Showing results by author "Jim Anderson" in All Categories

Every time we give a speech, we all want the same thing to happen: We want to change the world. However, in order to do that, we are going to have to find ways to connect with our audience. The challenge we are facing is that it turns out this is not an easy thing to do.

CIOs need to be able to communicate their thoughts with the rest of their department and the company in order to maintain credibility as a thought-leader. Effective communication is a set of skills that every CIO needs to develop. Learn how in this comprehensive guide.

Before we can give the perfect speech, we have to get ready to give the perfect speech. Just saying the words of our speech over and over again is a good first step, but it's nota

Before we can give the perfect speech, we have to get ready to give the perfect speech. Just saying the words of our speech over and over again is a good first step, but it's not enough. We need to know what else we have to do prior to giving a speech in order to be ready when the big day comes.

A HOLIDAY STORY We’d put out a nice book: Alternative Holidays. It had a fancy cover. The stories a perfect fit. So I was sitting there. Basking in success. And a story skitters across the floor. And then another, and another... And then, a slight sobbing sound. Then there came a most tremulous voice. “We want a book cover too.” I reached down and picked up one of the stories. It settled in and started to purr. Then I picked up another, and another. They were so good. It was like the Island of Misfit Toys. Perfectly good stories that just had trouble fitting in. So I gave them a cover...

As speakers, we want to create the best speech that we can. In order to do this we can make use of a large number of tools that are available. However, we first have to know about the tools that we have access to and then we need to know how to go about using them. Each of these tasks can be learned.

As individuals we have a tendency to shy away from getting involved in arguments. We view them as being confrontational and filled with emotions. However, when it comes to negotiating and when we have a different view of the world than the other side of the table, it turns out that a little bit of arguing might be just what the doctor ordered.

During a negotiation a lot of promises and agreements are made by both sides of the table. This is all well and good, but the ultimate goal of any negotiation is for both sides to agree on a deal that they can live with. As a negotiator, it's going to be your job to take a look at where things stand in the negotiation and then package up the agreements so that they can be included in the final deal.

Isn't technology a wonderful thing? As CIO you are in charge of one of the most technologically sophisticated parts of the company. It's very easy to fill your days dealing with issues regarding servers, networks, routers, switches, firewalls, etc. However, it turns out that if you do this, then you'll be overlooking one of the most important tasks that a CIO needs to accomplish: communication. This book has been written in order to show you what you need to be doing in order to get your message out.

It's not easy being an IT manager. There are constant staffing issue, budget issues, project issues, and the challenge of keeping your management informed about what is going on. The one thing that too many of us end up overlooking as we try to accomplish all of these things is that we have one more management job to do: Manage our careers.

First off, I'm very sorry that you have an interest in this topic. I suspect that either you or someone that you know has broken a bone. This is the kind of thing that seems to bedevil children but it turns out that it can strike any of us at any age. I suspect that by this point in life you already know how to deal with having a cold, the flu, or a stomach ache. However, there is a very good chance that nobody ever told you how to deal with breaking a bone.

The key to being a successful CIO is making sure you have a good understanding of just exactly what a CIO does. This means you have to take a look at what CIOs do and then learn from them. In order to be a successful CIO, you may decide you need an MBA. There are a lot of different ways to go about getting this degree - which one is the right one for you?

Every company wants to grow and become more successful. There is no magic formula to make this happen, but it is generally agreed that in order for this to happen the company cannot stand still. Instead, they always have to be trying new things and growing.

What does it really mean to be a CIO? You sure won't be writing any software any more. You won't be stringing network cables or updating firewall parameters. What does a CIO really do? I've got some bad news for you: CIOs manage.

When you find yourself in a leadership position, you'll want to make the most of it. This means that you want to be viewed as being both powerful and effective. In order to make this happen, you need to have a good understanding of what leadership is really all about.

There are a lot of bad guys out there. For some odd reason, a lot of them seem to want to break into your company's networks and applications. As the CIO, it's your job to make sure that this does not happen. As much as we like to spend our time looking outwards in order to detect the next threat that our company may be facing, perhaps we're looking in the wrong direction. Just as important may be the insider threat that lurks within the company. No matter where it comes from, cybercrime is your problem to deal with.

When we sit down to negotiate, we are really entering into a very specialized conversation with the other side of the table. We have a set of goals and they have their own set of goals. The purpose of the negotiation conversation is to find out if there is a way that the needs of both sides of the table can be met.

So just exactly what is innovation? It turns out that innovation is doing something new. It can be a new method, a new idea, or even a new product. In the world of IT, we have the ability to solve just about any problem. However, how we go about solving problems can become outdated quickly. What we need to do as CIOs is to find out how to bring the spirit of innovation into our IT departments.

All too often CIOs can get caught up in all of the technical details of the job: boosting uptime, replacing servers, guarding against cyber criminals, etc. What we tend to forget is that IT exists to serve the rest of the business and they are there (in most cases) to make money. This means that there needs to be a business side to IT and that is one of a CIO's key responsibilities.

As the CIO of your company, it's your job to stay on top of all of the different forms of technology that the company uses to accomplish its business goals. This task is made even harder by all of the changes that are always occurring in the various technology fields. As the CIO you need to be understand how to pick the correct type of database to be used on projects. You need to watch the rollout of other large-scale IT projects and learn from them: what went right and what went wrong.

Product failures are never something that a product manager wants to talk about. We all live with the secret dread that someday the product that we are responsible for might turn out to be a failure. It turns out that we're all missing an important learning opportunity. Products do fail, and they end up failing for a wide range of reasons. Every product failure is loaded with fantastic learning opportunities for product managers. We just need to take the time and open our eyes to see what we can learn from each failure.