...to achieve promotions to senior positions in IT. Based on personal chats with CEOs and head-hunters. The Top Seven Skills Countdown, over seven days...continuing with the Number Five, a symbolic and spiritial number, apparently...
5 Focus on what technology does, not what technology is.
I don't care what it is. I want you to help our customers, attract new ones and delight existing ones. Keep your technical discussions private.
In other words, be a business person - this be a business person (or don't - you will never get that promotion though) runs throughout this blog...
Building on number 6 (avoid jargon) - and here are the three most powerful ways to apply this:
* Everything you do must have a real, measurable benefit for the company (you will never have a budget row again)
* In the annual plan, cross reference everything you are going to do with the aims of the organisation, and vice-versa - one by one
* If Suppliers talk about what their technology is, give them a huge smile and see if you can list, in your head, every James Bond film, in the order they were released
As ever though, your future, your choice
PS Given that you will one day close your eyes and die, and that you may never know when that day will be, why on earth would you fear anything?
Tomorrow, what you will be thinking in those last moments on this planet...and what to do about it...