A Geek Leader Podcast - inspiring technical and creative leaders around the world

About Michael Michael K. Levine is an expert on lean and agile software development and information technology He conducted international trade negotiation at the US Commerce Department, was a corporate banker for First Bank System, and became divisional CIO at Norwest Bank. After a stint at Wells Fargo he joined US Bank to deploy a new branch banking system (bringing lean and agile to a highly structured waterfall environment), then became technology lead for US Bank Home Mortgage. He now leads all consumer lending and business banking technology. His previous books are Tale of Two Systems: Lean and Agile Software Development for Business Leaders, and Tale of Two Transformations: Bringing Lean and Agile Software Development to Life. His third book is People Over Process: Leadership for Agility (Productivity Press, September 30, 2019). He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife, Holly Lindsay. Learn more at TheTalesofAgility.com   Today We Talked About How Michael got to where is now Lean vs. Agile Leadership Tips Meetings Agile vs. Scrum How important People are to leadership Develop people to do the right kind of work Chief Engineer – not in scrum but in Lean product development Rigor, Efficiency, Alignment Frameworks A3 framework Amazon Approach Behaviors Provide Options Helps teams to learn How to do a good meeting Meetings to Plan for meetings Make them valuable Respect people’s time Informal meetings Coffee or Beer meeting Listening and building relationship Management by walking around Why write this book? – People over Process Leadership Models Facilitative Leadership Creative Software Development Valuing People and their autonomy Balancing Autonomy and Responsibility Agile is not an excuse not to plan Biggest Mistakes in Technology Management Misunderstanding of the nature of the work Is it creative? Career Advice Think about what is valuable to the market Develop your leadership skills Make good decisions Be Efficiency Align with the business Connect with Michael Tales of Agility Special Thanks to Splashtop for sponsoring today’s show. Splashtop is a premier remote desktop, and remote support solution. I’ve been using. Splashtop personal for more than 7 years now and Splashtop Enterprise at my company for 3 years.  Their products are fantastic and their support is second to none.  I love and highly recommend their products and I’m super stoked that they are giving A Geek Leader listeners 20% off their first year when you go to https://ageekleader.com/splashtop I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

About Rockford Rockford Lhotka is CTO at Magenic and is the creator of the open source CSLA .NET development framework. He is the author of numerous books, and regularly speaks at major conferences around the world. Rockford is a member of the Microsoft Regional Director and MVP programs.   Magenic (www.magenic.com) helps you deliver your digital products to market faster. For more information go to www.lhotka.net. Today we Talked About Language Learning College Life Career Paths Speaking Being a CTO Thought Leadership Team Recognize what you’re doing Be intentional about your work Seek to become good at leadership Get a mentor Connect with Rockford Twitter Linkedin CSLA.NET Lhotka.net I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again! Special Thanks to Splashtop for sponsoring today’s show. Splashtop is a premier remote desktop, and remote support solution. I’ve been using. Splashtop personal for more than 7 years now and Splashtop Enterprise at my company for 3 years.  Their products are fantastic and their support is second to none.  I love and highly recommend their products and I’m super stoked that they are giving A Geek Leader listeners 20% off their first year when you go to https://ageekleader.com/splashtop

About Steven Steve is a serial entrepreneur that has had great success moving from the corporate world early in his career to the startup world. He will share lessons learned in over 30 years for how young professionals or those that feel stuck in the corporate world can earn a great living doing what they love by igniting their career in a technology startup. Steven Mark Kahan has successfully helped to grow six start-up companies from early-stage development to going public or being sold, resulting in more than $3 billion in shareholder value. He is currently CMO at Thycotic, which will become the seventh. Steve inspires teams and their organizations to take on the impossible and succeed. He has just written a book published by Wiley and Audible and available on Amazon.com  called “Be a Startup Superstar.  The book teaches those graduating college and young professionals how to earn a great living doing what they love by igniting their career at a tech startup. Today We Talked  About Getting Started with Startups Startup vs. Corporate environments How to get a job with a Startup How to be prepared for an interview Embrace accountability Good Communicators (Communication for Geeks) “We” people vs. “I” people Hard workers Attention to Details Persistent Questions to ask before joining a startup Why is now the time for your company to exists What milestones have you achieved What do you love about your team Why is this company the one to solve the problem Where will your growth come from Tell me about your 1st paying customer How much has your company raised? who are your investors If you weren’t building a startup what would you be doing? Negotiate Salary, Education, Equity, Growth, etc. Being a Superstar at a Startup No substitute for Hard Work Less people doing impactful things Don’t fear making wrong decisions Challenge the status quo Growth Requires Change Acknowledge the elephant in the room Exude Positive Energy and Optimism Don’t Sweat the small stuff To be at your best, you must live at your best Put family first Defend your calendar Connect with Steven Website: www.beastartupsuperstar.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevekahan/ Book: Be a Startup Superstar I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again! Special Thanks to Splashtop for sponsoring today’s show. Splashtop is a premier remote desktop, and remote support solution. I’ve been using Splashtop personal for more than 7 years now and Splashtop Enterprise at my company for 3 years.  Their products are fantastic and their support is second to none.  I love and highly recommend their products and I’m super stoked that they are giving A Geek Leader listeners 20% off their first year when you go to https://ageekleader.com/splashtop

About Gleb Known as the Disaster Avoidance Expert, Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is on a mission to protect technology leaders from dangerous judgment errors known as cognitive biases by developing the most effective decision-making strategies via his consulting, coaching, and training firm Disaster Avoidance Experts. A cognitive neuroscientist and behavioral economist, Dr. Tsipursky writes for Inc., Time, and CNBC. A best-selling author, his new book, available on Amazon and in bookstores everywhere, is Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters Today We Talked About Background Why write the book? When to  go with your gut Learned Behaviors Equifax disaster Cognitive Biases Normalsy Bias Optimism Bias Loss aversion Perspective Dangerous Judgements In the Moment, ask yourself What important information did I not consider about this decision? What dangerous judgement errors did I make? What would a trusted advisor suggest I do? How have I addressed all this decision can fail? What new information would cause me to revisit this decision? Failing to plan is planning to fail… not really The Planning Fallacy Failing to plan for problems, is planning to fail. Sunk Cost Fallacy Stop and Look at project and ignore the previous resources already spent Don’t mistake the feeling of comfort as something that is true Learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable   Connect With Gleb Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Book Website I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again! Private Internet Access I’ve been a customer of Private Internet Access for 3 years now and I love this service.  I was at a security conference a few years ago and I connected to the hotel wifi.  Immediately my endpoint protection software began to alert me of hacking attempts.  I launched my VPN from Private Internet Access and all of the attempts were stopped. My data and internet connection was secure.  Another great use of the VPN service is connect from different geo locations, which is very helpful when testing DNS and CDN caching. To get a your VPN account starting at $3.33 per month, please visit https://ageekleader.com/vpn

About Sidar Sidar is an executive coach and renowned independent management consultant in IT strategy, and founder of IQoach. He helped dozens of professionals to multiply their value in the job market, and capture that value personally by becoming a freelancer, getting promoted, getting raises, etc. His clients are no less than fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Fujitsu, etc. His new coaching program is specifically geared for employees wishing to increase their income by becoming an independent consultant www.employeetoindependent.com. Today We Talked About Sidar’s background Leadership Journey Do leaders have to have a background in the area they are leading? Coaching Capturing your value Earn more of what you create Side-hustle 1000x leaders Becoming an independent consultant Connect with Sidar LinkedIn Twitter Website Special Thanks to Splashtop for sponsoring today’s show. Splashtop is a premier remote desktop, and remote support solution. I’ve been using Splashtop personal for more than 7 years now and Splashtop Enterprise at my company for 3 years.  Their products are fantastic and their support is second to none.  I love and highly recommend their products and I’m super stoked that they are giving A Geek Leader listeners 20% off their first year when you go to https://ageekleader.com/splashtop   I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

About Brian Brian Prince (President, Board of Directors) has been an international speaker and community leader for over fifteen years. He is one of the founders of CodeMash, and is the current President. Brian is as an Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase. He is the co-author of Azure in Action, published by Manning Press. Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science and Physics from Capital University, Columbus, Ohio. He is also a zealous gamer. For example, he is a huge fan of Skyrim, Puerto Rico, and pretty much every other game (video or board) he plays. He loves to backpack, backwoods camp, and cycle. Today We Talked About His background Microsoft Azure Speaking Community Building What’s Codemash Why he helped start it Why should Come What’s Kidzmash What’s the event like? Connect with Brian Codemash.org Brian’s LinkedIn Brian’s Twitter Codemash Twitter If you’re in the Ohio area and would like to meet up with me, please come to Codemash and let me know on Twitter or LinkedIn and we can meet up.   Check out our special Black Friday deals from our sponsors and affiliates I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

About Neil Neil Sahota (萨冠军) is an IBM Master Inventor, United Nations (UN) Artificial Intelligence (AI) subject matter expert, Faculty at UC Irvine, and author of Own the A.I. Revolution. With 20+ years of business experience, he works with organizations to create next generation products/solutions powered by emerging technology. His work experience spans multiple industries including legal services, healthcare, life sciences, retail, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, automotive, telecommunications, media/communication, and government. Moreover, Neil is one of the few people selected for IBM’s Corporate Service Corps leadership program that pairs leaders with NGOs to perform community-driven economic development projects. For his assignment, Neil lived and worked in Ningbo, China where he partnered with Chinese corporate CEOs to create a leadership development program. In addition, Neil partners with entrepreneurs to define their products, establish their target markets, and structure their companies. He is a member of several investor groups like the Tech Coast Angels and assists startups with investor funding. Neil also serves as a judge in various startup competitions and mentor in several incubator/accelerator programs. He actively pursues social good and volunteers with nonprofits. He is currently helping the Zero Abuse Project prevent child sexual abuse as well as Planet Home to engage youth culture in sustainability initiatives. Today we talked about: AI Fear of New Things Advising the United Nations AI vs Machine Learning How far away from AI are we? What’s next? AI for non-profits Pattern Recognition Social Good Eco-Sprint Connect with Neil LinkedIn Twitter Website Book Special Thanks to Splashtop for sponsoring today’s show.   Splashtop is a premier remote desktop, and remote support solution. I’ve been using Splashtop personal for more than 7 years now and Splashtop Enterprise at my company for 3 years.  Their products are fantastic and their support is second to none.  I love and highly recommend their products and I’m super stoked that they are giving A Geek Leader listeners 20% off their first year when you go to https://ageekleader.com/splashtop   I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

About Nader Nader Mherabi, senior vice president and vice dean, chief information officer, is responsible for all information technology (IT) activities for NYU Langone Health and for information technology’s development as a strategic organizational asset. He previously was vice president for IT product solutions and chief technology officer for NYU Langone, responsible for technology strategy, infrastructure engineering, networks, data centers, application architecture, systems deployment, and support across the institution. Mr. Mherabi currently leads NYU Langone Health’s digital transformation initiative, driving the integration of the institution’s workflows, revolutionizing the digital patient experience and clinical environment, and empowering the institution with big data and advanced analytics to improve care delivery and efficiency. Mr. Mherabi has designed and implemented many large-scale, diverse systems for NYU Langone and has extensive experience in hospital clinical systems integration, research information technology, and education systems. He has developed an operational architecture for in-house application development and integration, as well as an electronic data repository, warehouse and dashboards center, research-specific infrastructure for computation and collaboration, and scores of mid-size applications for research, education, and clinical care environments. During his more than 30 years in the information technology field, Mr. Mherabi has implemented large-scale systems for top Fortune 500 companies worldwide, such as Credit Suisse and CitiGroup, and held several prominent IT management positions including senior director at Mount Sinai–NYU Health, vice president at Credit Suisse First Boston, vice president at Citibank, and senior application developer at AT&T and Aurora Consulting. Today we Talked About Journey through tech Digital Transformation Virtual Doctors Digital Paperwork AI in Healthcare Machine Learning for Imaging Digital Healthcare Robotic surgery AR and VR with surgery Connect with Nader Website LinkedIn NYU Langone Twitter NYU Langone Tech Medium I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

About Angelic Angelic Gibson joined AvidXchange in October 2018 as the Chief Information Officer. Angelic has spent over 20 years in Information Technology serving the following industries: Higher Education, Wholesale Distribution and Logistics, Retail and Manufacturing in public, private equity and IPO models; including Technekes, LLC, American Tire Distributors (ATD), Estee Lauder, Inc, Sleepy’s, and the State University of NY. Angelic has held various leadership positions, including most recently, the SVP, Information Technology at Technekes, based in Charlotte, NC. Previously, she worked for American Tire leading various IT operations functions since 2008. Angelic has deep experience in enterprise technology systems and management practices supporting databases, networks, telecommunications, and infrastructure.  She was also central to the development and execution of information security standards, a technology program management office, and disaster recovery best practices.  She has built and supported business intelligence/data management platforms and has extensive cloud computing strategic insight. Angelic holds a B.S. degree in Management Information Systems from American InterContinental University. Today we talked about How she got started in Tech Communication Ask questions Growth People, Process and Technology DevOps Approach Digital will disrupt Digital Change is hard Digital Transformation Change Management A “Joy-factor” for the team Strength finders Communication is Listening Are you an active listener Do you have Empathy Thoughtful Solutions Most communication is body language… we can’t see that in written form. Don’t make leadership about yourself Perspectives… Take the time to get to know people Seek to understand Acceptance isn’t agreeing Be vulnerable and authentic   Connect with Angelic LinkedIn AvidExchange I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

About Liz For 30 years as a management consultant, executive coach, and facilitator, Liz Kislik has helped clients such as American Express, Orvis, The Girl Scouts, Comcast, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Highlights for Children solve their thorniest problems while strengthening their top and bottom lines. Her specialty is developing high performing leaders and workforces. She is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Entrepreneur, and a TEDx speaker on “Why There’s So Much Conflict at Work and What You Can Do to Fix It”. She has also written for the European Financial Review and the Forward. Liz’s articles have been included in Harvard Business Press books Guide to Motivating People and Dealing with Difficult People, the Wall Street Journal’s Morning Download, and the Washington Post’s Work Advice column, and she has been interviewed for The Muse, European CEO magazine, Thrive Global, and The Financial Times Ignites. Today We Talked About Employee OnBoarding Noticing Negative Patterns Giving Negative Feedback Ask the employees how they think its going It has come to my attention______ and here is what I want to see_____ Explain cultural norms and give guidance Explain the “Why” Ditch the “feedback sandwich” because its fake Its not attitude / its behavioral If no agreement, then discuss consequences Empathy Perspective Taking Why would a smart person do a stupid thing? You could be wrong…Be sure to validate it Employment and Family aren’t the same thing even if they overlap. Conflict Resolution 5 Steps for fixing Conflict: Rule out that a single individual is the source of conflict Incompetent employee Bully Ask the right people the right questions Can you tell me what goes right? What makes you nuts? What makes your job better? Why do you stay if there are so many problems here? Make sure everyone is aligned Goals Needs Responsibilities You have to agree to it, but you don’t have to love it Find Allies at all levels in the organization You can’t do it alone (not even the CEO) – https://techleaders.group/  Teach new Habits Lizard Listening Why would a smart person do a stupid thing? Ask what’s not being said… Elephant Cards What were they like at 9 years old? Connect with Liz Twitter LinkedIn Website TEDx Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l-AOBz69KU I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcast and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!