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

Today on the show we’re honored to have bestselling author Todd Henry on the show. Todd   teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of four books ( The Accidental Creative , Die Empty , Louder Than Words , and Herding Tigers ) which have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he speaks and consults across do...

I read, well listen to, a lot of leadership books.  Most of the leadership books I read are either very theoretical, with little practical advise, but very good theory, or very practical, with steps you can take, but not much on the “why” those steps really work.  This book, Herding Tigers, by Todd Henry is the best of both worlds.  I was telling Todd the other day that his writing see...

Today I had the opportunity to talk to Microsoft MVP , Richard Taylor. He’s a super cool guy, with great leadership stories and an epic beard. We talked about his journey into leadership and the values from working on building your team for the longterm instead of writing code to fix short-term problems.  Richard brought lots of energy and great stories of his journey into leadership. Richar...

The Leadership Journey is a book by Jim Holmes.  Jim joins me today for a great talk about his journey through leadership, his book, and some struggles and adversity he’s been through and how he’s working to overcome them. You can read about Jim and his writings on his blog Frazziled Dad. Jim’s beginnings start from a farming background, then a time in the Air Force learning tech...

General John E. Michel I’m really stoked about our guest today.  Retired General John E. Michel, from the US Air Force is joining us to talk about the power of Positive Leadership.  Now that he’s retired from the US Air Force,  John serves as the Executive Director of Skyworks Global Inc ., Council Member of U.S. Council on Competitiveness, Chairman of the Board for DemandTrans , co-fo...

Today we have Andy Davis from Venturi Group on the podcast. Andy is the host of Venturi’s Voice podcast ( itunes ) and currently the Director of Marketing at Venturi Group, an IT Recruitment agency based in the UK, New York & Berlin. Andy has an interesting story and background.  He started out working for seed level startups and even worked on the now famous Hyperloop project that was spawned...

Today we have one of my favorite people, Nicole Greer, with us from Vibrant Coaching.   Nicole Greer works with leaders in organizations who want to develop their talent, increase the bottom line, and coach individuals to engage with the vision. As the principal coach and CEO of Vibrant Coaching, she helps individuals, corporations, government entities and non-profits become the people they were c...

Energy If you’re like me, you wish you had more energy to tackle the things you want to tackle in a day.  I hope that this episode (last in our 5 day blitz) will help you discover a few ways to manage the finite amounts of energy that we have a little better. Below are some tips for getting more energy throughout the day.  Remember, I’m an IT Geek, not a doctor.  Consult your doctor or...

Time I get asked about time management more than I do any other question.  People ask, how is it that you have time with your family, work a full-time job, teach part-time, build apps, host a podcast, and do side hustles regularly?  Well, its all about time management.  We all have the same finite amount of time.  24 hours in a day.  We choose to spend it differently. One thing I recommend before...

Assets What’s your biggest asset?  Could it be your programming skills?  Your education?  Your experience? For me its the people I surround myself with. At home and in life its my wife.  She’s my biggest asset.  At the office, its my team.  I have a great team of people and they are by far my biggest asset. So, how do you manage your assets?  Well I’m going to list some common as...

Focus We all have a finite amount of focus.  We may think of focus as something you do, but I think it is something you have.  You either have focus for something, or you don’t.  And focusing on something is like contracting a muscle.  It uses energy and wears on you.  And the longer you focus on something, the more tired you get and the harder it is to keep focusing.  I notice this when I d...

Today I’m going to do something totally different.  I’m going to do a blitz week.  5 episodes in 5 days .  These will be on the topic of managing your F.A.T.E.  The acronym F.A.T.E stands for your finite resources, your Focus, Assets, Time and Energy. I first heard about this from Toddy Henry, host of The Accidental Creative . I highly recommend you check out his podcast and his books....

It’s easy to stop a train that’s not moving…But its hard to stop one that has already started. Velocity is defined as the speed of something in a given direction.  Have you ever started on a project, task, program, or something and got into the “ flow ” state?  What is flow you ask?  Flow is being in the Zone .  If you’ve played or watched basketball you’r...

The Power of a Field Trip One way to inspire creativity and to motivate yourself or your team is to take a field trip. This will work if wherever you work for a nonprofit organization or a traditional office. Take a field trip. I’m going to tell you two stories to prove how beneficial field trips of any size can be.   Small Field Trips My team took a little field trip a couple of years ago. We rod...

When we react to situations, we’re on defense.  You rarely score on defense.  Its much easier to score when you’re on offense.  On offense, you’re responding to the situation, not reacting.  There is a difference.  Responses are thought-out, planned and not usually emotionally driven.  Reactions are usually hap-hazardous, emotionally driven, and not thought through.  Mistakes oft...

This is a special treat for all the listeners to A Geek Leader Podcast.  My guest today is David Neal. Like me, he’s from the south and I’m sure you couldn’t tell that by either of our accents.  He’s a well known keynote speaker, software developer, Microsoft MVP, and technical leader. He’s a father of 5 sons (that’s right FIVE!!!) and an amazing artist who sket...

Your team doesn’t just “trust” you because of your title.  When I started at my most recent position where I head up the IT group at a mid-sized company just south of Charlotte, NC, I wasn’t granted full trust of my team.  Just like, when you get a new boss, you don’t fully trust them. You can’t tell them just anything at first.  You have to learn how they react...

Being an IT leader you get lots of opportunities to work with vendors.  Sometimes you welcome the calls, most of the times you don’t.  This episode I’ll go over some tips to help you work with vendors and make the best choice when deciding which vendor go with.  Vendor management is an important aspect of leading a technology team. Vendors at conferences or trade shows They usually are...

I recently gave a talk on Employee Engagement for millennials.  Here are my thoughts on the subject: Engagement Stats https://www.themuse.com/advice/10-shocking-stats-about-employee-engagemen t 70% of employees not engaged at work 89% of companies think employees leave for more $$$ but only 12% actually do 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least 1 time per week but only 13% of di...

If you’ve every flown on an airplane then you’ve heard the flight attendant say: In the event of the cabin loose pressure, an  oxygen mask  will automatically appear in front of you. To start the flow of oxygen, pull the mask towards you. Place it firmly over your nose and mouth, secure the elastic band behind your head, and breathe normally. Although the bag does not inflate, oxygen i...

So you got a new job and now you have to deliver the bad news that you’re putting in your 2 week notice.  How do you do it without burning bridges, saving face, and leave the position better for you having been there. Below are some tips that might help you out: Have a plan . I don’t recommend quitting a job until you’ve already accepted an offer somewhere else, or have a side in...

I’ve been noticeably absent from the podcast for the past couple of months, so where have I been? I planned to take 2-3 weeks off from the podcast and take my family on a much needed vacation to Turks and Caicos.  On our 3rd day of the trip I got the call that no son wants to get.  My dad has cancer.  At first the doctors were optimistic said they thought it was treatable so they scheduled s...

Whenever I talk about leadership at an event, I usually get a several people that either email me or talk to me afterwards to tell me how great that it all sounds, but that they can’t do those things.  For some reason, something won’t let them.  It’s usually either fear or a lack of confidence, which I address in previous episodes: But sometimes its this thought or belief that we...

We all have feelings of inadequacy. Many times I have this fear, that someone is going to show up at my door and shut it all down.  They will tell me that I’m not qualified to write about leadership, or to host a podcast, or to build websites or mobile apps, or to teach.  And it will all be over.  Everyday, at some point in that day, I suffer from feelings of being unqualified to do the work...

Most people in Technology struggle with communication… better yet, most people in business struggle with communication.  I’m no exception to that, but I’m working on it.  Here are some of the things that I’ve learned and implemented to help me with communication. One of the reasons some of us are bad at communication is due to fear.  We’re afraid to let people that we...