Will I Be a Good Manager? Part 1

Drawing some inspiration from a few posts I have seen elsewhere recently, today I am sharing a few thoughts on preparing to be a manager. This will be a multi-part series with additional posts following at least through May of this year. Through this series, I will explore why empathy is one of the key traits for a manager, and sometimes for less than obvious reasons.

Overlapping

In your career, should you specialize or be a generalist? Phrases like “jack of all trades and master of none” tend to make it sound like we should specialize and certainly the tendency in most organizations is to favor specialization. I do not think the question specialization versus generalization is the right question. What we should be asking is “how much we should overlap with the people around us?” The answer? A lot.

Be a Leader in Thought and Deed

If you have seen my LinkedIn Feed, you probably know that I’ve taken a new job leading Information Technology for biBerk Business Insurance. With the role change, I did a little reflection on habits and attitudes that have served me well over the years. For 2024, I’m going to do a series of those reflective thoughts and keep them to one-third to half of the length of what I’ve averaged over the last couple of years. I’m also going to try a bit different style, focusing on making these more like notes instead of articles. This time, a little thinking on thought leadership and working with your “head in the clouds and feet on the ground”.

Security and Obscurity

An oft-repeated guideline in securing technology is that we should not rely on obscurity to secure our systems. As we wind down 2023, I use this article to take a brief look at that guideline.

Hiatus Almost Over

A quick update and explanation why I’ve missed the last two months’ posts: We’ve moved from Illinois to the Pacific Northwest of the US. With all the planning, moving, driving, waiting for stuff to show up, etc., I held off on doing any more blog posts for the duration.

I expect to resume posting monthly in December.