Overall, I was glad that someone wrote a book on this topic. I had often wondered just how relevant the middle management work is to today’s “flat” organizations. To my surprise, the middle management profession is still very much alive; however, the old advancement rules no longer apply. Companies are also less accommodating when it comes to nurturing and managing one’s career. In any case, feel free to derive your own conclusion on the middle management work. If you happen to pick up the book later, enjoy the reading. I did.

By the Numbers

• The number of managers in the economy is steadily increasing, not decreasing.
• The numbers do not tell how life inside organizations has changed for managers.

The Changing Role

• In today’s team and matrix environment, two major job activities emerge:

1. Managing internal processes of the team. Trying to place the best people on the team. Setting priorities, etc.
2. Acting as an ambassador to other teams. Managing boundary between teams, both an opportunity and challenge. Opportunity because of the visibility presented in the work. Challenge due to the significant and subtle relationship skills are required to be successful boundary work.

• Stress is up because the environment we manage is much more complex, which leads to increased hours and uncertainty that managers face regarding their own fate.
• Autonomy vs. Breadth: Because firms have reduced organization layers and with diffusion of IT, managers face more monitoring and control, which means less autonomy. For the same reasons, jobs are broader and more complex, which means more breadth.

Personal thoughts: These points match up with my experience pretty well – a lot of coordination and path-paving work we do on the daily basis.

Changing Rules for Success

• Opportunities and rules for advancement have changed. Under the best circumstances, managerial assessment is a difficult business for two reasons.

1. Managerial work is relatively invisible and hard to capture in clean measures.
2. When performance metrics are used, they are unreliable.

Personal thoughts: I was hoping the book can shed some insights, unfortunately, not much help here. How to advance within the organization via the middle management route also depends a lot on the individual’s values and philosophies. It also depends on how one defines success and planning out the goals for achieving it.

Shifting Commitments

• Managers maybe under increased pressure and may feel greater stress, they have strong commitment to the work itself. Middle managers are committed to their tasks, to their immediate jobs, and to their close colleagues.
• Many managers have lost their commitment to the firm as an enterprise and they are suspicious of the motivations and actions of top management.

Personal thoughts: These points also match up my sentiment pretty well. Everyone’s mileage will differ obviously. At the end of day, it would still appear that the people I work for and with have a sizeable influence on how I feel about my work. I continue to like what I do and will do my best especially for the people I care about. That is my own definition of commitment and loyalty.

Responsible for: 1) publishing of conference web site, 2) setting up USB flash drives with session handouts, 3) assembling attendee packets including various handouts/flyers and CPE certificates, 4) facility set-up at the beginning of the conference as well as break-down at the end of the conference, and 5) introduction of speakers in various sessions throughout the conference.

The conference committee elected to go “green” and not printing the session handouts by default.

Download: 2009 Spring Conference Brochure

Podcast Awards Link

• Build relationship and trust through human connections
• Focus on quality of the connections, quantity is secondary
• Be yourself but avoid being WRAM (World Revolves Around Me)

In addition to the Hotjobs articles, you can find more of her work at www.asklizryan.com. If you use LinkedIn like many of us do, check out some of her advices on practicing online networking effectively.

The bottom line is… the more people who know you well enough and can vouch for you with credibility, the better position you will be in for any kind of career movement. Most of us, yours truly included, are lazy when it comes to networking and would rather do nothing than connecting with old acquaints. All is not lost, you now have excellent tools like LinkedIn and Plaxo to help you to reconnect and stay in touch.

• iTunes: Apple has made listening and sharing audio properties ubiquitous, and there are some great podcasts out there. To take advantage of the free podcasts out there, you just need iTunes. You do not need an iPod unless you plan to take the podcasts with you on the road.
• RSS Reader: There are a number of great resources out there that come in the form of blog. RSS readers are pretty prevalent these days, and you can use the one that comes with IE, Firefox, or via Google. Personally, I prefer thick client and use NewsGator; however, I have used Google Reader and think it is great.

Here are the resources I have found helpful and review them regularly, at least once a week.

• Career Opportunities (http://welchwrite.com/career/): Great podcasts with transcripts posted via RSS. Doug Welch has shared a number of career insights, and I have enjoyed listening to him every week.
• Manager Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com/): Unmatched podcasts on all aspects of career management. The podcast series, for the most part, targets towards managers or supervisors but they have a number of podcasts that are still useful even if you don’t supervise anyone. The podcasts are all about practicing the techniques of being a top notch professional, in any field. Registration is free and highly recommended since you will also get the extra monthly member-only podcasts.
• The Executive Update (http://blog.netshare.com/): A number of insightful blogs from Kathy Simmons of NETSHARE, Inc. The services of NETSHARE cost money but the blogs are free. The target audience is mainly the “executives,” and that is applicable to all of us. Each one of us is the CEO and chief executive of “Me, Inc.”
• Leading News (http://www.leadingnews.org/): This site has a solid monthly newsletter and TeleForum with Marshall Goldsmith frequently as a guest speaker in the TeleForum. Marshall Goldsmith also has his own blog (http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/blog), and I enjoy reading it every time there is a new posting. At the minimum, subscribe the newsletter and find time to attend the TeleForum everyone once a while.
• Job Boards (Yahoo! HotJobs and Monster): For decent career related articles and writing, I think HotJobs and Monster have a very good collection. Sign up for their career related newsletter and check worth-a-while article regularly.

Feel free to chat with me if you have any questions. All aforementioned people have donated their time and shared very valuable insights via the technologies. To me, they are all top notch professionals and a class act by any measure.

Responsible for: 1) publishing of conference web site, 2) conference CD with electronic handouts, 3) printing of paper handouts for each session, 4) attendee packets including various handouts/flyers and CPE certificates, 5) facility set-up at the beginning of the conference as well as break-down at the end of the conference, and 6) introduction of speakers in various sessions throughout the conference.

Download: 2008 Spring Conference Brochure

Laura’s Internet Safety for Kids web page (contains a number of documents for download)

Manager Tools’ podcast: The First Rule for New Managers
John Lucht’s Insights for the Journey

I will remind myself from time to time to avoid those costly mistakes. Why? Because “…the more magnificent and righteous I am, the farther and harder I’ll fall when I inevitably mess up.”

If you are a WSJ subscriber, here is the link to Peter Jeffrey’s article.

Check out this web posting for more information on this event
After the interview, the parting gifts for the students

You can find Don’s blog over here.

Ask Annie Article

Liz Ryan’s article on Yahoo! HotJobs

Abstract: CA invited me to give a talk about SPE’s implementation of Wily Introscope product. We have been using Introscope since early 2004, so we shared our experience using the product and lessons learned.

Download: CAWily_BH_20080124.pdf (PDF, 780K), CAWily_ExecRT_20080124.pdf (PDF, 75K)

So why sell your ideas? Because no one is obligated to buy, not usually anyway.

Link to HBR’s IdeaCast
Link to Dr. Goldsmith’s blog (so glad I found this)

]]> http://bitworkshop.com/davidlowe/2008/01/21/why-sell/feed/ 0 http://bitworkshop.com/davidlowe/2008/01/17/insights-for-the-journey/ http://bitworkshop.com/davidlowe/2008/01/17/insights-for-the-journey/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:57:24 +0000 admin http://bitworkshop.com/davidlowe/?p=39 I like this book for several reasons. First, the prints are visually pleasing, for me at least, with large fonts and ample space. Second, Mr. Lucht’s writing style yields content that is easy to absorb. Third, and the most important of them all, John’s advices make sense and work, day after day.

Some people might read the book and go “So what, those are just common sense stuff.” Well, sure but try to do those things in the book consistently day in and day out. I guess practicing management is about doing the right things and being effective on a consistent basis. A great read for anyone who is in the management line of work or aspiring to get into one. I read the book from time to time and continue to get new “insights” every time.

Link to the book on Amazon

Many thanks to the Apache Friends Project
Other WAMP stacks listed on Wiki

Sign up for the Ask Annie e-mail newsletter
Check out Anne’s blog

The Project Management Podcast

Career Opportunities podcast

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

Plan Ahead

Sign up with the free membership for the excellent, free podcasts. No, you don’t need to own an iPod to listen to the podcasts, just iTunes will do nicely.

Abstract: MISA invited me to give a talk about my work at Sony Pictures Entertainment and the IT profession. We discussed a number of topics on why I felt the IT profession is a viable career and made some suggestions on making the decision to work in this fast-pace and ever-changing field.

Download: DavidLowe_CSUN_20071128.pdf (PDF, 2.55MB)

Abstract: As enterprises continue to invest in composite applications based on BEA’s application & SOA platforms, proactive application management is essential to address problems before they impact customers and insure optimal application performance that meets SLAs. In this session, executives from CA’s Wily Technology Division and Sony Pictures will discuss the importance of end-to-end application management. Attendees will learn first hand how Sony Pictures uses Wily to extend the value of BEA with comprehensive monitoring and diagnostics for its mission critical applications in production. Sony Pictures will also share best practices it follows to keep its applications highly available and performing at peak levels.

Download: CAWily_BEAWorld_2007.pdf (PDF, 1.04MB)

Abstract: The Java application server is a common part of today’s multi-tier web application environment. This session will examine security and controls over a Java web applications hosting environment. Using results from recent audits, the case study will review the following areas: Application & Web Server Security, Security Administration, Patch Management, Configuration Management, Release Management, Performance Management & System Monitoring, Redundancy, Backup and Recovery, and Capacity Planning. A basic understanding of the multi-tier web application will be helpful. For each area, we will identify risks assessed and the controls or corrective actions that mitigate the risks. The BEA WebLogic application servers and SUN web servers are the products that will be discussed in the presentation.

Download: ISACA-LA_2007_Handout-T8.pdf (PDF, 1.35MB)

Abstract: WICS invited me and my co-worker Kym Cabrera to give a talk about the IT profession and industry. We prepared some materials to discuss why we felt the IT profession is a viable career, especially for women, and why we chose this field.

Download: DavidLowe_UCI_20061116.pdf (PDF, 55KB)

Focus on contributions with well trained personnel, operational excellence, and prudent fiscal management. Managed a software maintenance budget of $3.0M in 2007 and a departmental budget $8.0M in 2008. Implemented application hosting metrics to forecast service demands and to measure staff productivity.

Accomplishment Highlights:

• Achieved $570K in maintenance reduction and 6.2% overall savings in the overhead budget in 2008.
• Instituted a tracking system that has logged over 4,900 application deployments since 2006.
• Implemented and introduced JBoss and Oracle 11g on Linux for enterprise application hosting in 2008.
• Managed $2.2M Business Objects upgrade which converted 1,400 reports from v.5/6 to XIR2.
• Built a customer-centric support team that achieved top recognition within the IT organization in 2007.
• Designed and conducted an internal customer satisfaction survey to assess service quality in 2007.
• Led a 12-month effort to stabilize the support operations of the EAI/middleware team in 2007.
• Achieved $300K in annual savings by consolidating and streamlining WebLogic support in 2006.
• Increased 200% in hosting capacity and reduced complexity by consolidating physical WebLogic servers and standardizing applications on one WebLogic version in 2005.
• Promoted to director from technical architect in 2003 and promoted to executive director in 2007.

Responsible for: 1) publishing of conference web site, 2) conference CD with electronic handouts, 3) printing of paper handouts for each session, 4) attendee packets including various handouts/flyers and CPE certificates, 5) facility set-up at the beginning of the conference as well as break-down at the end of the conference, and 6) introduction of speakers in various sessions throughout the conference.

Download: 2007 Spring Conference Brochure

Responsible for: 1) publishing of conference web site, 2) conference CD with electronic handouts, 3) printing of paper handouts for each session, 4) attendee packets including various handouts/flyers and CPE certificates, 5) facility set-up at the beginning of the conference as well as break-down at the end of the conference, and 6) introduction of speakers in various sessions throughout the conference.

Download: 2006 Spring Conference Brochure

Responsible for: 1) publishing of conference web site, 2) conference CD with electronic handouts, 3) printing of paper handouts for each session, 4) attendee packets including various handouts/flyers and CPE certificates, 5) facility set-up at the beginning of the conference as well as break-down at the end of the conference, and 6) introduction of speakers in various sessions throughout the conference.

Download: 2005 Spring Conference Brochure

Responsible for: 1) publishing of conference web site, 2) conference CD with electronic handouts, 3) printing of paper handouts for each session, 4) attendee packets including various handouts/flyers and CPE certificates, 5) facility set-up at the beginning of the conference as well as break-down at the end of the conference, and 6) introduction of speakers in various sessions throughout the conference.

Download: 2004 Spring Conference Brochure

Responsible for: 1) publishing of conference web site, 2) conference CD with electronic handouts, 3) printing of paper handouts for each session, 4) attendee packets including various handouts/flyers and CPE certificates, 5) facility set-up at the beginning of the conference as well as break-down at the end of the conference, and 6) introduction of speakers in various sessions throughout the conference.

Download: 2003 Spring Conference Brochure

Accomplishment Highlights:

• Reduced $150K in annual costs by in-sourcing the company intranet maintenance activities.
• Enabled HR self-service initiative with a company-wide LDAP directory implementation.

Accomplishment Highlights:

• Secured over $300K in contract assignments by providing outstanding services to the customers.

Accomplishment Highlights:

• Saved $25K by performing re-design and relocation of the company network with internal labor.
• Reduced $15K in annual operating costs by consolidating 30 file-servers down to 10.