Year: 2023

Put your Family First – life’s too short

Many tech execs are so focused on their career that they don’t spend the time they should with their family. Life is so short, and family first should be the number one priority of any tech exec. I know, with all the pressure today to operate at the highest levels, it’s difficult to make time to get away.

As a senior tech exec, collaborate with your Talent organization to promote and embody the expected behavior.

In other words, every organization today talks about work life balance. However, when it comes down to it, the work life balance goes to the back burner. Talent needs to help enforce and emphasize the importance of family, ensuring that leaders get the time to break away and spend time with their family.

For me, I have a son who is a strong baseball player and is on an elite travel team. So, he travels every week starting in June and ending at the beginning of August. So, we are talking roughly eight weeks. Being 16, he can’t travel on his own. So, I try to make sure I am with him as much as possible. This requires me to manage my schedule to be able to travel and support him. Eight weeks out of the year isn’t a huge burden to figure out how to spend time with your kid.

Eight weeks of traveling can take a toll on any working parent. This is where technology comes in to make life easier for parents like our user.

With the rise of telecommuting and remote work, parents can now continue working while on the go. This means that during their child’s tournaments, they can still attend meetings, respond to emails, and complete tasks without physically being in the office. This flexibility allows them to support their child’s interests while also fulfilling their professional commitments.

Additionally, there are various tools and apps available that can help with scheduling and organization. Using a shared calendar app to coordinate schedules with their partner and other family members works nicely. You can also utilize a task management app to stay on top of work responsibilities while traveling.

Technology has not only made it easier for parents to balance work and family life, but it has also opened up new opportunities for career growth. With the rise of remote work, parents can now apply for jobs outside of their geographical location without having to sacrifice time with their families. This allows them to pursue their professional goals while still being present in their children’s lives.

Click here for a post on work life balance and getting away to relax.

Value of Project Management – you need a true Project Manager

Some tech execs complain about the value of project management and the high cost of the PMO. They claim that they don’t see the value, and the cost outweighs the benefits. Sadly, in some cases this is true. PMO’s need to keep emphasizing their value, and project managers (PMs) need to understand that they are “the PMO.” Whatever the PM does, the person receiving the service equates their work to the PMO. For better or worse.

“The PM is the PMO.”

So why do some tech executives feel that PMs are expensive overhead?

It comes down to the philosophy of the PMO (and the overall organization), i.e., the background of the PM’s hired by organization. Some organizations feel that a PM is a project plan tracker. They help build project plans, do status updates, and ensure that deliverables are produced. While this may be part of project management, these tasks do not define a PM and their role.

Successful PM’s have strong relationship, negotiation, presentation and leadership skills.

They have years of experience leading projects of all sizes and complexity. That experience has allowed the PM to see and understand risks. They are able to identify risks and issues before they blow up and impact the project. Their ability to apply remediation actions prior to the client stakeholders seeing the problems makes them successful PM’s.

Not everyone agrees with my definition of a PM.

But from my perspective, I want a very senior leader running my projects, which is what I consider PMs to be. The odds of success with a person who has years of experience leading is higher than with a person with years of experience managing plans.

In summary, the value of project management should not even be a question. A PM is a crucial role in any organization, especially in the tech industry. PMs are responsible for overseeing and executing projects from start to finish, ensuring that they are completed on time, within budget, and with high quality results. While there may be varying opinions on what exactly defines a PM, one thing is for sure – having a strong leader at the helm of a project greatly increases its chances of success.

Click here for a post on how to make projects successful at a distance.

Career as a Software Programmer – the world is changing

Considering a career as a software programmer? AI technology that “codes” and low-code/no-code platforms have empowered non-programmers to create applications. AI takes no-code to a whole new level, doing all the work. Tech Execs are excited about the possibilities.

The notion of coding as a career is evolving.

However, the ability to build and deploy technology remains crucial. Working closely with end-users, gathering requirements, and applying that knowledge to various aspects such as data, processing, infrastructure, security, vendor products, and support is more important than ever. In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing technological landscape, the ability to understand and leverage technology is a valuable asset for any business or organization. It allows for increased efficiency, improved customer experience, and competitive advantage.

One key aspect of successfully utilizing technology is through proper project management. This involves setting clear goals and objectives, establishing timelines, allocating resources effectively, and identifying potential risks along the way. With effective project management techniques in place, businesses can ensure that their technology projects are completed on time and within budget.

Even if a career as a software programmer doesn’t work out, it’s also important to have a team of skilled professionals who possess a diverse range of technical skills. This enables businesses to tackle complex technological challenges and stay ahead of the curve in terms of innovation.

Tech execs will need to shift from managing programmers to overseeing AI technology that streamlines application development. AI becomes a set of tools to enhance accuracy. While pure coders may not be required, their expertise is valuable in helping business end-users apply technology to their needs.

For tech exec, AI offers cost savings and boosts efficiency. As AI technology advances, it will gradually automate manual tasks, requiring technology professionals to adapt and upskill in other areas to support a complex tech environment.

Click here for a post on automated software testing.

Legacy Data – unlocking the value

Tech execs are driven to modernize legacy systems for increased agility to match the fast pace of business. A valuable asset locked up in legacy systems is data. By planning a migration to the cloud organizations can leverage their legacy data and transform it into actionable insights.

This transformation can unlock new business opportunities, improve decision-making processes, and increase competitive advantage. With the cloud’s scalability and flexibility, tech execs can easily access and analyze vast amounts of data in real-time.

Businesses hold decades of untapped legacy data, ready to be utilized for harnessing its advantages.

True, a good portion of it could be aged, corrupted, or duplicate. Cleaning this data is crucial for unlocking its true value and making smarter, focused business decisions. Thankfully, with the advancement of technology and data management tools, this process has become much more efficient and effective.

Migrating from legacy to the cloud enables organizations to utilize cloud service providers’ (CSP) capabilities for big data processing, real-time analytics, and machine learning. These capabilities allow for the extraction of insights from the data. But before this can happen, the data needs to go through a thorough cleaning process.

The first step in this process is identifying and removing any duplicate or redundant legacy data.

This saves storage space and ensures accurate data analysis, avoiding result discrepancies.

Next, the data must be organized and standardized.

This involves formatting text strings, converting data types, and resolving missing values. Without proper organization, it becomes difficult to make meaningful connections or draw insights from the data.

When migrating legacy data to the cloud, consider the target data structure based on the use cases.

Data currently in structured format may be okay to dump into an unstructured data lake for analytics, as an example.

The data format in your legacy environment may differ from that in the cloud. It’s going to depend on the business need. So, there will be a lot of thinking required for how you are going to use this information. Are you going to query it? Are you going to run analytics on it? All these considerations will impact how you structure and store your data.

A major plus of cloud data storage is the flexibility to scale as required.

Traditional on-premises solutions require organizations to predict storage needs and invest in costly infrastructure that might end up underutilized. In the cloud, resources can be added or removed as needed, providing cost savings and increased flexibility.

Another important consideration when moving data to the cloud is security.

Although cloud providers offer strong security measures, organizations must enforce their own protocols and monitor data access regularly. This becomes even more critical if sensitive or confidential data is being stored in the cloud.

Besides scalability and security, leveraging the cloud for data storage can enhance collaboration and productivity in an organization. Teams can effortlessly collaborate on documents or projects from anywhere with internet access, eliminating delays due to location or time differences.

Furthermore, utilizing the cloud for data storage can also lead to cost savings for organizations. By ditching physical servers and gear, while cutting maintenance costs, businesses can greatly reduce their IT expenses. This allows them to reallocate resources towards other areas of their operations.

Lastly, the cloud offers reliable backup and disaster recovery options.

During system failure or natural disasters, cloud storage keeps data safe and accessible. This eliminates the risk of losing important information and allows for a quick recovery in case of any unexpected events.

To sum up, Cloud Service providers offer various services and partner tools to aid in migrating your data, including files, databases, machine images, block volumes, and tape backups. Successful data migration hinges on knowing what to move, where to move it, how to utilize it, and having knowledgeable individuals who can apply the data for making business decisions.

Click here for a post on how to transition data using cloud-based AI tools.

Recognizing Employees with ADHD

Tech executives have another compelling reason to understand their employees better: ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder typically linked to children and young adults, can continue into adulthood. When an employee frequently struggles with task completion, punctuality, or presenting content, they might be contending with ADHD. Recognizing employees with ADHD, you can provide support and devise a plan to foster their success.

ADHD impairs executive function and self-regulation skills.

It’s a common affliction but having it doesn’t mean an employee can’t excel. Recognition and a supportive environment are crucial for success. Employees may be unaware they have the disorder, but signs like difficulty concentrating, staying organized, and managing time are noticeable. It affects work and personal life.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects approximately 8% of adults in the workforce. It is characterized by symptoms such as difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

In the workplace, employees with ADHD may struggle to stay focused on tasks or projects, leading to decreased productivity and potentially poor performance. However, it’s important for employers to understand that this is not due to laziness or lack of effort on the employee’s part.

Why is this important for a tech exec to understand?

It was shown that many kids doing school virtually during the pandemic saw a significant drop in their GPA, even though these kids were top students. It was shown that many of these kids did not have peer stimulation, which helped them stay focused when they were live in school. Without the stimulation they could not pay attention and were easily distracted.

Now that the work world is in a hybrid environment, many employees still work virtually. Some tech execs want to bring people back to the office due to observed drops in performance. Instead of immediate disciplinary actions, consider their past history with the company. If they were previously good workers, they may not be suitable for the virtual world. Bring them into the office to engage with others and enhance their performance.

We don’t want employees using ADHD as an excuse for poor performance.

But individuals with ADHD often have trouble regulating their attention and impulses, making it difficult for them to stay organized and on task. This can be exacerbated in a fast-paced work environment where there are multiple demands and distractions.

So how can employers support employees with ADHD?

The key is to provide accommodations and structure in the workplace. This could include setting clear expectations for tasks and deadlines, breaking down large projects into smaller manageable chunks, creating a quiet workspace or providing noise-cancelling headphones, and allowing for frequent breaks to help manage energy levels.

So, it’s important for employers to educate themselves and their staff on ADHD and its symptoms. This can help foster understanding and reduce stigma towards individuals with the disorder. Providing resources such as coaching or counseling services can also be beneficial in helping individuals with ADHD develop coping strategies and improve their overall performance.

Click here to learn more about ADHD from the Mayo Clinic.

Click here for a post on addressing poor executive function and root causes.

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