What a privilege to share Drupal with so many people! I travel all over the United States teaching Drupal. I suppose I should have kept better track - but the number of students is around 800-900 over the past 9 years.
This is in the "just for my sanity" department. I've been getting into woodworking as a hobby and "fun" thing to do. Creating this workbench is outside the realm of my normal work life, so needless to say, I'm having fun!
I’m at the spring “Get Energized” event for the Dearborn County Chamber of Commerce (that’s Indiana... not Michigan). It could be entitled “Lessons in Leadership”.
I was recently interviewed by Steve Burge over at OSTraining for their monthly podcast. Over the years, I've created well over 1,000 video tutorials for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Mautic and other brands. You can listen to the podcast at https://www.ostraining.com/blog/podcasting/rod-martin/
Years ago I purchased a tiny book called "Swanson's Written Rules of Management". I came across it this week while I was re-arranging some bookshelves. Bill Swanson was the CEO of Raytheon when he compliled the book. Rule #32 is one of my favorites.
When you read about new companies, especially in the startup space, one of the topics you’ll see over and over again is this idea of “culture”. To be sure, it’s an important topic and can be a true distinction (think Uber vs. Lyft).
Two Inc. magazine articles came through my feed this morning and a mashup of the two topics they addressed seems appropriate.
In my last corporate gig, I reported to the Vice President of Marketing. One of my most important functions was to translate the "geek". He wasn't a programmer, or a designer. But he needed to understand what was going on so he could run the business. That's where I fit in... I translated the geek. I was his "Universal Translator".
Leaders influence people at every level. Some lead thousands or even millions, others lead one or two. The success of their leadership isn't found in the number of people in their "chain of command", but how they influence those for whom they are responsible.
At the time of this writing, I've been an American citizen for just under two weeks.
I was reminded of an excerpt from Guy Kawasaki's book "Enchantment" this morning...
People are not binary. People are not ones or zeros, smart or dumb, worthwhile or worthless. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, positives and negatives, competencies and deficiencies.
