanges as well. The simplest, most straight forward emails can, and will, get twisted beyond meaningful comprehension. If the message is mission-critical, communicate face-to-face, or by phone, as best you can.

Taking Email Etiquette to the Next Level

Taking Email Etiquette to the Next Level

Not unlike publishing free/busy time from your Outlook calendar, publishing email activity in an attempt to better inform those making requests of you via email.

…it periodically checks the user’s email load based on specific measurement parameters chosen by the user – unread messages in your inbox, total number of messages in your inbox, or how much mail you’ve recently sent. After an initial 12-hour analysis, courteous.ly determines the user’s email habits and what constitutes “light,” “normal” or “high” e-mail amount. It then updates the user’s status of email volume level every 10 minutes, which is reflected in an individualized courteous.ly link.

May have to play with courteous.ly and gmail.

InformationWeek: How To Interview For VP: Expert Advice

InformationWeek: How To Interview For VP: Expert Advice

Candidates must sell themselves. I look for energy, structure in the answers, subtle efforts to influence, and the ability to lead. If a candidate can’t sell me, then how could he or she ever sell a new program to the business or a change in technical direction to the technical staff? Convincing people, often with incomplete information or unknown motives, is a fundamental role of an IT VP.

…

Having a plan for what you will do during the first six months is a critical differentiator. Don’t talk about goals without an accompanying plan. Don’t be concerned that the plan isn’t perfect.

ComputerWeekly: Report predicts IT skills shortage crisis as data growth set to outstrip staff numbers

ComputerWeekly: Report predicts IT skills shortage crisis as data growth set to outstrip staff numbers

IT departments will have to manage 50 times the amount of information, 75 times the number of files and 10 times the number of virtual and physical servers, with only 1.5 times the number of IT professionals to manage it all, by 2020.

InformationWeek: How To Interview For VP: Expert Advice

From this InformationWeek article… (Source)

Candidates must sell themselves. I look for energy, structure in the answers, subtle efforts to influence, and the ability to lead. If a candidate can’t sell me, then how could he or she ever sell a new program to the business or a change in technical direction to the technical staff? Convincing people, often with incomplete information or unknown motives, is a fundamental role of an IT VP.

Having a plan for what you will do during the first six months is a critical differentiator. Don’t talk about goals without an accompanying plan. Don’t be concerned that the plan isn’t perfect.