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Leadership topic - partner

with customers and teams to produce world-class results. Manage stakeholders, address issues effectively and practices the fine art of negotiation.  Blends people into teams when needed; Can quickly find common ground and solve problems for the good of all; Can negotiate skillfully in tough situations with both internal and external groups; gains trust quickly of other parties to the negotiations; has a good sense of timing.

Roadblock – Competes first versus sharing responsibility, Optimizes for their team/personal goals first. Delegates pieces and parts; treats people as a collection of individuals not a team.

engage your Beliefs

engage your Beliefs

Dec 20, 2021 | , ,

“What do you Believe?” It was a very direct question, from a very direct woman. My wife’s “great aunt” asked me … just as we were leaving from her small apartment. I had been helping her write her memoirs, which turned out to be much more coaching than either of us had anticipated. As she would tell her stories, I would simply listen and try to write as fast I could to record these stories that were amazing, raw, and very engaging. And a question that you should always be ready to engage – actually, what DO you Believe?

renewing Together

renewing Together

Dec 19, 2021 | , ,

Faith, fundamentally, is belief in something you can’t see, but you know is there. As the results of Project One spiraled out over the last year I was there, I knew that it was time to take a leap of faith into something that I had never really contemplated. The dream of owning my own business was never a thing, and yet, that was what was on the horizon. If I really believed in what I was seeing both as a need and my talent, I had to act. On Faith, or In Faith but either way, how?

executing Together

executing Together

Dec 18, 2021 | , ,

Through daily iterations of a spreadsheet of 1765 engineers around the globe, we were as ready as we could be to launch Project One on January 1. If someone ever suggests you do a massive corporate reorg at the first of the year, just say the sentence that I work with leaders on the most. A complete sentence that, as they say in Charades: 1 word, 2 letters. “No”. I would love to tell you we were confident this would be executed well, but honestly, we were really never sure what the real objective was in the first place, so we would hit something…

Together… wondering..

Together… wondering..

Dec 17, 2021 | , ,

Arriving on a late afternoon flight to Mountain View, we had to save our energy for the return flight… in only 5 hours.  The Red Eye home was required to keep a meeting with a key customer that could not be moved.  And we wondered and worried about this meeting, mysteriously called with only 24 hours’ notice, mandatory, and with an attendee list that was not clear.  Luckily the business leader I was scheduled to meet in that customer meeting was on the flight out and back… so we would be in whatever this was together.  And that made all the difference…

observing Together

observing Together

Dec 16, 2021 | , ,

Engineers LOVE problems. Nothing can bring us more joy than a big, complicated problem, with lots of loose ends. And, soon you observe that business people do not like problems. Not in the least – not big ones, not small ones, nothing that resembles them. They like things to run smoothly, with smiles all around. And having just come from a season of EVERYTHING was a problem, which even the business people were in agreement with, I was stepping into a completely different world and observed…

partners Together

partners Together

Dec 15, 2021 | , ,

What is your intention?” It is such an obvious question once asked, but not one I considered often. In my previous role, our leader’s “intention” to get us a partner Executive Coach to hone our leadership skills was met with shock and disbelief. Really – now? When we can’t find time to go to the bathroom? My wife was observing the stress changing even with what detergent she had to use to get my clothes clean. Now – when we were not sure this business would even survive?

Together managing…

Together managing…

Dec 14, 2021 | , ,

🖋 The view from the new office was great – facing east over a man-made lake, I would be rocking out to Ray and watching the sunrise most mornings. I had negotiated hard for my offer – with the encouragement of my mentor, and was now glowing in the realization that I was well-positioned. A role that was a mix of technology leadership which I knew, and people development which I wanted to focus on now, Together in one place. One morning in the first week I was there, the recruiting manager who I had negotiated with came in, closed the door, and asked “Do you have anything you would like to tell me?”

engaging Together

engaging Together

Dec 13, 2021 | , ,

“Oh wow. That is going to really cost you”. I had just gotten a call from the recruiter for the role that would take my career to the next level. Having made it through most of the interviews, I had won her over, and it was now down to the “final” interview: dinner with my family at the home of my boss and my peer, the CTO – Together with their families. They both had smaller kids – 8 and 6. Having started early (surprising you right ?) my kids were now mostly grown… so who would I take with me? And would I be able to pass this “charm” interview?

The Courage to partner

The Courage to partner

Dec 8, 2021 | , ,

If anyone tells you there is only one way to do something, they are lying or very misinformed. And it is particularly true in IT systems – both being told there is only one way, and that not being true. Our current predicament was caused by an IT person who was disgruntled with the way systems were being built, and left the org to build systems “in the business” – otherwise known as “without oversight”. And because he built them quicker and also knew more about the underlying business, the business used his group more and more. Now – those systems had to be replaced and completely re-implemented by “our” official IT group… and I had to be his partner…

Continuously Changing partners?

Continuously Changing partners?

Dec 1, 2021 | , ,

Today I am hosting one of the final workshops for a group of brave souls who are piloting the Designing Your Life material that I prototyped on myself for the last year. They have all discovered the magic needed to sustain Change, particularly Continuously: partners. I would love to claim it is the material, and even my excellent leadership – but you all know me 😉 There is something about realizing that you are not alone…

partners for the The Middle

partners for the The Middle

Nov 24, 2021 | , ,

I became aware of The Middle as a management concept when I was in charge of Product Management — a critical job for any company, but particularly for a software company. The idea that you can build “anything” is mostly true — and only limited by resources — which are mostly time and people. As such, everyone thinks it is easy to do what their own area needs —

partners with Joy

partners with Joy

Apr 7, 2021 | , ,

As we discussed with Happiness a few weeks back, Joy can be a fleeting commodity. It often arrives when you may or not be even looking for it, but appears with a smile, a laugh, a look.  You may not know what has caused it, but the endorphin rush in your brain confirms it is real..and wants to recreate it again.  For the last few years, all I knew was that something that I used to have, and had misplaced along the way, not in a dramatic way, more like how you lose your keys.  You know there – somewhere – and you slowly retrace your steps to where you can remember last having them…

partners in Faith

partners in Faith

Mar 31, 2021 | , ,

March Madness is all around us again, and I am really happy to have it back.  So many memories of my life are tied to these months, and the early decisions that were made then are still playing out.  Yesterday we talked about the bumper sticker about Faith and I realize that some of you don’t like me bouncing around my timeline, but at least the U2 storyline will be consistent.  For there is really no way to talk about them without weaving in one of the most important partners in the band… and therefore a bit about my own story that is very similar.