Tag: it manager training

#9 – Tall bookends

Friday Fun

Many of my IT Manager Institute classes have been memorable, , , all have been special. The class dinners are especially fun and an opportunity to get to know our IT manager participants better. My wife, Dorine, was able to attend several of the dinners, even two outside the US (Aruba and Slovenia). Dorine was always a hit at a class dinner because she was so comfortable with everyone and a joy for participants to get to know. Plus, she made the dinner more special for me!

OK, to the point of this post, , ,

In my first Slovenia class, we had 18 students, , , it was a great class. Two of the students were 7-feet tall. Giants!

slovenia-1

At the class dinner, our “paparazzi” decided to get a unique photo, , , a “bookends” photo of sorts:

slovenia-2

I have dozens of unique photos from my Institute classes, , , one-of-a-kind captions that will be remembered forever, , , at least by me. This “bookends” photo just happened to give me a thought for this post.

kathy-shaqCapture what’s going on around you with a photo, , , will be well worth it one day. For example, my sister-in-law works in the athletic department of a large high school. She is always sending me a photo taken with a well known college football coach or celebrity. This one with 7-foot-1-inch Shaquille O’Neal goes well with the theme of this post, , , thanks Kathy.

 

#8 – “We won’t be having fish.”

Friday Fun

icbc dinnerI’ve hosted many class dinners over the years as part of delivering my IT Manager Institute class. They were always fun, a few were truly memorable, and several were held in very interesting places. I will probably add future Friday FUN posts to tell you about more of these.

Dorine was able to attend several of the class dinners. She always went to class dinners held in the Nashville area, and she was able to travel to Orangestad, Aruba and Ljubljana, Slovenia with me. Both of the dinners she attended at these venues were memorable, , , I’m thankful I always took photos in these class events.

The subject of this post is about the class dinner I held for a special class from China. The largest bank in China (ICBC) sent four of their top IT managers, their CTO and three Directors, to Boulder, Colorado to attend a 3-month IT manager internship program organized by IBM. My 5-day IT Manager Institute was used to kick-off the program. At the time, these managers were responsible for 8,000 IT employees in their huge company.

Prior to the class, I researched Chinese culture to gain knowledge of their customs. I did this for any class I taught made up of students predominately from outside the US. Things that are OK or appropriate in the US are not always viewed that way in some countries.

This class was very interesting in that their IBM Marketing Rep from China also attended and he interpreted some of the things for them. Their English ranged from about 50-70% and my Chinese was and still is 0%. Several funny things happened in this class, but that’s a topic for another time.

Let’s talk about the class dinner.

lazy susan tableThe Chinese group had been in Boulder a couple of weeks to get oriented and settled in, and they found a very nice Chinese restaurant in downtown Boulder. It’s where they ate dinner most nights, , , so we went there. The table we sat at was a traditional round Lazy Susan table that allowed you to spin the serving section around to transfer some of each dish to your plate.

One of the things I learned in my research about the Chinese is that when you put food on your plate, , , you need to eat all of it. It’s impolite to leave good food on your plate. I was raised this way myself being from the South.

Two funny things happened at the dinner

The chef took care of all the food items. We chose a fish dinner so there were several appetizers along with a full length sea bass plus multiple vegetable dishes and other items to go along with the main course. Two funny things happened, at least they make me smile when I tell the story.

1.   One of the appetizers was jellyfish. Remember what I discovered about eating everything you put on your plate? Well, I made the mistake of taking a bit more of the jellyfish than I should have. For me, it was terrible, , , both in taste as well as texture. BAD NEWS, , , but I ate all of what I put on my plate. Lesson learned!!

fish dinner2.  The second funny thing was concerning the main course, a full length sea bass. It looked similar to the image to the right, , , 18 to 24 inches of fish from head to tail on a garnished dish. One of the traditions at a Chinese dinner is that you present the main course to the senior person or honoree, and he or she takes the first part of the dish. In this case it was the CTO, Mr. Lu.

The table was turned to display the fish to Mr. Lu. He proceeds to carve the head off of this big fish and puts it onto his plate. I thought he was simply prepping the fish for the rest of us, but that wasn’t it at all. I looked over a few minutes later and everything was gone except for a small pile of bones, , , he ate the head, eyes and all. I was told the head is actually considered the delicacy part of the fish.

Later, during our conversations I mentioned to the local IBM manager who coordinated the internship event for the ICBC manager team, “Tom, when you visit the group in China, you will be the honoree at dinner.” Tom laughed and quickly replied, “Well, we won’t be having fish.”

By the way, the dinner was completely authentic and delicious, , , except for the jellyfish. Good food, good company and a great night.

Hope you like this one. I appreciate your LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE of this post.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the IT Business Manager (ITBMC) program.

ITBMC Certificate

Welcome to Tuesday TIPS

Tuesday_TIPS

Today is the first post of Tuesday TIPS where I’ll post practical IT manager tips, insights and more to help you achieve more success. NOT JUST FOR IT Managers, , , many of these posts will be useful outside of the IT world, but the focus will always be on helping IT Managers, , , so let’s get started, , ,

TIP #1 – FAST START  For A New IT Manager

Gaining credibility quickly in a “new IT Manager position” is critical. First impressions are long-lasting and hard to change, , , you want your first impression as your company’s “new IT Manager” to be one that says you are proactive and know what you are doing.

Nothing does this better than methodically and proactively focusing on the key things you need to do to achieve IT success! I’m going to give you a simple process and tools to make this happen.

There are many situations where you might find yourself in a “new IT Manager position”:

  • First time manager
  • New management assignment
  • Inherit an additional IT organization
  • Join a new company
  • New CIO position

I’ve experienced all of these. In fact, I’ve encountered over 60 “new” IT Manager situations, , , many of them because our company acquired over 45 small companies, each with an IT organization. As the CIO, I had to manage their transition into our company.

Also, in my early IT Manager career, senior management kept adding additional IT organizational responsibilities to my plate. With each new success, I received more responsibility.

I experienced all five of the “new IT Manager” examples listed above, and what I can tell you is that in all cases there are similar issues, albeit different and unique circumstances with each situation.

The similarities in any “new IT Manager” situation include the following:

  1. You have a new team to work with and manage.
  2. There are new responsibilities.
  3. Your clients will be different.
  4. There will be new challenges.

WATCH the Practical IT Manager Training Series video below to learn more and how to get off to a FAST START in any new IT Manager situation. In this video, I give you practical fundamentals that guarantee you will achieve a fast start in any new IT Manager situation, including:

  • The dynamics that take place in a new IT Manager situation
  • 4-Step Process to help you get started quickly
  • A 4-Week detailed To-Do List that helps guarantee your fast start and quick success
  • BONUS  IT Manager – Fast Start Checklist

VIDEO_Fast Start For a New IT Manager

Some of you may have seen this video on my YouTube Channel. It’s always worth revisiting or being aware of in case you need it or know someone who is encountering a “new IT Manager” situation.

I hope you enjoy the Tuesday TIPS section and will benefit from the practical information I’ll deliver from many years of experiencing the IT Manager role first hand. Best of success!!

I also hope you will “LIKE” this post and share it with your colleagues. Feel free to leave your comments.

MDE Enterprises, Inc.

I created my company, MDE Enterprises, Inc. on September 1, 2000. In the beginning, I didn’t know what I really wanted to do other than I wanted to do something with the Internet and probably avoid consulting work.

At the very start, we were a consulting company with a 3-month contract with my last company where I had been their CIO. This eventually went for 11 months before we parted ways for good. It was good revenue for us in the beginning and allowed me to focus on developing the real MDE company for the future.

During this first year, I decided to write a book and try to sell it on the Internet. So, What To Look For in a CIO was written. Mid-way in the development of this book, it dawned upon me that I really needed to write a series of books to discuss how to do things that an IT manager needs to be able to do to achieve success.

What happened was that I had an eye-opener, , , what I needed to do was to do what I had been doing for my entire career, , , teach others how to manage an IT organization successfully.

I still remember doing the “all nighter” when I drafted the Table of Contents of 9 more books that I thought I needed to write. All of a sudden, I have an immediate road map and I’ve sort of settled into what would become my company’s mission, “helping IT managers of the world achieve more success“.

After a year, I completed the last of the 10 books I had set out to write. Once completed, I embarked immediately on creating the IT Manager ToolKit to give to “early buyers” of my full series of books. After completing the 2nd book, IT Management-101: fundamentals to achieve more, I created a web page and started selling the entire series (10 e-books) for $179.00.

Yep, I started selling all ten books even though only two of them were completed. What was amazing is that by the time I completed all ten (about 10 months later), I had sold 104 sets of the unfinished full series. I call these people “early buyers”.

When I completed the IT Manager ToolKit, I sent them all an email message with a download link for a free ToolKit, something I hadn’t envisioned creating until I was working on the 8th book.

I gave them more than what they paid for because of the good faith and trust they had placed with me. It felt really good.

In addition, I immediately increased the price of the full series of e-books including the ToolKit to $279.00 which is what it is today, 17 years later.

I went on to write 5 more books and develop a considerable amount of training that has taken me around the world, , , posts for a later date. Nine years after publishing the full series of 10 books, I rewrote them and changed the covers to reflect that they are all part of a series.

The “full series” of the Practical IT Manager books