Tag: leadership

How to convince people you’re not there to automate them out of a job

When your job is automation, people sometimes think you're trying to put them out of a job. Here are some of the ways I fight that perception.

AWS re:Invent 2018 - The Vendor POV

I attended AWS re:Invent 2018 as a vendor and it exposed me to a whole new perspective on the conference. Read all about it!

The Infamous Free Slurpee Story - a Tale of Integrity

A story about Slurpees containing a lesson about integrity. Sure, it's an unlikely combination but you have to admit, Slurpees are pretty tasty.

Beware the Interview Feedback Policy

Many companies are instituting policies against interview feedback. You should ask if such a policy exists the next time you interview for a position.

Differentiate Yourself - Two Quick Lessons From a Bad Electrician

An experience I had with an electrician taught me two important lessons about how to differentiate myself professionally from my peers.

What PowerShell Summit Showed Me

PowerShell Summit was a blast. I learned some great new skills and connected with a ton of folks who are as passionate about technology as I am. But even though PowerShell Summit is a conference about Windows PowerShell, attending it opened my eyes to some other important lessons that apply to everyone in IT.

What I Learned from the Pink Mohawk

Never Let the Boss be Surprised

The Ambulance Down in the Valley

A while back, I was discussing some of the nonsensical actions that people take in the software industry with my parents during a visit. my mom told me to look up a poem called The Ambulance Down in the Valley. I wrote it down and forgot about it for months because I was in the middle of the last semester of my Master’s degree. I finally got a chance to look it up, and it really is a beautiful illustration of the strange way we look to solve problems sometimes.

Worst Practices: Anti-Social Networking

Pro Tip: If you have a company Twitter account, use it for more than blasting out self-serving advertisements. You are wasting the perfect opportunity to connect with your customers, improve their experience, and address their complaints and concerns!

What Motivates Us

I found this video from the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA for short) to be very insightful.

Sinking the Titanic

Imagine, for a moment, that you are Poseidon, god of the oceans. The RMS Titanic is sailing in your waters, and you don’t like that. You decide that you want to sink the Titanic and make an example of her for other sailors of the world, so you order your minions to construct a giant iceberg that will crack her hull and sink her.