Things You Learn From Those You Love

Gilda Radner was a favourite on Saturday Night Live some years back before her life was tragically ended by cancer.  Before she passed on, she wrote a book called It's Always Something.

While I haven't read the book, there is a story in it that has circulated, and I was recently reminded of it again.  As such, I thought I'd share it with you along with the musing that came to me.


Here's the excerpt.  (Dibby was Gilda’s housekeeper):

10 Critical Survival Skills for Today's IT Leader

I'm cheating today.

This isn't a new post, but the links to the posts in a recent series I did about the 10 critical competencies that today's IT leaders need to adapt, or risk becoming organizational road kill...

Image from Man vs. Wild TV Show

The good news? You don't have to eat bugs like in Man vs. Wild.

The bad news? You are likely going to have to change the way you do things.

I would encourage you to read the posts, then let me know what you would add to the list.  This is the essence of an upcoming presentation I'm preparing and would dearly love your feedback.

Here is the list of all 10 competencies:

• Competence
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Corporate Contributor
• Conceptualization
• Connector
• Community Builder
• Current
• Creativity
• Copious, Continuous, Infectious Passion

Beating the Odds for Average CIO Tenure

I'm fast approaching my third anniversary in my job.

Should I be looking for a career change?

If I want to hold to the average tenure for IT leaders (CIOs and senior directors), then I have approximately 13 months to get myself settled in a new organization.

I've been wondering about this lately.

I'm not considering leaving my current position, but I wonder why there seems to be a trend for the CIO to constantly be the "new guy (or gal)" on the team.

According to Gartner Research in this Computerworld article, the median tenure for the CIO is 4.1 years.  Which is actually up from a few years previous.  There is a lot of evidence available to show this is a very real trend, but rather than bore you with proving it, let's think for a bit about why it happens.

The Secret to Getting Support for Your Projects

Photo: K.Pashuk

This took me a long time to learn.

Hopefully this will help you learn it quicker than I did.

Perhaps an object lesson will speed it up even more.

Go outside and find a very small rock.

Something gnat sized.

Now remove one of your shoes and insert the tiny rock into your shoe, and put the shoe back on your foot.

That's it.

Now wait a while.