experiences both good and not so good).
And that was the catalyst for the re-steering of my career. I am now recording podcasts called “Humanising IT”. One of the podcasts that I am absolutely thrilled to share with you is of course by Marco Bill Peter.
The following is a summary of the podcast (but please listen) with Marco and provides insights of traits, characters and essentially the makings of a respected, successful, and powerful leader.
Generally just find out more about them on a personal level. (We do not always (or rarely) get the opportunity to really have “chat” with these senior people that are our leaders).
But things do not always go according to plan and here’s an example of how my own reticence nearly sabotaged this new agenda I had set for myself.
With my new strategy set, I set about recruiting the Senior Vice President of Red Hat, Marco Bill Peter for a podcast. From the outset, what an absolute delight and privilege it was to interview Marco (the objective and details of the interview are outlined further below).
I want to share with you a short story of one of the most special and memorable experiences whilst interacting with Marco.
When I decided to do the podcasts during COVID 19, I contacted Marco and asked him if I may have the opportunity to interview him, he kindly said yes. Following this brief LinkedIn message exchange, Marco provided his email address and we agreed that I would email Marco details with
The impact of COVID-19 has been catastrophe to the aviation industry and like the majority of people working within the industry, such as myself and my immediate colleagues we have been severely impacted, passenger travel is down 95% resulting in most airline staff being stood down – including myself.
This forced me into a situation; I could either cry on the sofa & think “what if” – which was; walking along the French Riviera, soaking up the rich cultural filled cafes and working with amazing people on amazing projects. Other options were to spend the days watching Netflix (& to be honest this option did appeal to me) or simply just hope things would return to “normal” soon.
Eventually, my decision was to use this time to better promote ‘us’ – that’s right, us people in IT. I don’t believe we always get a good rap, I’m sure you have heard (probably more than once): “IT is slow”, “IT don’t understand our requirements” & that old chestnut “They keep closing my ticket!”.
I am passionate that we need to change the perception of IT – we do a great job and while sometimes, we may not do things the most efficient way, reasons vary (usually we have very little influence over these reasons ). They may be structural, constraints regarding budgets, or time or all three. (This will be a title of another column I intend to write).
I also think, many people think of IT as a department that either fixes things or answers questions on a service desk. So I wanted to promote us, bring IT from out of the garage (changing the oil & kicking the wheels) to the forefront, educate people and make them aware that we are actually enablers of businesses and their people. And most importantly, IT is comprised of people – which again is often forgotten.
With my energised thinking cap on, I thought, how might we better promote ‘us’ and change perceptions of IT? Why not talk to CIO’s, Senior Executives, CEO’s and understand them. That’s right start from the top. Get to know these people, rather than just “figure heads” with fancy titles. I wanted to know what motivates them, how they make decisions (both good and bad) what was their best decision and well,