Computerworld: Paul Glen

Paul Glen: When your boss overloads you, blame yourself

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 20:34:00 GMT

It's part of your job to let your boss know honestly what you can and can't do. (Insider; registration required)

Paul Glen: The most important career question you've never even considered

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 10:30:00 GMT

The question you need to consider concerns the great workforce changes that have shaken up the work environment over the past three decades.

Paul Glen: Techies and users are in a vicious circle of mistrust

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 05 May 2014 10:30:00 GMT

Business people don't trust us, and we don't trust them. It sounds kind of hopeless, but it doesn't have to be.

Paul Glen: The benefits of an unstructured career

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 10:30:00 GMT

Too often we make self-limiting assumptions about position, status and the need to rigidly follow a career path.

Paul Glen: Motivating the mercenaries

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 10:30:00 GMT

To get your projects done, you'll need to motivate your people to perform, no matter where their loyalties lie.

Paul Glen: The gifts and costs of working with 'them'

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 13:55:00 GMT

When two parties are in conflict, they don't have to agree in order to respect and learn from each other's perspective.

Paul Glen: Congratulations, you're your own skills manager

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 11:30:00 GMT

Columnist Paul Glen says those who insist that career planning is an employer's responsibility place their own futures in jeopardy, relinquishing control of their development to their managers, who can make decisions on a whim.

Paul Glen: How can you wield influence if you don't know what it is?

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Many IT leaders seem to have difficulty separating the concepts of power and influence, thinking of the latter as a softer form of power.

Paul Glen: For geeks, avoiding blame is a silent career killer

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 10:00:00 GMT

For us, avoiding being blamed for anything is an all-too-common compulsion.

Paul Glen: When you've had it with a stakeholder

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 15:51:00 GMT

While you oftentimes just have to live with whatever it is you don't like, some situations call for a more forceful reaction.

Paul Glen: Nobody wants you to be a technology vending machine

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Providing a quick-win deliverable is of value only if what was asked for is what's really required.

Paul Glen: Geeks love problems, so give them some

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:00:00 GMT

The most elegant thing you can do to motivate geeks is to define a problem that your team will want to solve.

Paul Glen: The secret to keeping processes vital

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:00:00 GMT

As long as a problem seems present, gnarly and intractable, we enjoy following the process that solves it. But once the problem has been solved, it's not so interesting to us anymore.

Paul Glen: How to deal with a toxic team

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Five warning signs can warn you that your project team has turned toxic.

Paul Glen: The hazards of literal listening

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Geeks are often told that they are annoyingly literal, which they find confusing and unfair. But their colleagues have another way of listening.

Paul Glen: Even if you can't measure it, you still must manage it

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT

There are no metrics for measuring the quality of your relationships. For metrics-loving geeks, that's a problem.

Paul Glen: Build relationships, and career opportunities will follow

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Your competitive advantage in the labor market will come from your interest in, and aptitude for, creating good experiences for the people you work with, says columnist Paul Glen.

Paul Glen: Being right vs. not being wrong

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT

To a lot of people, it seems as if we geeks are always battling for supremacy in the Always-Need-to-Be-Right Club.

Paul Glen: Rogue IT, and power as an obstacle to influence

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT

We in IT have a decision to make: Do we want to be powerful, or do we want to be influential?

Paul Glen: How CIOs can become more influential

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 10:00:00 GMT

The first step is to expand what, for those in IT, is a limited understanding of what influence is.

Paul Glen: Check your work, or else

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:00:00 GMT

We geeks must transform our eagerness to please users into eagerness to help. There's a big difference.

Paul Glen: Assess your surroundings from 2,000 feet above

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 10:00:00 GMT

You can tell a lot about what matters in a community from the vantage point of a small plane. That's figuratively true of all organizations.

Paul Glen: Truth and project time estimates

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:02:00 GMT

Geeks are devoted to Truth, with a capital T. The question 'When will it be done?' feels like an invitation to lie. Insider; registration required)

Paul Glen: We techies can put users on edge

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:00:00 GMT

When we hear a good idea, we often start to explore its edges until we find an exception that we then just have to blurt out. Surprise! Users hate that. Insider (registration required)

Paul Glen: Fixing the technology isn't always enough

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Users want us to acknowledge the emotions that accompany their technology problems. Relax, though; you don't have to be Dr. Phil to do that. Insider (registration required)

Paul Glen: Words are the first hurdle for new tech managers

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT

New managers lack the language to understand and express the value of management itself. Insider (registration required)

Paul Glen: In the tech world, management is not a promotion

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

To move from a technical role to management is to abandon one career for another.

Paul Glen: IT cares, but business people have trouble reading our enthusiasm

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Business people expect their colleagues to express enthusiasm openly, and they don't recognize hard work as an expression of commitment to their goals.

Paul Glen: Want to own the future? Build rich relationships

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Technologies come and go, says columnist Paul Glen, but the ability to connect business and technical people will always be the rarest and most valuable skill an IT professional can offer. (Insider, registration required.)

Paul Glen: 'Nothing but the facts' approach just won't work with business people

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:00:00 GMT

The reason techies' presentations to business people often bomb is that we make the mistake of believing that they think like we do. (Insider, registration required)

Paul Glen: IT's focus on solving problems blurs the business's vision

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

For IT, problems are our life's work, but business people want to avoid them at all costs. Insider (registration required)

Paul Glen: When techies speak, the devil's in the details

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:00:00 GMT

For technical types, details reveal truth, but for nontechnical folks, details cloud truth.

Paul Glen: What reality TV tells us about our business partners

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:00:00 GMT

It may be that many of our partners on the business side watch people work on reality shows because they have a deep yearning to feel more connected to products and people. We can help them with that.

Paul Glen: Project teams and 'the avoidance collusion'

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:00:00 GMT

One thing that project team leaders have in common is that none of them is terribly concerned about their relationship with the others.

Paul Glen: Is it 'us vs. them' or 'all together now'?

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 23 May 2011 10:00:00 GMT

Six simple words can tell you all you need to know about the relationship between a project team and the business sponsor.

Paul Glen: Users' three experiences of IT

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT

Now that technology has pervaded almost every facet of the enterprise, the number of ways in which IT interacts with users has expanded significantly.

Paul Glen: IT, the business, and the clash of cultures

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:00:00 GMT

Business groups need IT more than ever, but the levels of mutual trust remain low and frustration remains high.

Paul Glen: How to be a proactive task-handler

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Taking on delegated tasks should not be a passive activity.

Paul Glen: What to do when you get a new boss

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:06:00 GMT

First, get your emotions in check, and see things from her point of view.

Paul Glen: The pen is mightier than the code

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:00:00 GMT

The key to a bright future in a technical career is to be a good writer. Here's why.

Paul Glen: What it takes to boost low morale

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:00:00 GMT

The first step is toward improving your team's morale is to articulate the emotional state of your employees beyond saying, 'They have low morale.'

Paul Glen: Why does IT have so little influence in the organization?

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:40:00 GMT

IT folks frequently grumble about their lack of influence, but they seem just as often to avoid taking part in the conversations in which decisions are made and policies are established.

Processes and the people factor

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT

A good process has much in common with good code, but code is executed by machines, not humans.

Master the upcoming culture change

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:00:00 GMT

The IT organizations that will thrive in the year 2020 will be adept at building systems that deliver business value and developing a workforce with excellent human relationship management skills, says columnist Paul Glen.

Dealing with incompetent peers

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Paul Glen advises what to do when confronted with incompetence, not from a subordinate, but from a peer.

The great churn

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 01:36:00 GMT

The typical tools of employee retention -- raises, promotions and perks -- are unlikely to address the anxiety created by the confluence of economic reality and technical culture.

Think politics aren't part of your job? Think again

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Paul Glen says most managers misunderstand the role politics play in an organization.

What you should look for in a rent-to-own employee

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Hiring a contractor that you might keep on as a permanent employee is very different from hiring other sorts of contractors, Paul Glen cautions.

The blame game is wrongheaded

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:53:00 GMT

Projects can go bad, says Paul Glen, and they often do. Mistakes should be opportunities to learn, though, and not excuses for witch hunts.

IT relief will lag economic recovery

info@c2-consulting.com (Paul Glen) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:00:00 GMT

The economy may well be recovering in earnest. But you can't expect IT to enjoy the fruits of recovery for another year at least.