Chuck's Blog

We're Getting The Band Back Together

It’s been a long time since Jake and Elwood got the Blues Brothers back together. 

Similarly, it’s been a very long time since I’ve worked for Dave Donatelli when I was at EMC.  I really enjoyed the experience, and now I have a chance to do it again.

Starting August 24th, I’ll be working for Dave, this time at Oracle’s new converged infrastructure group.  Yes, I’m excited about the new opportunity.
 
I thought I’d share a few personal thoughts behind my move.

On Being A Mentor … And Being Mentored

Navigating a typical career isn’t easy.  Your interests aren’t always aligned with everyone else’s: your employer, your manager, your co-workers, etc. 

Give in to external pressure, and you can end up miserable before long.  Take a strong, independent stand, and everyone will likely be unhappy with you before long.

So how do you navigate that quintessential win-win?   

That’s how I see mentoring: helping good people craft their approach to getting what they want out of their career.  

The advantages for those being mentored are substantial: an impartial perspective, good advice, new connections, and honest feedback.  But being a mentor for others also has its rewards, often unappreciated by many.

I’ve had the good fortune of being mentored, and being a mentor.  I’d recommend both for just about anyone so inclined.

Coaching For Corporate Creatives

The positive response to one of my recent blog posts ("A Look In The Mirror: Are You Creative?") made me suddenly aware that there are quite a few folks out there who feel challenged in bridging the gap between their personal creativity and the normal corporate ethos.

If this is you, I know it can be unpleasant at times.  You feel frustrated.  You doubt yourself.  You wonder if it's you, or them.

We invest heavily in our jobs and careers, and we would like more from the investment than our paycheck.  We want very much to make meaningful contributions, and hopefully be recognized for those contributions.  I meet these people across many professions: technical, legal, healthcare, teachers, etc.  I've learned to recognize them quickly.

But how to go about bridging that gap between creativity and consistency?

I've been thinking about it, and I've come up with some guidelines that might help if you're so afflicted.

They've worked for me -- they might work for you as well.

A Look In The Mirror: Are You Creative?

Last night, I came across a very insightful post: “18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently”. 

If you see yourself as creative, or endeavoring to be more creative, it’s certainly worth your time.

For me, it was incredibly positive reinforcement.  Much of the social feedback I get in corporate settings tends to discourage these traits; I now feel somewhat vindicated.

Since I work with so many people who also have strong creative tendencies, I thought the list was worth elaborating on — especially for those of us who work in demanding business environments!

From Storage Admin To Storage Service Manager

I've been talking to storage people in IT for about 20 years now.  Sure, the new technology is always interesting -- but what storage folks are always interested in is how does this change things?  How do things get done differently as a result?  

And -- always unspoken but omnipresent -- how will this affect me?

While no aspect of enterprise IT is static these days, the storage team sits at the intersection of some particularly powerful forces these days.

Change is coming -- what does it look like?

How I Give A Really Good Customer Presentation

I have given many thousands of presentations during my career -- and that's no exaggeration. 

I've always enjoyed doing this, which makes me focus on it, which makes me better, which makes it even *more* fun ... a virtuous cycle of positive feedback. 

My ability to engage audiences while delivering a potentially complex or difficult message has done very well for me over the years. 

And it's much more fun that sitting in a budget planning meeting.

Within the confines of my small world, I'm inevitably branded as a really good presenter, perhaps one of the best.  I often meet people who see what I'm doing, and want to do some of the same things in their world. 

They study me closely as I present, but there's much more to the picture than meets the eye.

I thought some of you might be interested in the steps I take to be as good as possible when I get in front of people.

Investing In Tomorrow's Skills: The EMC Academic Alliance

Listen to most senior executives for a while, and -- sooner or later -- you'll hear the familiar lament that it's so hard to find good people with the right skills.

That's understandable -- our economy is moving fast, and many academic institutions are perpetually challenged to deliver the graduates with the skill sets that employers demand.  

That's especially true in IT today -- as the IT industry transforms, so do the required skill sets.  And it's happening very fast indeed.

Enter the EMC Academic Alliance -- an open curriculum platform for both academia and industry that targets the exact skills we see so much in demand.

It's been around for a while, I was just unaware of how big and influential it had become.  After going through it, I was mightily impressed.

Perhaps you'll be impressed as well.

From Cost Center To Value Generator

I spend a lot of time with customers, partners and prospects.  Many of them represent the senior ranks of sizable IT organizations.

In turn, a lot internal EMC people (and our partners) sometimes turn to me to help them better understand -- what do senior IT leaders really want?

My answer is simple: they want to make a difference.  

Managing Your Skills Portfolio

I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak on a panel here at the "Everything Channel" event in Dallas.

Ostensibly, we were supposed to be talking about 2011 storage opportunities for resellers and solution providers.  But, somehow, we got into a number of far more interesting areas, including the strategic importance of the above topic.

We ran out of time, but the thought keeps rattling around in my head ...

From Presenting To Engaging

One of the thought bubbles that has been continually floating around the Twitter banter has been the importance of differentiating between simply presenting to an audience, as opposed to actually engaging with them.

More importantly, as we become progressively more online social creatures, simple presentation skills become almost quaint (remember shorthand?) and possessing a wide variety of engagement skills and behaviors becomes far more important.