Leading is not Doing
One of the biggest challenges for a leader is to lead without doing. To allow others to do what you do well. To let go of both outcomes and process other than to make sure that the ultimate goals are reached. And to simultaneously still recognize that you are leading and what you’re doing is vitally important. I am back at Interop this week. (If you’d like more detail about what I’m...
April 28th, 2006 by ssh
It’s Just Not The Same
What a weird experience. Everything here–even the InteropNet (formerly eNet) folks–is quite calm. No emergencies. No one going crazy (except for Jim, but we’ll get back to that later). Just stuff happening at a pretty leisurely pace. We got here yesterday to start setting up the Labs. My flight was delayed, so Jan and Joel did the vast majority of the work. Once again they have me...
April 28th, 2006 by ssh
Why am I here, again?
This is one of those days that I feel like I’m not helping enough. Everyone was going crazy today, with Craig trying to corral Vista and Longhorn (we finally learned that Vista is definitely the client, and Longhorn Server has not got a release name, yet, so it’s still Longhorn). The difference explains how what we were installing the past few days never worked. It helps to have a Microsofty...
April 3rd, 2006 by ssh
Leading Talented People
I have said before that leadership is the stewardship of the talents of others, and I truly believe it. As I enter another season of working with Interop and the incredibly brilliant people who populate the core of engineering staff to make the show network and labs work, I realize that leading highly talented people presents a series of challenges that are even more great than leading more typical...
April 2nd, 2006 by ssh
I’m turning Japanese
I forgot to mention this in the earlier post for the day, but one of the fun things about coming to the Hot Stage event is always trying to figure out what’s going on with the Internet connectivity. This year, amazingly, we had connectivity when we got here. The 45 net was actually coming into the warehouse. The subnets were assigned and routed. But, going to http://www.google.com/ gets redirected...
April 2nd, 2006 by ssh
What is it about Fry’s?
I know that I shouldn’t ask this question, but I think that there must be something that is inserted into the water or air here in the Bay Area. Folks come here from all across the world and are inexorably drawn to Fry’s. They return to the warehouse with all kind of interesting stuff. Some of it might even be useful. Yesterday, Chris and Brett showed up each carrying a new tank with a...
April 2nd, 2006 by ssh
What day is it?
Someone said something about a time change. But, this is Hot Stage and who really knows what time it is? I think they get us prepared for ‘Vegas by having us in a room with concrete walls and no clocks. I wander back to the hotel, drop into bed, get up when I wake up, and head back to the warehouse. Yesterday, we actually went and had breakfast. The hotel’s powdered eggs just don’t...
April 2nd, 2006 by ssh
