Real Problems

Leadership is not just about tasks and metrics—it’s about people. In The Everyday Diplomat: How to Lead with Influence and Achieve Real-World Success (Enhanced Edition), Michael D. Forras draws on over two decades of leadership experience as a Marine Corps Sergeant Major, diplomat, and mentor to offer an insightful, practical guide to leadership rooted in empathy, connection, and influence.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall, one economic model emerged triumphant. Capitalism - spanning a spectrum from laissez-faire to authoritarian - shapes the market economies of all the wealthiest and fastest-growing nations. The trouble is cracking its shiny veneer. In the US, economic growth is no longer matched by economic development. Wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, natural resources are exploited for short-term profits, and good jobs are hard to find.

All too often CIOs can get caught up in all of the technical details of the job: boosting uptime, replacing servers, guarding against cyber criminals, etc. What we tend to forget is that IT exists to serve the rest of the business and they are there (in most cases) to make money. This means that there needs to be a business side to IT and that is one of a CIO's key responsibilities.

If the progress you've sought to make in any one or all areas of your life has hit a plateau, you have to look within yourself to try to see if you're not perhaps your own worst enemy. It's time to take full responsibility for your own destiny, and it all starts with realizing that the problem is most likely you. You may be looking in the wrong direction in your attempts to try to figure out why you seem to have reached peak growth and progress, and it's now time to highlight and address the most likely source of your apparent lack of direction.

As the world has become more and more digital, the importance of the role of a CIO within a firm has increased. No longer can CIOs be content to focus exclusively on technical topics. Instead, we now have to consider what the company's goals are and how technology can be used to help the company achieve those goals.

Love truly makes the world go round, God’s love. With redemption, grace, and forgiveness. It is what saves us from ourselves. Love redeems us from our deepest darkest despair. It is our light when we are lost in the woods. Love does not let our mistakes define us. Love helps us learn from our mistakes and changes our direction, guiding us to a newer, better, brighter tomorrow. Love defines us.