profile

Steve Semler

Leadership matters! I help tech leaders develop the skills and capabilities they need to attract, engage, and align great employees. My goal is to give successful companies the tools and mindsets they need to grow the next generation, the next level of leaders throughout the organization, and not just at the C-suite level.

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Featured Post

Do you follow the formula or do what you’re good at?

Maybe you can help me solve a dilemma I’m wrestling with. What would you do if you were faced with a decision about whether to stick with a proven formula for success or to depart from it because your heart wasn’t into the things it required? Image by James Oladujoye on Pixabay The success formula I’ve been given works well for the great majority of people who follow it. It requires tailoring to find “the sweet spot” for each person, but it will produce results for a business owner who...

6 days ago • 2 min read

“What do you do that makes you successful in business? What helps you break out of the circuit of the routine and stay innovative and effective?” Those are some of the questions I’m asking the business leaders I’m interviewing in my Circuit Breakers video podcast series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFvFA9Hj54z3AeGuwRyuNxAHJx0gv-F7u I am finding tech leaders who are breaking out of the circuit of routine, day-to-day, business-as-usual to innovate and grow. Then I’m bringing their...

13 days ago • 1 min read

Accountability is a funny thing. It means one is responsible for the results of some activity. One can be “called to account” for the actions and results needed. It implies a counting up of results against what the person accepted responsibility to do. For example, if you're going to eat a fish dinner tonight, someone has to catch the fish. How do you hold yourself accountable for results? To be accountable, you have to act. Image credit Artur Tumasjan on Unsplash I find that this can be a...

20 days ago • 2 min read

It was 2015 before it really hit me that I was missing a key part of my leadership toolset. Maybe you’ve already got this covered, but there are a lot of people who miss it, too. It’s the part of active listening where we make the other person feel heard before starting on problem solving. Image by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash This is a trap for all leaders, but tends to be especially challenging for technical leaders who like to help by solving problems. Like many leadership skills, this is one...

27 days ago • 3 min read

Here’s a common and frustrating experience I’m sure you can relate to: What do you do when the technology fails you? Recent example: This past weekend I was writing a script for an interactive game scenario. In this scenario, the player should be able to find Objective A, interact with it, and then move on to Objectives B and C. When they clicked to interact with Objective C, they would have a conversation dialog and finish the scenario with an interesting story reveal. Image by Pediaa.com on...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

How aware are you of your own moods? How fast do you notice when you are slipping into frustration? Impatience? Anxiety? Anger? Worry? Flip that around. How fast do you become aware of playfulness? Cheerfulness? Curiosity? Appreciation? Compassion toward others? The best way to tell if you are in Sage or Saboteur brain mode is by observing your emotions, energy, and mood. If you’ve been reading these articles, you know that you will get much more benefit of performance and happiness from...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Last week I wrote about 5 leadership lessons from Star Trek. Following up on my tradition from last year, here is the extension of that: Leadership lessons from a Star Trek convention. The experience of attending a fan convention can be an unexpected source of leadership wisdom, if you keep your eyes open for it! Here are five leadership tips I gleaned from my recent Star Trek experience. Star Trek the Cruise VII image by Entertainment Cruise Productions Spend time with the people you lead:...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

There are many leadership lessons one can take from Star Trek; especially in the world of geeks and techies. Image credit, ST: Enterprise crew cameo on ST: Lower Decks, Trekmovie.com Here are five that I’m thinking about this week. Maybe they can be helpful to you! Exploration is a Sage Quality: The very purpose of the stories in Star Trek is exploration. The drive to “Explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before!” is at the...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read

When you take a break from work and go off for a week or so, do you stretch yourself to try new things and have new experiences, or do you relax and recharge your batteries? Depending on your personality, where you get your energy will vary. (Extraverts tend to recharge from new experiences. Introverts tend to recharge from comfort.) But everybody needs to recharge sometimes. Whether an experience is a “stretch” or a “recharger” depends on your perceptions and intentions. If it puts you in a...

2 months ago • 2 min read

What do you do when you run into a delay? Maybe you’ve been looking forward to hitting a project milestone and it gets pushed out. Or time you’ve scheduled with a friend or loved one gets canceled. How do you feel? How do you react? This is a moment where self-sabotaging thoughts and negative emotions can grab us if we’re not aware of it. Likely, you’ve been in the same boat. Unexpected delays cause a sense of disappointment, frustration, or maybe even anger or blaming. We waste more time and...

2 months ago • 2 min read
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