This months AIM IT Leadership Academy session was at Kiewit Business Center on Trends in Business and IT/Executive Perspectives.
The three goals of this session were:
Learn how to create a concise message to sell an idea to a group of executives in a limited window.
Practice Team work and presentation skills.
Achieve a clearer understanding of a executive’s point of view on an organization.
Presentation
I was under the impression this day was about what was called our capstone presentation. My group consisted of a employee of Team Software and Werner Enterprises. We meet once Team Software, a few times at Farm Credit Services of America and the other times virtually through Zoom. I was extremely happy with the effort by the group and everyone being a good team member.
Our company can increase effective communication, engagement, and empower our employees through Emotional Intelligence education and the formation of teams based on complimentary thinking preferences.
We had about 8 to 12 minutes to give the presentation. The presentation was on a actually stage with a podium. The other members of the AIM leadership group were at their tables. There were three volunteers from different organizations who acted as our supervisors.
Feedback:
Words matter never use “We hope this will work because” instead say “We are confident this will work because”
Too much detail on Agile and Emotional Intelligence.
Measuring success over a longer period of time.
Executive Breakouts
We had three breakout session with leaders in executive roles from different companies.
EVP Operations Business Process
People vs Technology
You don’t know it all
Invigorating Culture
Listening and Framing
Develop Strong Team Interpersonal Skills
Field CTO
12 steps to native cloud development
Strategy of a Team
Technical Management in leadership
Happy people are productive
SVP/CIO
We are in the business of IT. IT = Business
Measure Critical parts of business
It is OK to say I don’t know, Let me go find out.
Data centric based on information.
My three take a ways from this session were:
Before presenting always ask about the environment.
There is a breadth of Technologies to be educated on.
The art of words when presenting.
I am excited that next months session is the last. I am hopefully graduating.
On Friday, April 12th from 12 PM – 3:30 PM was the University of Nebraska-Omaha College of Business Administration Capstone Cup Spring 2019 finals.
This was my second time being a on the judges panel for the Finals. This is one of the perks of sponsoring the Capstone Cup is FCSAmerica has a judges seat reserved for each round of the competition. I arrived about 12:45 p.m. to do a debriefing with the other judges in a class room. We were told for the final round of competition, the final four teams will be developing recommendations for Roku Inc. Once again, each team’s job is to identify a strategic issue facing Roku, conduct strategic analyses and come up with a strategic solution/recommendation that is driven by their analysis. The judges would be the ones deciding the overall winner.
The day of the finals I posted on social media a video that was created to show FCSAmerica’s support for the competition.
Presentations
About 1:00 p.m. the judges were taken to the auditorium which is a two-story, 186-seat capacity which was standing room only. I found out that actually over 200 RSVPS were sent in for the event. The Judges are placed in the front row. A wide variety of Omaha Companies sponsor the event.
The Associate Dean Harlandof of the CBA says a few words while revolving display of Agenda, sponsors and thank you to judges appear.
Teams presented every twenty-five minutes. Each group has 12 minutes to present, with warning times given for 5 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute. This is followed by 5-10 minutes of Q&A with the judges. The level of the presentations were good. Two of the teams presenting I heard in round 1 and round 2. At about 2:35 the Judges will leave and deliberate.
The format for the next hour was different then previous Capstone Cup finals. The students that have not made the final round have been asked to address the final case in a Poster Session Competition where guests can vote on their favorite case recommendations. I made sure to vote the students I met from Innovation Works Here.
During the deliberation. The organizing professors asked if a two judges would be willing to announce the winners. I raised my hand to volunteer. I was given runner up. I also had to determine what to say. I kept in simple.
Before the winning team was announced. The professors gave each judge a thank you plaque.
After the winning team was announced. I stayed and networked with the students and faculty.
A few days later I received a thank you note.
I believe having someone at FCSAmerica on the judges panel is a good thing. I enjoyed the overall experience as a judge. I am sold that supporting this event for the future is money well spent.
In mid March I was sent a email from Laura Sansoni, Director, CBA Career Development to be part of a panel for a University of Nebraska-Omaha College of Business Admiration student group Financial Management Association (FMA). Like most request I would be happy to sit on the panel if chosen.
Then sometime in April I received a email from Ray LeBlanc who the faculty advisor for UNO’s Financial Management Association confirming that I will be on the April 9th panel. I did offer to sponsor any snacks or treats which the professor let me know that was covered. I also offered to get some gift cards to raffle away to everyone that attends which he was fine with.
Panel
The student meeting was held on Tuesday, April 9, from 4:30-5:30 in Mammel Hall. When I arrived to the room there was about 25 to 30 students. There was food catered in from Hy-Vee. So I understand how that was covered. I asked the advisor to make a sign up sheet so I know who to give the gift card to.
What I realized in a hurry that this originally was supposed to be a Human Resources Panel. There were representatives from National Indemnity Company, KPMG, and Valmont. Everyone I recognized was someone who I saw at a previous UNO career fair.
Questions
This was the sample questions for each panel member to answer, followed by open Q & A from our students. Initial questions include:
– An introduction of panel members and their company, providing a brief overview of their professional/educational background.
– Discussion of entry level jobs for students graduating with finance degrees at their firm.
– Importance of internships (and availability, if applicable).
– What are the most important factors you look at when sifting through applications and interviewing for internships/entry-level positions?
– Discussion of the culture at their firm. (This is an area I feel that most students do not take seriously enough out of college)
– Describe your most successful new hires. What characteristics do they exhibit? (and the opposite as well… What should you NOT do once you’re on the job?)
– Any other tips/advice for current students that are looking to enter the workforce?
After the panel members address the issues above, there is usually about 20 minutes remaining for more open Q & A from students, which may be directed at a specific panel member or all panel members.
My Responses
This was my notes from the various conversations going back and forth between the students and panel.
At the end a random person was selected which I gave a $10 dollar Applebee’s gift card to.
A few days latter I received a thank you note from the student leadership.
Overall this was a good experience for myself. I built a relationship with another student organization for future appearance’s.
For the 2nd Round of competition, the students are given a case briefing on a company–essentially a starting place for their research. The company the teams have been assigned is ADT—yes, the security company.
The Itinerary for the event was the same as round 1.
Itinerary: March 29th
9:00 am Arrival & Check In, Room 117
9:30 am Presentation 1
10:00 am Presentation 2
10:30 am Presentation 3
11:00 am Presentation 4
11:30 am Presentation 5
12:00 pm Debrief/Lunch
I heard five presentations’ that tackled different perspectives from a company. One was focused on working with another company such as a pet security to a merger with a bigger home security provider.
ISQA 8210 is a graduate level project management course at UNO taught by Dr. George Royce. I feel I have built a good relationship with Dr. Royce. We have attended Meetups together. Dr. Royce reached out in January before I did about having us talk to his class room.
We confirmed for February 19th but we were snowed out. We moved the date to March 6th
Looking back on this visit. This is the sixth time we have done a in class room visit. That means for three years since I meet Dr. Royce we have done a class room visit each semester.
In this class room presentation Nate Ryan and Stacey Fletcher presented on “Fries R UP” at PKI. Fries R Up is the software project methodology used by Team Mojo. Take any methodology and you will be asked questions such as timeline for project? How do you respond? How do you handle change? This is the process to help those conversations. They also updated images to reflect how things have changed in the past few months when the presentation was done in the fall of 2018. I did talk about Mob programming which was something we did the day of presentation.
We had good discussion from the participants who were engaged the whole time. Many of the students in the class I had meet at the
I was not able to to stay around to hear about questions since I had another class room presentation to get to. Which is the next blog post on my list.
Dr. Royce sent a thank you the next day. He asked if I would be able to discuss analysis and design. which of course I said yes.
I did do a internal post on giving praise to Nate and Stacey for such a great job.
This months AIM IT Leadership Academy session was on Servant Leadership & Communication Skills held at CSG International.
The schedule for the day was to work on Communications and Servant Leadership. The main concept behind Servant Leadership is a leader challenging teams to go farther, reach higher, innovate and have fun doing it. As we learn concepts of being a servant leader, different communication skills will be introduced to support the various leadership styles of individuals.
Communication
The morning started off with the concept of Communication is a simple thing. In a organization it is how you communicate up and down that maters.
On the table were Agile Transformations Workbook and work sheet. This is the first time through the AIM program that we had a workbook to guide us along with the day of learning.
Communicate by vision and strategy is Servant Leadership. The facilitator asked the question “What makes your investment today worthwhile?” “What is your focus today?”If we do “X” then we achieve “Y” The same level of tasks are communicated each direction in an organization just communication is different.
Why do Strategic Initiatives fail?
No buy-in from teams
Not well defined
Too large – not sized correctly
Acceptive to change
The goal of leadership in an organization is to communicate in a way:
Vision
Strategy
Execution
Conceptual Thinker are Dot Connectors. If you dig deeper in opportunities.
My Strategic Challenge/ opportunity: If I have someone to explain my problem then I understood my problems in the vision. The group did a exercise were we went to the hall way and told there people in 3 minutes our problem.
How do I become a strategic planner? A way to start a vision is doing a exercise called Force Field Analysis.
Force Field Analysis
Communicating Up
When you communicate up how much is said. Who has a leader that wants details? Summary Form. C Suite Communications is a thing. Communications across the peers:
Present with Confidence
Tone and Actions on how you would want to be presented with.
Great Companies = Great Teams = Great Leaders
Reflection Time: What are the traits of influential change leaders?
Attitude
Positive Energy
Listen to Understand the response
Appreciate of what you are told
Story of doing it for themselves
Am I influential person?
Organizations are changing: Does Big Eat Small? No, Fast beats Slow. Which really mean Innovation plus Creativity will equal Fast!
What is Inspiring for the Team you could lead. Is it a leader who get in the trenches? People want to know what Impact they have on company. For what I am doing, does matter?
Does my communication strategy builds better relationships with the team? There are verbal, visual boards, and communication strategy for peers. Should a person give Specific Feedback or as a group. How does a leader talk non technical to technical and not feel bad.
When you receive new information. Learn how to listen. Recap Conversation to confirm discussion. Verbal into information in some kind of document. If you got something wrong in a conversation then we have something to agree with what’s wrong.
There is always a story that not everyone one is part of or know about. Is your engagement authentic? Is there something else I can help manage?
Saying “Thank you for telling me, but it help me understand” start the process of how to ask questions without Assumptions? Keep asking questions to find out what people are thinking? The reason being is building trust with someone:
Speed to Trust
Trust is a business enabler
Faster Efficiency is base on TrustWhen we trust our team or other people, it is actually acknowledging that we know what’s wrong and working on it. Trust is earned through actions of those conversations. Always value trust over command and control.
Toward the end of the communication section we watched this video Conscious Leadership Group
Also doing the break one of the students talked about a book he is reading called Radical Candor.
Servant Leadership
Unhealthy Leader vs Healthy Leader Exercise
This exercise was breaking out into groups. One group did Unhealthy and the the other did healthy.
A term used during this time was plant seeds to grow. If you plant weeds then you are spread out to thin.
Influencer
Best Leaders say ” I have so much more to learn!”
Focus on Value
Recognize Others
Foster Teamwork
Feedback
Learning to give feedback takes time and is a skill. When ever giving feedback identify 3 things going well, and 1 not going well.
A person is hired to be a talented team member. Leaders provide guidance to those team members and let team do what is best. This is when our leadership style matter?
How do you go from solving problems to facilitator coach. How do you break cycle to be a coach? Are you a great contributor or Coach/Facilitator?
What does success look like this week?
Outcome vs Output of a team or person.
Success is to measure!
What does Done look like?
What do we do well?
Learn to Listen genuinely
Create a safe environment
Give team credit before yourself in this coaching
Stories are filled in what makes sense at a point of time.
Focus on Growth of People
This was a mentally challenging session. I believe I learned the most of this session in regards on what I need to work on for my leadership style.
Today, along with the Innovation Managers Kody Schrader and Heidi Couch we did a class room visit at UNO. The professor Dr. Miles teacher the class 4480 CORPORATE AND BUSINESS STRATEGY. This is a senior level class which the student compete in the Capstone Cup. The goal of the visit was to share how Farm Credit Services of America invests in Innovation and Strategy.
Highlights of things shared:
What is a Innovation Manger?
How does Innovation support Strategy?
Strategic Planning with leaders
Internal Idea submission
Innovation Time
Experiments
Intrapreneurial Program
Internal Events
Ag Innovation Pitch Event
Innovation Process
I concluded the talk about the upcoming career fair. I also shared my personal story of strategy and innovation on the “Works Here” events. After wards Dr. Miles said the talk perfectly aligned with the class room discussion. Plus students listen better when content comes the professionals, not the professor.
In the fall of 2018 I had reached out to the UNO Nullify group. I started with contacting the faculty advisor Dr. Bill Mahoney. Based on Dr. Mahoney response is the student don’t meet regularly as a student group. They focus mostly on the Capture the Flag Event, but they have a new student president. He forward my information on to the student president.
There was a delay in responses for a few months. Then later in the semester I received a response from the student president. Since the time was close to Thanksgiving break and end the semester. I recommended I would follow up in early 2019.
In January, I sent a email about a spring event.
“I am following up about sponsoring a meeting in February for Nullify. A dates that would work for me is the February 22nd.
I will talk about securing mobile applications. I can sponsor pizza and bring swag/prizes.”
Planning
In early January I meet with Security eam mates to talk about upcoming events with the Nullify group. One of the upcoming meetings was the Nullify Student meeting on Friday February 22nd at 6:30 p.m. on UNO.
I shared that I would be talking securing mobile applications. I would be sharing what I learned from SANS training on mobile applications. Jerry Pope volunteered to talk about Protecting Mobile Applications. What he could show is the incidents that we get from our 3rd party vendor. It would probably be 10 – 15 minutes. He also said showing what the vendor finds and why we don’t want the imposter trademarked apps.
Meeting
Here is my list of things I need to remember to bring.
QDOBA ( 3-Cheese Queso Pan and Bag of Chips)
Chicken from Hy-Vee
M&M’s and Popcorn (Vics)
Pop cans so I don’t need cups.
Plates, Forks, Napkins
Box of Swag
I was told via email that there would be around 50 students attending the meeting. I was skeptical because of Friday night and it was snowing. I was proven wrong. The was packed with more then 50 students.
We set up food first for the students.
As the students ate I showed the Technology Works Here (TWH) video. One of the attendees at the meeting was a student who came to TWH and was hired as a intern for the summer of 2019.
I then passed around my Office 365 Form. I told them I would follow up with a email. I also said I would be sharing information on how they could get a free ticket to a upcoming conference that Farm Credit was Sponsoring, Connectaha. I also talked about being at the upcoming Spring Career Fair at Baxtor Arena.
Protecting Mobile Applications
Jerry Pope started the first part of the meeting talking about Protecting our brand.
During his presentation when a student answered his question. Jerry gave out Starbucks gift cards.
Securing Mobile Applications
I spoke about securing mobile applications. I used the my training material from SANS Mobile Security to show different security vulnerabilities on the iOS platform.
Follow up email
The next day I exported the data from the Office 365 form and sent a follow up email to each student. This is a great way to give a contact point. Plus I had instructions on how to get the ConnectaHa pass.
Hello [Student],
I’m Anthony Carlson, a Lead Application Developer with Farm Credit Services of America. This past Friday, February 22nd, I spoke about mobile application security vulnerabilities in iOS at the NULLify student meeting. It was awesome to spend my Friday night with 50 plus students. I hope to build relationships with the group, so I can be invited back in the Fall of 2019.
I mentioned a few items of interest before I started presenting:
Farm Credit Services of America is sponsoring free entry to https://connectaha.com/ for selected UNO Students. If you can commit to attending the conference on March 8th. I can put your name in a drawing for a free ticket. Reply to this email with a phone number so I can get hold of you if you are selected.
This Wednesday February 27th from 11:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M. I will be at the ACDC Spring 2019 Career & Internship Fair at Baxtor Arena. This is a great opportunity to network with employers and learn about career options. Make sure to stop by my booth!
The session was in the Aksarben room. The room had pictures of when Aksarben had horse racing.
The topic was Self Management & Empowerment. The facilitator of the session was Randy Roberts. She talked about how this day would be packed with information.
Do you believe you are a extraordinary person outside of work?
Some people can’t just turn it one and be Amazing. A person has to have standards to who they want to be in life.
What are my standards vs Accomplishments? Who do I need to be at work vs life? Is my life better than before? As a person I need to find Source of what makes life better?
Self-Awareness: Environmental to live life.
Responsibility of Leader is dual for self and others.
Any result in life is based on actions. As individuals we go straight to actions. Should we look at more. Organization entrenches the culture of action, but else is there besides action in a organization.
Reality
Convinced of a belief is the truth to most of us. How to agree something is Real? Reality exists and persists without us. To find the difference between something real? A person needs to find secondary Decisions: Collect data to be right? That is real.
Opinion, Assessment comes from speaking?
Language over belief. Powerful Reality will cause results to go up.
A adult only has to hear 3 things to be influenced. We have behaviors to act certain way. Don’t stand a chance unless we resist of lure to full fill a role
There is a time in our life that something was said that shaped our life: Mine is “When you are tired you have to work the hardest”
When a person makes stuff up: Everything goes wrong, things you do will go wrong. You see this in opinion vs reality. A opinion is that “Technology People are not good at working with people” People say crazy things if you let them. People make things up to force a story. The Behavior allows people to get stuck.
People take extraordinary when given option. There is a capability
you can be right, but both are not right
When you lead with a story and believe you are right it leads
Behavior Address
top person who give permission to act this way are they broken and not acceptable.
The Line
Randy talked about a line. It is how much are you above something vs how low will you keep yourself.
In an conversation with someone. How long can you stay above or below line? How long to be relevant?
90% Awareness: Where you are at the moment. Recognize are you above or below the line. When Awareness is below the line 10% of are not aware.
Get focus and take a minute to get back
Adults lead better before than after a conversation.
People need to recover when things don’t go their way. Leaders forgive people fast. How do I recover personally? I breath, stand and shake head.
Promises
In life you don’t generate promise of who you will be.
Well meaning, promise. Life by Design
Who am I committed to be in the future?
My bold statement: “Who am I in this world. I am a confident person who is committed to encourage the people closest to my heart.”
Hero’s are everywhere. Be a hero to others. Listen powerfully to others. Listen with heart. Let them know you are there.
Creativity = listening
Don’t hijack conversation to interject your thoughts.
Emails are for information not communication. Don’t hide behind your computer. Who do I have to be to make this happen. Fear is a good thing. Over promise is growth. Deepest fear is that we are powerful. Liberate fear.
Saying right thing, but not acting a certain way is not the way to live. Can’t speak powerfully but have behavior.
Love your people so they can become fierce.
When you give people a choice they become extraordinary. People want to be amazing. Love shows up in Reality.
What registers for people to respond? Contribution of someone letting you in. Hire Expert People. Relate to powerful people. That is leadership.
The Cybersecurity (Nullify) student group hosts a Capture the Flag (CTF) competition for regional High Schools. I decided to sponsor this event as a great chance to network and get the Farm Credit Services of America name out to this group. I received information about being a sponsor back in November of 2018.
Planning
Working with Information Technology leaders Russ Wagner and Rex Earl. We decided to sponsor the Bronze for $500.00.
Leading up to the event I coordinated with the Security Team for volunteers to help at the event. I also secured a table by working with the
Christie Smith, the Academic Program Coordinator at PKI. School of Interdisciplinary Informatics. She told me that they have never had a sponsor at the event before and was thrilled that I would show up.
Day of Event
The event was at the Scott Conference Center on UNO Campus. I arrived about 8:45 a.m. I met Christie who helped get my table set up in the far corner of the room.
The event kicked off at 9:00 a.m. I was happy to hear Farm Credit Services of America was given a mention as a sponsor of the event. After looking over the T-Shirt that everyone at the event received our Bio Star Logo was on the back of the shirt.
The room was set up that each high school had 4 to 6 members that worked as a team trying to earn points for finding vulnerabilities in a website.
Through out the event I meet the following Professors
Dr. Matthew L. Hale (He teaches mobile application development. Mostly in Android. We exchanged emails for a potential class room visit in the future).
