Articles on Leadership

AI tools help junior employees produce senior-looking work. The gap between looking capable and being capable is where organizations get hurt.

Cloud migrations, CDO hiring sprees, and AI pilots all followed the same pattern: unanimous agreement, then expensive reversals. Consensus is a warning sign.

High-trust organizations decide in 3 days. Low-trust ones take 4 weeks. Like F1 pit stops, consistency and speed determine who wins markets.

An automated lighthouse on the Oregon coast taught me something about automation, human judgment, and the work that still matters most.

Your LinkedIn feed isn't market intelligence — it's curated noise. How social media echo chambers distort executive decision-making.

A CTO couldn't tell his board what AI tools the company was using. Most organizations can't answer basic questions about their AI spending either.

After selling a company I spent eight years building, I woke up one morning with no fires to fight. The hardest part isn't the exit — it's the identity crisis.

Renaming your analytics dashboard to 'AI Insights Platform' isn't strategy — it's AI washing. Here's why that creates compounding strategic debt.

One fuzzy C-suite decision spawned 17 meetings and 43 emails in six weeks. Here's how unclear decisions create a hidden 'meeting tax' on your organization.

31% of employees actively resist their company's AI strategy — and the top reason isn't tech concerns, it's feeling devalued. Here's how to fix it.

Middle managers are caught between AI strategy and frontline execution. Here's how their roles are changing and what skills they need now.

Companies racing to implement AI are making more decisions, but worse ones. Speed without direction just means reaching the wrong destination faster.

Tech decisions without business input build capabilities nobody asked for. Business decisions without tech input create impossible expectations.

AI moves fast. Here's a practical approach for business leaders to stay current with what matters without drowning in every announcement.

AI can generate answers, but subject matter experts validate them. In the AI era, deep domain knowledge is more valuable than ever — not less.

A practical guide to AI for executives: understand machine learning, NLP, and computer vision — then learn how to implement AI strategically.

AI leadership isn't about becoming a tech expert — it's about adaptability, vision, and ethical responsibility. A practical guide for CxOs.

Five areas where AI transforms operations and five challenges you must navigate. A practical guide for C-suite leaders implementing AI.

AI ethics isn't optional — it's foundational. Five opportunities and five challenges for building a responsible AI-first culture in your organization.

There's a big gap between implementing AI and building an AI-first culture. Five strategies and five challenges for making AI part of your DNA.

Data literacy implementation is harder than it sounds. Here's how to overcome resistance, convince leadership, calculate ROI, and measure success.

The AIC Framework bridges the gap between ideas and execution. Here's how Action, Innovation, and Collaboration drive real business results.

Brilliant technical work gets ignored because it's presented wrong. Here's how data scientists bridge the gap to business leadership.

Data scientists, engineers, and business teams in separate corners kill AI projects. Here's how to build cross-functional teams that deliver.

The biggest hurdle in AI transformation isn't the technology — it's people. Communication, skills development, and culture determine adoption or failure.

Three warning signs your technical debt is critical: devs leaving, simple changes need refactoring, bug fixes create new bugs. Here's a fix framework.

The cost of indecision exceeds the cost of imperfect action. Technology decision paralysis drains productivity, morale, and competitive position.

The real AI leadership challenge isn't technical — it's balancing automation with human connection. Here's how effective leaders are adapting.

Underdogs win all the time, which is why you should always continue to improve and become better than you were.

Jeffrey Philips currently wrote a nice piece titled "Innovate your processes before innovating your products" over on his excellent Innovate on Purpose

I just finished reading a great article titled "The Most Important Question You Can Ask: Then What?" In the article, the author writes: The great art of

I just ran across an article titled "The CIO balancing act: agility, innovation, cost savings" over on The Enterprisers Project. If you haven't stumbled

In a recent Harvard Business Review article titled “Don’t Ask for New Ideas If You’re Not Ready to Act on Them”, Ron Ashkenas provides an example of a

An agile business requires an equally agile IT group. The future of IT depends on transforming into an efficient, nimble part of the business.

I just read "The Four Malfunctions of a CIO" by Joe Scherrer and wanted to expand a but on what Joe writes about.   Before I do that, let me share the

Companies no longer want a controller of technology. They want a leader who can demystify IT and help them use technology to deliver real value.

One of the most important roles of the CEO is to drive and shape corporate culture. Without a culture that fits the strategy, your business stalls.

CIOs should not bemoan their predicament. They should see it as an opportunity to reshape their job, career, and the IT group's role.

The CIO doesn't need to be sidelined. By focusing on relationships, clients and leadership CIO's can ensure they are helping to lead the organization.

Are you managing risk within your organization or are you avoiding risk? As a CIO, you should help the organization manage risk.

Time to rethink your business model Quote: If your business model is so obsolete that the only way to make money is to extract fees when your customers

Shadow IT: Far Bigger, Less Manageable And More Important Than You Think Quote: Even when lines of business initiate technology purchases, it is

16 Leadership Lessons from a Four Star General Quote: Rank, authority, and even responsibility can be inherited or assigned, whether or not an individual

While doing a bit of research on the role of the CIO for an article I was writing earlier this week, I ran across this definition of Chief Information

I've been writing about the "New CIO"  for almost 5 years and I finally feel like there's some real change coming to the CIO role and subsequently, to the

While having my morning coffee this morning, I was reading through my emails and caught Martha Heller's "The Heller Report".  Martha's report is one of

“It Won’t Work. We Tried That” Quote: Bottom line: bad marketing science is dangerous. And we should demand that it at least get itself a half-decent

Ah Granola. That wonderful treat consisting of oats, nuts, honey and other assorted goodies like berries, bananas, chocolate chips, raisins etc etc.

Innovate on Purpose: Breaking out of the m (old) for disruptive innovation Quote: When you want truly disruptive innovation, you will need to break the

There are many ways to make coffee.   You've got your pre-ground coffee. You're pre-packaged coffee. Whole Bean coffee.  Self-roasted coffee.  Instant

One of the fastest ways to build trust is to keep your word. One of the fastest ways to destroy trust and damage a relationship is to agree...and do

The DNA of the CIO Quote: The clear message from many CIOs – old and young, in mature and rapid-growth markets and spanning a range of industries – is

Change Trumps Technology Quote: So, do I think your organization should be advancing into the digital/social media world? Absolutely. But you’d better

ITSinsider | Fracking for Value in the Enterprise Quote:  It’s kind of like fracking in the bedrock of the enterprise for stored value.  Chris Morace,

Get Responsibility for Data Out of IT - Thomas C. Redman - Harvard Business Review Quote: The larger motivation is to get responsibility for data where it

A review of the new Marha Heller book CIO Paradox.

You will not snuff out Shadow IT. But by educating and communicating, you can lead your organization's technology initiatives instead of playing catchup.

Weekly links roundup covering leadership, technology, and communication. Featured topics include people-centered workplaces and human interaction.

Innovation will become a core competency by Jeffrey Phillips on Innovate on Purpose Quote: My final argument is that regardless of what wins in your

Links for Sunday May 20 2012 covering interesting topics from the previous week

CIOs and IT pros face a choice: keep the lights on or drive new technology initiatives. The role is changing, and now is the time to step up.

Stop looking for the holy grail. There is no holy grail in life. It is all about doing the work, getting better at it, and doing it some more.

Links for Sunday February 12 2012 covering Leadership, Business and Marketing

Links for February 5 2012 covering Leadership, Community, Technology and more

Weekly links covering front-line strategy, CIO advice for CFOs, leadership, and the relationship between IT and finance in organizations.

The Danger of Imitation by Kevin Eikenberry Quote: Observe and learn from others who have been where you are going. But don’t lose yourself on that

The Human Marketing Manifesto by Russ Somers on russsomers.com Quote: I am not a lead, I am a person. A human being with human concerns....I was not

To Know, But Not to Understand by Valeria Maltoni on Conversation Agent Quote: We rely, in other words, on a random accumulation of localised knowledge

Happy New Year! You Don’t Live in the World You Were Born Into by Mark Cuban on blog maverick Quote: “If you are looking where everyone else is for the

IT anti-patterns: reverse behavior lessons from Steve Jobs by Peter Kretzman on CTO/CIO Perspectives Quote: Unfortunately, for every Jobs out there with

Leadership Is a Gift Given by Those Who Follow by Grant McCracken on Harvard Business Review Quote: Leadership as an act of service. As the General says,

A CIO and A CMO walk into a bar... ...except...they aren't in the same bar. They made plans to meet at Good Time Charlies on Monday.   You know - the CMO

I'm a huge fan of Amazon. Over the years, more and more of my purchases have moved to Amazon. I've bought books, coffee, electronics, camera equipment and

Everyone has an agenda. I"m not talking about a meeting agenda...I'm talking about the personal agenda that everyone has built their lives around. This

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP. Think about the CIO's that you know...or...if you are a CIO, take a hard look at yourself. As we

5 Things CIOs need to know about Google Plus by Tom Catalini Quote: Take a look at Google Plus to get a sense of the future, which seems to be arriving

More letters to RIM; employees rally alongside anonymous exec on Boy Genius Report Quote: If I could only tell Mike, Jim and the rest of the C*O crowd one

CIO's Must Make Enterprise Architecture a First Class Citizen by Mike Walker Quote: I wouldn't necessarily make everyone use an architecture method as

Creating a Lasting Impression by JK Allen on The Hustler's Notebook Quote: Be the standard. Create a lasting impression. Experience the new opportunities

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP. Bill Laberis had an interesting article on the Enterprise CIO Forum in late April titled

Note: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher / PR firm. I'm not an Apple 'fan-boy' and don't much like Steve Job's personality, but I

This is a guest post by David Burkus, Editor of LeaderLab.org. David and LeaderLab has just released their new book titled The Portable Guide to Leading

Culture Trumps Strategy, Every Time by Nilofer Merchant on The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Quote: After working on strategy for 20 years, I can

Three Questions that Will Kill Innovation - Tony Golsby-Smith - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Quote: ...innovation runs counter to so many of

Why People Are the Heart & Soul of the Information Age by Tim Sanders on Sanders Says - Quote: ... highly engaged innovators produce the breakthrough

A System for Speaking IT Truths to CEOs - Robert Plant on the Harvard Business Review Quote: One of the protocols that's used for teaching medical

Last week the author of The Little Black Book of Leadership, Todd Dewett Ph.D., contacted me to say hello, complement me on my work here and offer up an

A Four Step Process for Evaluating Risks in Social Business by Jacob Morgan on CloudAve Quote: I just finished reading “The New Supply Chain Agenda,” by

I wanted to follow up to my last post (For Models for Success for the CTO / CIO - CTOVision) with a few quick thoughts on the The External-facing

Why customer experience innovation matters now by Jeffrey Phillips on Innovate on Purpose Quote: ...firms that improve the customer experience, not just

Over on InfoBOOM yesterday I wrote a post titled The Cloud and The Silo where I discussed one of the current challenge of CIO's and IT groups today - that

The need for connection & engagement in education by Garr Reynolds on Presentation Zen Quote: Few people think that the formal education systems

A few months ago I wrote a post titled Cognitive Dissonance & IT. From that post, you'll remember that cognitive dissonance is: an uncomfortable

Why Best Practices Are Hard to Practice by Ron Ashkenas on Harvard Business Review Quote: One of the characteristics of great companies is that they

Hey, Chief, back your people up! by Dave Grossi on PoliceOne Daily One Quote: What really gets my Italian blood boiling is this incessant need by police

Mark McDonald over on Gartner's blog network wrote a great piece this week titled Everything is up for grabs, making it a great time to be in IT. In the

Ray Ozzie is leaving Microsoft. After it was announced that he was leaving, he published a memo on his blog. The memo, titled Dawn of  a New Day,  is an

Late last week I received The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success, 2nd Edition by Scott Eblin (amazon affiliate link) from Daniel

Some smart-ass (like me) will probably say "1 letter"....but let's dive into that question a little more deeply. Last week, in an article titled "CIO's

Focus on getting a few meaningful things right by George Ambler on The Practice of Leadership Quote: Effective leadership focuses on doing a few things

I've said before that people are more important that process. I've said it in many different ways and in many different articles.  After every article, I

Enterprises Consider Business Agility As A Primary Driver Towards Cloud By Krishnan Subramanian on CloudAve Quote: This report has a quantitative survey

Last week I wrote a long article titled Building Tomorrow's Organization - without today's IT? The purpose of that article was to walk through a 'what if'

How Be An Effective Corporate Ambassador by David Armano on Logic+Emotion Quote: An individual who aligns themselves with a larger organization and has

A few weeks ago I wrote about The diminishing role of IT and the CIO.  That post struck a nerve with quite a few readers so I wanted to expand on the

The New New CIO Role: Big Changes Ahead By Thomas Wailgum on CIO.com Quote: CIOs themselves are in the midst of a make-or-break personal change-management

I get the occasional request to review a book or two from publishers, PR folks and authors. Normally, I get less than one request a month for reviewing

In a previous article titled The Future of IT & the CIO - Redux of the DoDo I pointed to some survey results that should be alarming to most IT

I've just started reading Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (affiliate link) by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown.  Actually...I've only

Mark McDonald, of Gartner, offers some excellent tips for IT planning for 2011 in a post titled Three things to think about as you plan for 2011.  In the

A simple question that can do so much. Whether hiring or choosing vendors, take a few seconds to ask: I can, but should I?

Image by Aprile C via Flickr I'm in Atlanta this week on business. I decided to stay at a nice little boutique hotel in midtown called the Artmore Hotel.

Lead From The Front and The Back by Simon Sinek on Re:Focus: Yes leadership is about leading, standing out front.  Yes leadership is about painting a

BP oil spill: Leadership and IT failure Quote: As the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues to grow, reports suggest that several IT failures may

In my post earlier this week, I spoke, or more accurately typed, about the importance of story. I wonder if there are any CIO's and IT leaders out there

You Too Can Be a Strategy Consultant: Three Secret Tools Revealed by Charles H. Green on Trust Matters Quote: The art of general management and strategic

You’re Just the Founder « Steve Blank A great reminder to everyone that what you do today might just come back around to bite you in the future. Applying

Do you know what The Onion is? If not, it's a satirical newspaper and website that is hysterical...you should read it.

How do you create a culture of storytelling? by Steve Denning on The Leader's Guide to Radical Management: Quote: I am sometimes asked: what’s involved in

kindfully + mindfully by Leo Babuata on Zen Habits Quote: The Golden Rule goes something along the lines of, “Treat others as you’d want to be treated (in

Short answer?  Nope. Long answer?  Read on :) Vince Kellen does a great job arguing the point in a post titled "Echolalia: The CIO is Dead! Long Live the

Happy Easter everyone. Last week was the first published post using Delicious to manage links for my Sunday links post.  I used a javascript from

I'm trying out a new approach to my link sharing posts. I'm now using delicious to capture the the articles that I want to share along with my notes. I

Too Big to Trust? Or Too Untrustworthy to Scale? by Charles H. Green on Trust Matters Preach it Brother Edelman by Robbin Phillips on Brains On Fire Blog

I'm a bit slow on my reading lately....so bear with me as I catch up. Just read through the 2010 State of the CIO Survey published by CIO.com. A few

Strategy Is Boring by Kneale Mann on One Mann's Opinion Are you stress testing your IT strategies? by Christina Torode on TotalCIO Innovation and the

Do you know Hutch Carpenter?  You should.  He write's some awesome stuff over at I'm Not Actually a Geek. Hutch recently wrote a post titled "Apple iPad

Talent: Develop Strengths or Weaknesses? Yes. by Steve Roesler on All Things Workplace 5 Tips for Improving the Synergy between Marketing and IT by Jenn

Do you know your IT staff? Do you regularly communicate with them? If you do, good for you. If not, you're missing out on a wonderful opportunity to build

I don't normally do this, but I wanted to do a little self-promotion with this first link: Eric D. Brown's Engineering Approach by Ron Egatz on The Induro

A few weeks ago I received Leadership Test: Will You Pass? (amazon affiliate link) by Timothy R. Clark, Ph.D. to review The book is a small one (~99 pages

Are you innovating or imitating? Anywhere you go these days, you'll find someone talking or writing about Innovation.  Most of  the stuff I've been

The most important thing in your company is not a thing by Mark McDonald on The Gartner Blog Network 6 Lessons for Life by Jon Gordon on Jon Gordon's Blog

I recently stumbled across an article on TechRepublic titled "The seven habits of wildly unsuccessful CIOs" written by Karen Ann Kidd in 2003. The article

Five by Chuck Musciano on The Effective CIO The Splinternet means the end of the Web's golden age by Josh Bernoff on Groundswell Run IT Like a Business,

"I hate consultants." When I heard those words spill out of my lunch companion's mouth as soon as we sat down, I knew it would be a long lunch meeting.

I just finished reading "Managing" by Henry Mintzberg. Great book. What's so great about it?  It provides a good reminder that being a good manager is

You Can Only Lead the Horse by Amber Naslund on Altitude Branding Leadership – What’s Love Got To Do With it? by Terry Starbucker on TerryStarbucker.com

I've got a few pet peeves.  Linear Thinking is one of them.  Another one is talking about doing something but never doing it. I'm not talking about 'not

The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges. So you want to be a

The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges. As a follow-up to my

What Happens When Managers Coach? by Steve Roesler on All Things Workplace Trend to Watch: Trust in Business Is Running Out by Eric Beinhocker and

The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges. It as if we're more

The Value Every Business Needs to Create Now by Umair Haque on HarvardBusiness.org Three Key Principles when Leading without Authority by George Ambler on

The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges. Innovation. That's a

I just finished Toy Box Leadership: Leadership Lessons from the Toys You Loved as a Child...somewhat flawed but a good book nonetheless. Flawed may be a

I just finished reading Succession: Are You Ready? (Memo to the Ceo) by Marshall Goldsmith. While the subject was interesting, I think the audience for

Get Ready As Corporate Sites and Social Networks Start To Connect by Jeremiah Owyang on Web Strategy Why Authenticity is More Important Than Ever by Aaron

Update - My original post was titled "A milestone - 4 years old". Apparently I can't count :)  I started the blog in 2006 so it's my blog's THIRD

Social change takes more than social media by Ivan Booth on the Rootwork Blog (via Beth Kanter's Blog) KISS: The Difference Between Strategy and Tactics -

The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges. Today's CIO is

I just read a great post by Jeffrey Phillips titled Intense Ambiguity that really brought into light what it's like working for a boss or organization

Why Your Corporate Message Isn’t Being Heard by Jason Falls on Social Media Explorer The 7 Sins of Customer Service by Valeria Maltoni on Conversation

One of the most visited posts on this blog is titled "The Problem(s) with Linear Thinking".   That one post makes up for a good amount of monthly visitors

What happens when you create the best strategic plan in the world but don't have a plan to implement it? Lots of wheel spinning and very little progress.

You're doing it wrong! I hate when people tell me that. Who are they to tell me how to do something? OK...OK...there are times when 'right' and 'wrong'

Your Success as a Leader Depends on the Kindness of Strangers by Tammy Erickson on HarvardBusiness.org Who's Minding the Store in Corporate America? by

Every team/group has a 'go to' person. You know...that person that you (and others) know you can count on to 'get stuff done'. You find yourself always

I've been pondering the question "What is a Leader?" for a while now.  It's a question that's always in the back of my mind and I've never really gotten a

Hello everyone...I'm back from my trip to Orlando...links are lite this week due to being away from the computer. Enjoy the few I do have. How the Cloud

When You Can't Trust Your Leadership by Charles Green on Trust Matters Change is never linear by Paul Dunay on Buzz Marketing for Technology Stop Reading

Image via Wikipedia John Baldoni had a great article on HarvardBusiness.org titled "Five Things John Madden Teaches Us about Leadership." Apparently John

The Case for Customer Communities by Valeria Maltoni on Conversation Agent Tap Employee Passion by Harry Hoover on THINKing Accountability Begins at the

Image via Wikipedia Tracie and I spent Good Friday at the Dallas Arboretum (jump over to my photoblog - OneFour Photography - for some photos).  The trip

Sometimes I wonder about our leaders. These leaders may be your country's leaders or they may be your teacher. Perhaps your VP or your CEO. I think about

I received an email a few weeks ago asking if I would be interested in reviewing the new book from Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan titled "the three laws of

Over on my photography blog, onefourPhotography, I wrote a post titled "Photographs are taken by people - not technology" that got me to thinking.  I

An article titled "How I Used Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Software to Prevent IT Staff Cuts" on CIO.com that describes using Project Portfolio

According to research conducted by Harvey Nash, an IT Recruitment firm, everything.  Information World Review reports on this research in an article

A few weeks ago I received a complimentary copy of Lead Well and Prosper: 15 Successful Strategies for Becoming a Good Manager from Nick McCormick, the

In these troubled times, it's hard for organizations to focus on employee moral and happiness. I've heard many 'leaders' say things like "they should be

Steve Neiderhauser posted some excellent commentary in a blog post titled "Persuasion Equation".  In the post, Steve mentions a class he attended that

For the longest time, I've put off reading "Good to Great" by Jim Collins but finally decided to pick it up. Have you ever realized that your perception

Ever see a book in the bookstore that catches your attention and you realize it was a best-seller sometime in the past?  You realize you never picked it

Do you know who Tyler Durden is? (hint: Brad Pitt played him in Fight Club). Lateral Action posted Tyler Durden's 8 Rules of Innovation recently (hat tip

Management Issues had an article on Sept 25 titled "Looking after talent is vital in a downturn" that gave me hope when I saw the title. The article

Management Issues (MI) reported today on a survey by Careerbuilder.com that says that many US workers are losing faith in their senior leaders.  MI

The 21st annual CIO 100 list has just been delivered. The article leading up to the list of the CIO 100 is quite interesting..I'm reading things like

I think I found it....and it happened to me. Warning...small rant. Imagine you are a hiring manager trying to find someone to lead a group of IT

CIO.com has an interview with Linus Torvalds that I'd just had to share...very interesting commentary from Linus on managing software projects. In the

John P. Kotter, author of "Leading Change" and "Our Iceberg is Melting" is set to release a new book titled "a sense of urgency" (release date September 3

Peter Vajda has a great post over on Slow Leadership titled "Why People Resist Change" that is well worth the time to read. Peter argues that the reasons

Just finished reading "Moose on the Table"by Jim Clemmer. Before I get into the review, let me define "moose on the table."  According to the author, it

One thing that I've heard often is that a project manager role is a good thing for your career and will help your ascent up the ladder to more

Discusses the need to lead information technology

I just finished reading The Strategic Project Leader: Mastering Service-Based Project Leadership by Jack Ferraro....not a bad book. In section two of his

Interesting analysis today over on Jeffrey Phillips' Thinking Faster Blog in an article titled "Productivity Barriers". Note: if you have an interest in

Just finished reading the book "It's Your Ship" by Mike Abrashoff. At first glance, this book looks like it would be something that I wouldn't like at

I'm about half-way through an advance copy of David Maister's latest book titled Strategy and the Fat Smoker and I have to say I like what I've read so

HR World has a new article titled "30 Interview Questions You Can't Ask and 30 Sneaky, Legal Alternatives to Get the Same Info". At first, the title

The Slow Leadership blog has an interesting post about "Practicing Conscious Incompetence". What is Conscious Incompetence? In a nutshell, it is the act

This is an excerpt from a paper I wrote while working on my MBA. The modern