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

Today on the show I have Marin Wolfe (Marty). Marty is a systems engineer, creator of new solutions and innovations, a leader and motivator of the best and brightest, and focused on delivering solutions to the most complex challenges and supporting key goals. Marty is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and CTO, a technical executive of which there are only 600 across IBM’s entire global enterprise. Marty’s combination of technical depth, business acumen and delivery expertise has resulted in over $500M in direct revenue helping to shape technical strategy and fixing the most challenging problems at all sizes of organizations and enterprises. Marty creates and leads incredibly resourceful, compassionate, innovative, and profitable teams in areas including Cloud, complex systems integration, data science, and infrastructure modernization. His technical acumen has resulted in nearly a dozen patents, several books and publications, and a broad network of business leaders who continue to leverage and depend on Marty for technical counsel and guidance. Focus areas of expertise include infrastructure transformation using Cloud computing, moving to the use of microservices, and using Blockchain to increase visibility across the global supply chain Today we talked about Servant Leadership, Gut Instinct, Confidence, Cohesion, Loyalty, and Trust.  All of these are important characteristics of good technical Leadership.  We also talked about the differences between efficiency and effectiveness and that there needs to be a balance between the two. Your job is not to be the smartest person in the room...But to take barriers our their way. We got into some concepts of good communication skills for leadership and the need to be able to explain technical concepts to non-technical leaders. We got off the leadership topic for a bit and talked about machine learning and AI and the things that are happening with IBM's Watson. We talked about the importance of a leader to understand what people are bringing from their past experiences and how to use that as an asset for those folks. Top take aways for new leaders: Servant Leader Work-life integration Facilitate the collaboration on your team Spend time with each person Please note that all ideas and opinions expressed are not that of IBM Normally this is where I ask for a rating/review/subscribe, but instead, this month I’m asking that you make a donation for Breast Cancer Research in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Today on the show we have Heather Wilde.  She was the eighth employee of Evernote, where she oversaw the company's growth from thousands to 100 million customers. She's published popular video games, trained Fortune 500 brands, advised hundreds of startups, and managed some major nonprofit programs. Now, as a fractional CTO through her own company ROCeteer, her award-winning work keeps the "Unicorn Whisperer" constantly traveling across the globe to find the next unicorn. About Heather Heather Wilde is a multiple award-winning, 6-time CTO, and 5x-certified Executive Coach. She is an Author, Speaker, Nonprofit Director, and Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering Advisory Board Chair. Affiliated with 3 Entrepreneurial accelerators, she has also worked with governments on Economic Development projects for over 20 years. Heather was an early employee of Spirit Airlines and a founding member of Evernote, where she oversaw the company's growth from thousands to 100 million customers. She was also one of the only women to have programmed, designed, produced and published a game at the company THQ. She has worked with the U.S. Navy, NASA and state and local governments around the world. Heather has received commendations for her work from the United States Government, as well as Awards for Mentor/Coach of the Year, Female Executive of the year, and been named Top Writer on Quora. She writes for Forbes, Tech.co and hosts the  "Entrepreneurial Revolution" column for Inc Magazine where she influences millions of readers every week. She is currently the CTO of ROCeteer, a company in Las Vegas, NV, where she oversees the development of software platforms in the US, Asia and the Middle East as well as works with ecosystems and teams around the world on their development and growth strategies. Today we talked about Evernote Empathy Active Listener Talk Slower Think Before You Talk How to react Public Speaking Antartica Women in Tech Breast Cancer Self Awareness and Self Management Purpose - Unicorn Power (understand your why?) Connect with Heather Inc Course/Book Conference Website Instagram FaceBook Twitter Youtube:  Growth Hacking 101 AntarctiConf 2020 is a 4-day mastermind, mini-conference, and retreat taking place on board a 16-day cruise to Antarctica on Jan 5-21, 2020. For more information, please visit our website at https://antarcticonf.com  Normally this is where I ask for a rating/review/subscribe, but instead, this month I’m asking that you make a donation for Breast Cancer Research in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I heard a story on the Accidental Creative Podcast once about pruning grapes in a vineyard.  Todd said that many times healthy vines that are bearing good fruit need to be pruned off.  The reason is that the vine cannot grow new, more productive branches until some of the other branches are pruned.  So cutting out good and fruit-bearing branches may be necessary in order for the vine to increase in capacity overall.  This holds with us at work and in life.  Sometimes we have to shutdown old dreams or projects, or stop doing old tasks that no longer provide significant value in order to free up time for something greater. Good is the enemy of Great. - Jim Collins Saying "no" at work can be one of the most freeing words you can say. As leaders or individual contributors we must set boundaries with our employees and our bosses. Several years ago, while at a previous employer, I was struggling to get great work done due to having too many regularly scheduled meetings in my life. I heard a podcast about saying no to things that you don't get much value from. Recurring meetings was it for me. In most of the recurring meetings I was in, (usually more than 12 per week) were boring and un-informative for me.  I was occasionally asked to give a report or update in them, but for the most part, my contribution could have been made in an email.  I decided to prune those meetings from my life.  I sent a friendly email to all of those meeting organizers, stating the following: "I currently have a lot of important things on my plate.  I am unable to attend this _____ meeting for the foreseeable future. Instead, I can send an update to you if needed that you can share with the team in place for me.  If that doesn't work and you feel I am irreplaceable at this meeting please let me know and I will work to move things around so that I can continue to attend."  This email removed 10 1-hour, weekly meetings from my schedule.  And of those 10, only 2 requested that I send email updates.  Two meeting organizers asked that I continue to attend (those were from VPs while I was only a manager, so I continued to attend those meetings).  Pruning things from my scheduled freed up 10 hours per week that I could devote to more important projects at work and helped me rollout numerous mobile and web projects that led to significant impact to the companies bottom line.  Sometimes really good things in our life and and work can steal time away from great things.  What good things are you holding on to that you should let go?  What great things are right around the corner that you don't have time for now?  I want to challenge you this week to find something good that you're doing, that may have lost some of its value, and let it go to make room for something great to begin to grow.   Normally this is where I ask for a rating/review/subscribe, but instead, this month I’m asking that you make a donation for Breast Cancer Research in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

About Francesca Francesca Gino is an award-winning researcher and the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. She is also affiliated with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative at Harvard, and the Behavioral Insight Group at Harvard Kennedy School. Her consulting and speaking clients include Bacardi, Akamai, Disney, Goldman Sachs, Honeywell, Novartis, P&G, and the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy. She has been honored as one of the world’s Top 40 Business Professors under 40 by Poets & Quants and one of the world’s 50 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers 50. Francesca's studies have been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and The Wall Street Journal, and her work has been discussed on National Public Radio and CBS Radio. Rebel Talent The Rebel Test  (I'm "The Pirate") The 5 Rebel Talents: Novelty Curiosity Perspective Authenticity Diversity The 8 Principles of Rebel Leadership: Seek Out the New Encourage Constructive Dissent Open Conversations, Don't Close Them Reveal Yourself Learn Everything... then Forget Everything Find Freedom in Constraints Lead From the Trenches Foster Happy Accidents Sidetracked 1. Raise your awareness 2. Take your emotional temperature 3. Zoom out 4. Take the other party's point of view 5. Question your bonds 6. Check your reference points 7. Consider the source 8. Investigate and question the frame 9 Make your standards shine Connect with Francesca Gino Twitter Rebel Talent Website   https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=EE6EydlfuVc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYy1pLDDRYs Normally this is where I ask for a rating/review/subscribe, but instead, this month I’m asking that you make a donation for Breast Cancer Research in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

About Patty Patty Hatter is a multiple award-winning technology, business and operations leader who drives digital transformation and growth for global companies. Patty currently advises early stage technology companies, focused on key technologies such as cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and blockchain-enabled enterprise applications. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX). Prior to this, Patty was SVP of the McAfee Services organization, where she drove 50% growth. Previous to her role at McAfee Services, she served as general manager and CIO for Intel Security as well as CIO and SVP of Operations for McAfee. There she orchestrated a global transformation of IT and operations. Recognized by Gartner as leading the transformation of an under-performing IT organization to one to that beat all Gartner’s metrics for peer companies; through transformation, delivered both 15% reduction in IT spend vs. revenue, while simultaneously enabling increased spend/delivery for new capabilities by 25%. Before joining McAfee in 2010 Patty was vice president of business operations at Cisco, driving company-wide transformations. Patty started her career at AT&T, both in the US and Europe. In recent years she has received a series of highly coveted awards, including “Women of Influence” and “Power Executive” by Silicon Valley Business Journal; “Bay Area CIO of the Year” by Silicon Valley Business Journal. What We Talked About Transparency Governance Take different Roles Its impossible to over communicate Connect with Patty LinkedIn Twitter Normally this is where I ask for a rating/review/subscribe, but instead, this month I’m asking that you make a donation for Breast Cancer Research in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

No matter how good you are, at some point in time, you will fail.  It's inevitable. Failure is not a problem, its promise.  How we respond to failure is crucial to how we is the most important part of failing.  It's not the failure that stops us, it's the inability to learn and move forward that stops us. I've failed at many projects, on tests in school, at sports and about in every area of my life.  We all fail and we should not fear failure.  I once had a boss that made my team fear failure.  He threatened to fire us if we made mistakes or missed bugs.  This fear prevented us from working at the pace we should have been.  Instead we were super slow, extra cautious, and rarely innovated.  Instead of inspiring a fear of failure, good leaders need to inspire a desire for success. Making us understand that we should desire succeed more than we fear failure.  But also teaching us to be practical, not reckless, and plan and prepare for the failures that may occur. A good leader allows their team to fail, but helps them plan and prepare so that they don't get hurt. I think of my kids.  In order for them to learn, they need to make mistakes and fail from time to time.  I want to allow them to fail on the little things, and learn from them, so that they don't fail on the big things. I don't want them to be afraid to fail, so I don't scold them when they try hard and fail, but rather encourage them to try again and learn from that failure. Coach Mike Krzyzewski, (basketball coach for Duke University for you non-sports fans), once said “My defining moments have usually been something where I’ve lost or where I’ve been knocked back.” In the 1983 ACC tournament Duke lost by 43 points. At dinner that night, someone raised their glass and said, “Here’s to forgetting about tonight.” Coach K interjected and raised his glass and said, “Here’s to never forgetting about tonight.” In tech, we hear the phrase "fail early, fail often, fail forward" regularly and it usually looses its meaning overtime.  Many people think that it is a phrase that gives software developers the excuse to recklessly push out untested code, but that's not what it means or how to apply it.  I tell my team "fail fast, recover faster."  It's a similar phrase, but has a subtle message reminding folks that they need to be prepared if they fail.  We need to have backup plans and rollback plans for everything. It means, don't be afraid to fail, but be prepared if you do. We we fail, we need to stay calm, respond and not react, and learn from our mistakes. Questions to ask when you fail Why did we fail or fall short of our goals? What did we learn from this failure? What early indicators of this project failure did we miss? How can we better prepare to prevent this in the future? Do you want to be someone who fears failure?  Or do you want to be someone who learns from it and moves on? Normally this is where I ask for a rating/review/subscribe, but instead, this month I’m asking that you make a donation for Breast Cancer Research in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Today on the show I'm honored to have Michelle Dennedy, VP and Chief Privacy Officer at Cisco Systems.   About Michelle Dennedy Michelle Finneran Dennedy is Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer at Cisco, where she works to raise awareness and create tools that promote privacy, quality, respect, trust, and asset-level possibilities for data. She is a unique visionary in the field of privacy and the IT industry, bringing together multifaceted approaches that provide sincere privacy protections and drive business value. Throughout her career, Dennedy has led security and privacy initiatives, ranging from regulatory compliance, privacy engineering, advocacy and education efforts, and litigation at companies including Cisco, and previously McAfee/Intel Security, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems. She foundedThe iDennedy Project, which seeks to change how people think about information and data, and co-authored The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto: Getting from Policy to Code to QA to Value. Dennedy is a highly sought-after public speaker who sits on the boards of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of Northern California. She has been honored with many industry awards including California’s Most Powerful and Influential Women, by the National Diversity Council; the IAPP Vanguard Award; Woman of Influence for Security and Privacy, from the Executive Women’s Forum (EWF) and CSO Magazine; Woman of the Year in Technology and Transformation, by the Stevie American Business Awards, and most recently, World Women Awards Silver Winner for Female Executive of the Year for her leadership in optimizing Cisco’s privacy maturity. Dennedy has a Doctorate of Law degree from Fordham University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Clinical, Counseling and Applied Psychology and Economics from The Ohio State University. Today we talked about All about Privacy Origin Story What does a CPO do? Mentors What should technical leadership be focusing on when it comes to privacy? GDPR? Women in Tech? Inclusion Humility Curiosity Connect with Michelle Twitter Privacy Sigma Normally this is where I ask for a rating/review/subscribe, but instead, this month I'm asking that you make a donation for Breast Cancer Research in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Last week I was honored to have Tom Rath on the show to talk about some of his books and how they impact leaders. Today I want talk about some of the take aways that I had from Tom's books and how they have impacted my life. Eat Move Sleep Walking Meetings 10,000 steps Standing no sugar in coffee cut out fruit juices cut down on bread SLEEP!!!! Are You Fully Charged? Work in bursts Pomadora Technique Search for meaning, not happiness Strengths Finders 2.0 Focus on your strengths But don't completely forget your weaknesses How Full is Your Bucket Give what you want Filling others buckets, fills  your own About Tom Rath Tom Rath is a researcher and writer who studies the role of human behavior in business, health, and well-being. Tom has written six New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers over the past decade, starting with the #1 New York Times bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket? In 2016, his book StrengthsFinder 2.0 was listed by amazon.com as the top selling non-fiction book of all time. Tom’s bestsellers include Strengths Based Leadership, Wellbeing, and Eat Move Sleep and Are You Fully Charged?. He has also written two children’s books and produced a feature-length documentary. In total, Tom’s books have sold more than 6 million copies and have made more than 300 appearances on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. Tom currently serves as a senior scientist for and advisor to Gallup, where he previously spent thirteen years leading the organization’s work on employee engagement, strengths, leadership, and well-being. Tom also served as vice chairman of the VHL cancer research organization. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a regular guest lecturer. Tom, his wife, Ashley, and their two children live in Arlington, Virginia. Tom’s Books Are You Fully Charged? The Rechargeables: Eat Move Sleep (kids book) Eat Move Sleep Strength Finders 2.0 Strengths Based Leadership How Full is Your Bucket? Wellbeing How Full is Your Bucket for Kids (kids book) Vital Friends Connect with Tom Website Twitter Facebook I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

Today on the show we have Kevin Griffin, owner, trainer and consultant at Swift Kick.  Kevin was gracious enough to have me on his show, the Swift Kick Show a few months back.  Here's a link to that episode. As a software professional with over ten years of experience, Kevin Griffin has had the fantastic opportunity to work with a variety of industries ranging from Military to Health Care to Ticket Brokering. A lesson he learned early in his career was that true experts and professionals teach everything they learn. Since then, his professional philosophy has been to set his clients up for success from the beginning by teaching them how this crazy world of custom software development really works. Kevin's business is dedicated to training developers of all genders, ages, creeds, and experience levels how to be amazing at their jobs. It is not uncommon to see him traveling around the country and speaking at user groups, regional events, and even the occasional national conference. Kevin is am a Microsoft MVP, specializing in ASP.NET and web development. However, as a lifelong learner, he tries not to limit myself to a single stack or framework. Things we talked about Teach everything you know What works best for tech learning Training Opportunity Cost for training Are you training on the right things Conferences Side-Businesses (hustles) Connect with Kevin 2 Frugal Dudes Podcast Swift Kick Twitter LinkedIn Revolution Conf. - June 6-7, 2019 in VA, Beach I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

I'm honored to have multiple time #1 New York Times best selling author Tom Rath on the show today.  At one point, prior to writing best selling non-fiction books, Tom was a technical project manager.  He offers great insight into his life and work during this interview.  We talk about ways to increase health, well-being and happiness in general. We discuss focusing on your strengths and Tom's advice to young leaders. Tom's books have made a big impact in how I do certain things in my life which I'll address in detail in future episode when I give my take aways from several of his books. About Tom Rath Tom Rath is a researcher and writer who studies the role of human behavior in business, health, and well-being. Tom has written six New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers over the past decade, starting with the #1 New York Times bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket? In 2016, his book StrengthsFinder 2.0 was listed by amazon.com as the top selling non-fiction book of all time. Tom’s bestsellers include Strengths Based Leadership, Wellbeing, and Eat Move Sleep and Are You Fully Charged?. He has also written two children’s books and produced a feature-length documentary. In total, Tom’s books have sold more than 6 million copies and have made more than 300 appearances on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. Tom currently serves as a senior scientist for and advisor to Gallup, where he previously spent thirteen years leading the organization’s work on employee engagement, strengths, leadership, and well-being. Tom also served as vice chairman of the VHL cancer research organization. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a regular guest lecturer. Tom, his wife, Ashley, and their two children live in Arlington, Virginia. What we talked about: Eat Move Sleep Walking Meetings 10,000 steps Standing no sugar in coffee cut out fruit juices cut down on bread SLEEP!!!! Are You Fully Charged? Work in bursts Pomadora Technique Search for meaning, not happiness Strengths Finders 2.0 Why should we focus on strengths and not our weaknesses grades...ugh! How full is your bucket Give what you want Filling others buckets, fills  your own Tom's Books Are You Fully Charged? The Rechargeables: Eat Move Sleep (kids book) Eat Move Sleep Strength Finders 2.0 Strengths Based Leadership How Full is Your Bucket? Wellbeing How Full is Your Bucket for Kids (kids book) Vital Friends Connect with Tom Website Twitter Facebook I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!