Erik on Software

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leadership

A collection of 95 issues

Community Comment: Part 43 - "Future proofing" is similar to "predicting" because nothing is certain

* The future is a known unknown that contains risks * Risks can be mitigated through scenario planning * "Future proofing" is similar to "predicting" because nothing is certain * Planning over plans, yes, but lack of strategy can be a risk in itself

Past Book Review (June 13, 2010): "IBM and the Holocaust"

New book review for IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation, by Edwin Black, Dialog Press, 2008: As a consultant, I often hear complaints from others in the workforce about IBM's WebSphere product line, but the objects of

Media Query Source: Part 57 - CIO (US digital magazine); Book recommendations from CIOs and other tech leaders

* CIO (US digital magazine) * Book recommendations from CIOs and other tech leaders * "The Ideal Executive", by Ichak Adizes * Every executive has a unique, but not "ideal", management style My responses ended up being included in an article at CIO (September 18, 2025). Above image from cited

Community Comment: Part 42 - Positive, negative & "realistic" company culture

* For a long time, I valued being a realist rather than a pessimist or optimist * However, I've long discovered something * The world is largely negative, so being a realist means largely being negative * Making the choice to be positive is the only true alternative path The comments I

Community Comment: Part 41 - Always do the right thing, even when nobody's watching

* Management is doing the things right * Leadership is doing the right thing * This Peter Drucker quote is about the nature of one's actions * Always do the right thing, even when nobody's watching The comments I provided in reaction to a community discussion thread. Former Senior Advisor

Media Query Source: Part 49 - InformationWeek (US digital magazine); Effective ways to tame technical debt

* InformationWeek (US digital magazine) * Effective ways to tame technical debt * Technical debt involves weighing trade-offs between short-term and long-term goals * Collaboration is especially critical when the technologies used to build a product drive what the product can provide for customers The query responses I provided to InformationWeek on February 7,

New Book Review: "Leading the Leaders"

New book review for Leading the Leaders: How to Enrich Your Style of Management and Handle People Whose Style Is Different From Yours, by Ichak Kalderon Adizes PhD, Adizes Institute, 2004: This book is the third in a three-part series on "management" by Adizes, the first two being

New Book Review: "The Ideal Executive"

New book review for The Ideal Executive: Why You Cannot Be One and What To Do About It, by Ichak Kalderon Adizes PhD, Adizes Institute, 2004: Without question, this book is the best on the topic of "management" I've ever read in my entire career. The

Community Comment: Part 28 - Technical debt is actually a subset of organizational debt

* Not all technical debt is the same * Discussion with purported CTOs * Technical debt is subset of organizational debt * Business + technology = "our business"

New Book Review: "The Threshold"

New book review for The Threshold: Leading in the Age of AI, by Nick Chatrath, Diversion Books, 2023: Copy provided by Amazon. In the introductory pages of this book, Chatrath states that "this book functions as a first foray into exploring what good leadership looks like in the present