Brett Colbert - Enterprise Architecture & Business

PHILOSOPHY'S OTHER: THEORY ON THE WEB: Deresiewicz, William. "The End of Solitude." CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION January 30, 2009.

PHILOSOPHY'S OTHER: THEORY ON THE WEB: Deresiewicz, William. "The End of Solitude." CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION January 30, 2009.

Forward There is a significant difference between management and leadership. People follow managers because they have to. People follow leaders because they want to. Leadership is demonstrated through numerous behaviors. I will cover in detail the behaviors that I believe are typically shown by the majority of strong leaders. Leaders naturally exhibit many of these behaviors but can also learn certain behaviors. This article will take a different approach than the other "leadership" articles. It takes a no-nonsense approach to leadership by looking at the top traits of a strong leader. Somewhat terse but to the point, it is designed for people who want to understand the difference between managing and leading. It is also designed for seasoned leaders who want a refresher on key leadership qualities. Enjoy reading! Chapter 1 – Courage at All Costs “Courage is the management of fear, not the absence of it”. -- Rudy Giuliani When you think about the leaders that you ...

Forward There is a significant difference between management and leadership. People follow managers because they have to. People follow leaders because they want to. Leadership is demonstrated through numerous behaviors. I will cover in detail the behaviors that I believe are typically shown by the majority of strong leaders. Leaders naturally exhibit many of these behaviors but can also learn certain behaviors. This article will take a different approach than the other "leadership" articles. It takes a no-nonsense approach to leadership by looking at the top traits of a strong leader. Somewhat terse but to the point, it is designed for people who want to understand the difference between managing and leading. It is also designed for seasoned leaders who want a refresher on key leadership qualities. Enjoy reading! Chapter 1 – Courage at All Costs “Courage is the management of fear, not the absence of it”. -- Rudy Giuliani When you think about the leaders that you ...

August 15th, 2007 (originally published) Yes, I did purposely capitalize IT - meaning Information Technology. Many articles and books discuss the importance of IT acting as a strategic partner with their business counterparts but few give specific examples or best-practices to build a solid partnership. The following will provide real-life examples to transform your IT organization into the partner that you want it to become. Although not every example will be relevant or applicable to all IT organizations, the intent is to provide some new ideas and provoke some thought around creative approaches to common partnership challenges. It is readily apparent that there are a common set of IT challenges with which all IT organizations struggle. The degree to which each IT organization struggles with these challenges varies greatly. This article is appropriate for IT professionals who want to increase their partnership with their business counterparts. It is also geared towards business prof...

August 15th, 2007 (originally published) Yes, I did purposely capitalize IT - meaning Information Technology. Many articles and books discuss the importance of IT acting as a strategic partner with their business counterparts but few give specific examples or best-practices to build a solid partnership. The following will provide real-life examples to transform your IT organization into the partner that you want it to become. Although not every example will be relevant or applicable to all IT organizations, the intent is to provide some new ideas and provoke some thought around creative approaches to common partnership challenges. It is readily apparent that there are a common set of IT challenges with which all IT organizations struggle. The degree to which each IT organization struggles with these challenges varies greatly. This article is appropriate for IT professionals who want to increase their partnership with their business counterparts. It is also geared towards business prof...

August 15th, 2007 (originally published) The Changing Role of IT The role of IT has been changing dramatically over the past 5 years. Economic trends in the early 2000s have lead to scrutiny of CapEx spending which correlates to IT spending. CapEx in most cases has been dramatically reduced in an effort to manage costs. Offshoring and layoffs have also been common in IT. These changes force new requirements on IT and the business, specifically ensuring that IT is working on the top priority projects. In most companies there are too many IT requests and too few people to handle those requests. The ideal IT organization is one that is strategically aligned with the business and increases the business’ competitive advantage – one that can think like the business, talk like the business and add value during the strategic business planning process. The ideal IT organization exists to be a strong business partner through a deep understanding of the business’ goals, objectives and processes....