A while ago, I read a great book by Stephen Covey titled The 8th Habits.  There is a lot of great content in this book. I highly recommend it! For this post, I want to share what I call the “Seven E’s of Alignment Management”.  I developed this list based on seven factors that Covey [...]

Last post, I talked about the importance of clarity to help reduce the stress produced by what I call your “Attention Tug-of-War”. The first area to seek clarity in is at a personal level. To do so, the first step I recommend is to ascertain if you are aligned in a number of areas: Talents [...]

I am very surprised that the subject of attention has not received more “attention” (No Pun Intended).  To the best of my knowledge, very little has been written about it.  Yet, I believe that it is a highly impactful concept that should receive more attention by all of us! There is so much going on [...]

Most IT Managers don’t have time to go to the bathroom and I am about to tell them that they need to take some more time to think.  So please bear with me for a few paragraphs. Recently, I wrote several posts about time management and I suggested IT Managers consider a number of approaches [...]

A few days ago, I ran into a great quote, so I sent it out to a bunch of people, as I usually do when I find interesting information.  The quote came from the world-class marathoner, Juma Ikangaa, right after winning the New York marathon. “The will to win is nothing without the will to [...]

In my recent post, Making Better Use of Your Time, I wrote about regaining control of your time.  This post is a follow-up with a slightly different spin.  This time I’m suggesting that IT Managers think a little differently about where they spend their time.  In a book I read a while ago, The Breakthrough [...]

Human error accounts for a large percentage of the problems encountered in information technology.  There are plenty of opportunities to make mistakes in our business.  We are working with complex systems and large amounts of data.  With so much to do and so many distractions in our environment, it is almost impossible to operate without [...]

Time Management is one of the most common challenges people face in today’s businesses.  IT Managers are often pulled in so many directions—most of which are outside their control.  Demand often outstrips the supply of your time.  Calendars, in-baskets and task lists are full with no end in sight, especially lately as most of us [...]

IT Managers face more change than most other management positions.  Thus, I suggest that making an effort to learn how to make change happen better and faster can be a big asset to IT Managers.  The best way I know to accomplish this is by learning to reduce or eliminate any/all resistance to change. On [...]

In most businesses, individuals are the foundation of the value offered to customers.  This is especially true for service businesses. Thus, in the service business, people are the key to success.   Service businesses should establish a thorough process to help them recruit and hire the best people they can.  However, accomplishing this is a lot easier [...]