Contents

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Disclaimer

Chapter 1  Initiation

1.1    Selecting a Geek Leader

1.2    The Geek Leadership Challenge

1.2.1    The Lion

1.2.2    The Bear

1.2.3    The Snake

1.3    Overview of This Book

Chapter 2  Why Geek Leadership Is Different

2.1    What Is a Leader?

2.2    Great Geek Leadership

2.3    Transformational Leadership

2.4    IT Geeks Are Different

2.4.1    The Big Five Personality Traits

2.4.2    Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Study

2.5    Information Technology Projects are Different

2.6    Why Are IT Projects So Sickly?

2.7    We Need IT Geeks to Lead IT Geeks

Chapter 3  Emotionally Intelligent Communications

3.1    The Importance of Effective Communication

3.2    Missed Signals

3.3    Basic Brain Operations

3.3.1    Instinct

3.3.2    Emotions

3.3.3    Intellect

3.3.4    Intuition

3.3.5    Schemas and Communications

3.4    The Rational-Emotive Behavior Model

3.5    The Communications Cycle and the REB Model

3.6    The Communications Cycle and Self-Images

3.7    The Talk Continuum

3.8    Analysis of the Missed Signals Use Case

3.9    Ground Truth

3.10  Keys to Emotionally Intelligent Communications for IT Geeks

3.10.1  Plan

3.10.2  Do’s and Don’ts

3.10.3  Check

3.10.4  Act

3.11  Conclusion: Communicating in a Complex Environment

Chapter 4  Self-Leadership

4.1    Things Are Changing

4.2    Self-Talk

4.2.1    The Self

4.2.2    Internal Motivation

4.2.3    Rewriting Your Code

4.2.4    Improving Your Self-Talk

4.3    The Self-Leadership Cycle

4.3.1    Commit

4.3.2    Learn

4.3.3    Seek Mentorship

4.3.4    Experiment

4.3.5    Review and Analyze

Chapter 5  Followership

5.1    What Is a Follower?

5.2    Use Case: Everything is Spinning

5.3    Effective Followership

5.3.1    Unifying Purpose

5.4    The Leader and the Effective Followers

5.4.1    Motivating Followers

5.4.2    Leaders Should Do What Only They Can Do

5.5    The Leader, the Followers, and Conflict

5.5.1    Loyalty and Submission

5.5.2    Ethical Conflict

5.5.3    Influencing the Team

5.5.4    Follower Maturity

5.5.5    Conflict Resolution

5.5.6    Praise and Reprimands

5.5.7    Resentment

5.5.8    Task Performance

5.6    Building Great Groups

5.6.1    Team Charter

5.7    Reverse Micromanagement

5.8    Conclusion

Chapter 6  Personal Credibility

6.1    The Incredible Craig

6.2    Social Styles for Personal Credibility

6.2.1    Driver

6.2.2    Expressive

6.2.3    Amiable

6.2.4    Analytical

6.3    Analysis of “The Incredible Craig”

6.4    Mindful Credibility

6.4.1    Step One: Know Yourself

6.4.2    Step Two: Control Yourself

6.4.3    Step Three: Know Others

6.4.4    Step Four: Do Something for Others

6.4.5    Conclusion

Chapter 7  Project Leadership Integration

7.1    CompTIA Project+ Project Domains

7.1.1    Initiation/Pre-Project Setup

7.1.2    Project Planning

7.1.3    Project Execution and Delivery

7.1.4    Change Control and Communications

7.1.5    Project Closure

7.2    Leadership Integration

7.2.1    Best Practice: US Air Force Airman Comprehensive Assessment (ACA)

7.3    Conclusion

7.4    Leadership Integration Plan Template

Chapter 8  Closeout

8.1    Sidelined

8.1.1    Gold Plating

8.1.2    Let’s Do This Another Way

8.1.3    You Are No Steve Jobs

8.1.4    I Can Handle the Truth

8.1.5    A Not-So-Simple Requirement

8.1.6    Creating the Leadership Standard

8.1.7    Creating a Schedule

8.1.8    Are You Practicing What You Preach?

8.1.9    Anxious and Uncomfortable, but Not Alone

8.1.10  Leadership in Action

8.1.11  A Leadership Opportunity

8.1.12  Stay Out of the Way

8.1.13  The Final Deliverable

References

Further Reading

Index