Leadership Does Not Require an Org Chart

One of the most important leadership lessons I’ve learned is that leadership is not granted by a title.

It is demonstrated through action.

Organizations often associate leadership with authority, reporting structures, or formal responsibility. Those things certainly matter, but they are not what make people choose to follow someone.

Leadership is ultimately measured by influence—by the ability to help others grow, solve problems, and move forward together.

Leadership Is a Daily Choice

Some of the strongest leaders I have known exercised influence without formal authority.

They mentored new employees.

Shared knowledge freely.

Made introductions that helped someone else’s career.

Offered thoughtful feedback.

Recognized potential in people before others saw it.

None of those actions required permission.

They simply required a willingness to serve.

Influence Exists Everywhere

Leadership opportunities appear far more often than most people realize.

Helping a colleague navigate a difficult decision.

Connecting two people who could benefit from knowing each other.

Sharing lessons learned from a challenging project.

Volunteering professional expertise within the community.

Taking time to coach someone earlier in their career.

These moments rarely receive recognition.

They often create the greatest long-term impact.

Growth Is Part of Leadership

Every season of a career offers opportunities to learn.

Some periods involve building organizations.

Others involve developing new skills, expanding professional networks, reflecting on experience, or exploring different perspectives.

Growth is not something leaders pause until circumstances become ideal.

It is part of leadership itself.

Leaders who continue learning remain better prepared to help others when new opportunities emerge.

Service Builds Credibility

Leadership rooted in service creates trust.

People remember those who invested in them without expecting immediate return.

Organizations remember leaders who shared credit, developed talent, and strengthened teams rather than protecting personal status.

Those habits build credibility that extends well beyond any individual role or organization.

Leadership Is Portable

Titles change.

Organizations change.

Responsibilities evolve.

The ability to influence, encourage, teach, and develop others travels with you.

That may be the most enduring form of leadership.

When leaders focus less on position and more on contribution, they discover that opportunities to serve exist in every stage of a career.

Leadership is not defined by where you sit on an organizational chart.

It is defined by the positive impact you leave on the people around you.

Practical IT Governance for Mid-Sized Companies

Technology decisions are business decisions. For mid-sized companies, where capital, talent, and management attention are limited, effective IT governance helps ensure those decisions support growth rather than create unnecessary cost, risk, or complexity.

IT governance does not need to mean additional bureaucracy or layers of approval. At its best, it establishes clear decision rights, accountability, and priorities so leaders can make informed choices about technology investments, cybersecurity, vendors, data, and operations.

Aligning Technology with Business Priorities

Every technology investment should support a defined business objective. That may include improving customer experience, enabling growth, reducing operating costs, strengthening resilience, or meeting regulatory requirements.

Without a clear governance process, organizations can accumulate disconnected systems, redundant vendors, and projects that consume resources without producing meaningful business value. Governance creates a disciplined way to evaluate proposed investments, compare competing priorities, and confirm that funding is directed toward the organization’s most important needs.

Managing Risk Before It Becomes Disruption

Cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, business continuity, data protection, and third-party risk cannot be treated as isolated technical concerns. They require business ownership and informed executive oversight.

Effective governance clarifies who may accept risk, who is responsible for remediation, and how material concerns are communicated to leadership. This allows organizations to address vulnerabilities based on business impact rather than relying solely on technical severity or reacting after an incident occurs.

Controlling Cost and Complexity

Technology costs often increase gradually through overlapping applications, underused licenses, fragmented infrastructure, and vendor agreements that are renewed without sufficient review.

Governance introduces discipline into purchasing, architecture, and lifecycle decisions. It helps leaders understand not only what a technology costs to acquire, but also what it will cost to integrate, secure, operate, support, and eventually replace.

The objective is not simply to spend less. It is to spend intentionally and avoid complexity that creates recurring costs, slows execution, and limits future choices.

Establishing Clear Decision Rights

Many technology problems are ultimately decision-making problems. Projects stall when ownership is unclear, business and technology teams operate with different assumptions, or no one has authority to resolve competing priorities.

A practical governance model defines:

• which decisions remain within technology teams

• which require business sponsorship

• when finance, legal, cybersecurity, or operations must participate

• who approves exceptions

• and how unresolved risks are escalated

Clear decision rights reduce delay, improve accountability, and prevent issues from being passed between functions.

Governing Vendors and Technology Partners

Mid-sized organizations often depend heavily on external providers. Managed-service firms, cloud platforms, software vendors, consultants, and implementation partners may control critical parts of the operating environment.

Governance ensures these relationships are managed according to performance, risk, cost, and business value. Contracts should include clear expectations, measurable outcomes, accountability for service failures, and regular reviews of whether the relationship continues to meet the organization’s needs.

Vendor governance is particularly important during periods of rapid growth or acquisition, when overlapping contracts and inconsistent standards can quickly erode anticipated value.

Using the Right Level of Governance

A mid-sized company does not need the same governance structure as a global enterprise. The process should be proportionate to the organization’s size, regulatory environment, complexity, and risk.

A practical model may include:

• an agreed technology strategy

• a prioritized investment portfolio

• architecture and cybersecurity standards

• defined approval thresholds

• regular risk and performance reporting

• vendor and contract reviews

• and a small cross-functional forum for major decisions

The goal is to create enough structure to improve decisions without slowing the organization unnecessarily.

Governance as an Enabler of Growth

Strong IT governance is not designed to prevent action. It enables the organization to move with greater confidence because leaders understand the risks, costs, dependencies, and expected outcomes of their decisions.

For mid-sized companies, that discipline can be a competitive advantage. It allows limited resources to be focused on the initiatives that matter most, reduces avoidable complexity, and creates a more stable foundation for growth.

Technology creates value when it is connected to business priorities, governed with discipline, and measured by outcomes. IT governance provides the structure that makes that possible.

What Crafting Espresso Taught Me About Developing Teams

Outside of technology, one of my favorite hobbies is making espresso.

Good espresso is remarkably unforgiving. Small adjustments to the beans, grind size, water temperature, or extraction time can dramatically change the result. At first glance, it seems like a hobby built around precision.

The longer I’ve practiced it, however, the more I’ve realized it is actually about understanding potential.

Every coffee bean is different.

The goal isn’t to force every bean to behave the same way.

The goal is to understand what allows each one to perform at its best.

I’ve come to believe leadership works much the same way.

Great Teams Are Not Built from Identical People

Technology organizations often focus on finding the “perfect” candidate.

In reality, high-performing teams are built by combining people with different experiences, perspectives, and strengths.

Some excel at solving complex technical problems.

Others communicate exceptionally well with customers.

Some thrive under pressure.

Others quietly improve processes that make everyone around them more effective.

Leadership begins by recognizing those differences rather than trying to eliminate them.

Development Requires Intentional Investment

Coffee does not become exceptional by accident.

Neither do people.

The strongest leaders invest time in coaching, mentoring, and creating opportunities for others to grow. Sometimes that means technical development. Sometimes it means giving someone responsibility before they feel completely ready. Often it simply means believing in someone’s potential before they believe in it themselves.

People usually rise to expectations that are supported with trust and opportunity.

Leaders Create the Environment

An espresso machine cannot compensate for poor beans.

Likewise, talented people often struggle in environments where priorities are unclear, collaboration is discouraged, or leadership creates unnecessary obstacles.

One of the most important responsibilities of leadership is creating conditions where people can succeed.

That includes clear expectations, psychological safety, meaningful feedback, and the freedom to solve problems rather than simply execute instructions.

When those conditions exist, performance improves naturally.

The Best Leaders Serve the Team

The phrase servant leadership is sometimes misunderstood.

It does not mean lowering standards or avoiding accountability.

It means recognizing that a leader’s responsibility is to help others perform at their highest level.

Leaders remove obstacles.

They develop capability.

They create opportunities.

They recognize potential that others may overlook.

The success of the team becomes the measure of the leader.

Excellence Is Never Finished

One of the reasons I enjoy making espresso is that there is always something to improve.

A slightly different grind.

A better extraction.

A new bean.

Leadership follows the same path.

No team is ever truly finished developing.

No leader is ever finished learning.

Both improve through curiosity, patience, thoughtful refinement, and the willingness to keep making small adjustments over time.

The goal is never perfection.

It is creating an environment where people—and the organization—continue getting better.

Cybersecurity Resilience Is an Operating Capability

Most organizations invest heavily in preventing cyberattacks.

Far fewer invest equally in their ability to continue operating when prevention inevitably fails.

That distinction matters.

Cybersecurity resilience is not measured by whether an organization experiences an attack. It is measured by how effectively it prepares for disruption, responds under pressure, recovers critical operations, and learns from the experience.

In today’s environment, resilience has become an operational capability rather than simply a cybersecurity objective.

Cybersecurity Is a Business Responsibility

Cybersecurity is often viewed as a technology function.

It isn’t.

Every significant cyber incident affects business operations, customer confidence, regulatory compliance, financial performance, and organizational reputation. While technology teams manage many of the controls, resilience requires leadership across the enterprise.

Executives, business leaders, legal counsel, communications teams, finance, operations, human resources, and technology all play critical roles before, during, and after an incident.

Organizations that recognize cybersecurity as an enterprise responsibility consistently respond more effectively than those that treat it solely as an IT problem.

Resilience Begins Before an Incident

Technical safeguards remain essential.

Identity management, multi-factor authentication, vulnerability management, endpoint protection, network segmentation, backups, monitoring, and security awareness all reduce organizational risk.

However, resilience requires additional capabilities.

Organizations should understand which business services are most critical, define recovery priorities, establish decision-making authority, exercise incident response plans, evaluate third-party dependencies, and ensure leadership understands its responsibilities during a crisis.

Preparation determines performance.

Leadership Matters Most During Uncertainty

Technology leaders are expected to provide calm, informed decision-making when information is incomplete and pressure is high.

That responsibility extends well beyond technical remediation.

Leaders must balance operational continuity, regulatory obligations, customer communication, executive decision-making, and organizational confidence while technical teams investigate and recover.

Resilient organizations develop these leadership capabilities before they need them.

Tabletop exercises, executive simulations, and cross-functional planning often provide greater long-term value than simply purchasing another security tool.

Recovery Is Part of Security

Organizations often focus heavily on preventing attacks while giving less attention to recovery.

Yet resilience depends on the ability to restore operations safely, validate system integrity, communicate transparently, and return the organization to normal business operations with confidence.

Recovery planning should address not only technology restoration but also business processes, vendor coordination, customer communications, regulatory reporting, and lessons learned.

Recovery is where preparation becomes operational performance.

Continuous Improvement Strengthens Resilience

Every incident, near miss, audit, and exercise provides an opportunity to improve.

The strongest organizations continually evaluate what worked, what failed, and where governance, technology, communication, or decision-making can be strengthened.

Cybersecurity resilience is not a project with a completion date.

It is an organizational capability that matures over time through disciplined leadership, continuous learning, and operational experience.

Resilience Creates Confidence

No organization can eliminate cyber risk entirely.

What leaders can control is how well their organizations prepare, respond, recover, and adapt.

Organizations that invest in resilience protect far more than their technology. They protect customer trust, organizational reputation, operational continuity, and the confidence that stakeholders place in their leadership.

In the end, cybersecurity resilience is not measured by avoiding every attack. It is measured by an organization’s ability to continue fulfilling its mission when adversity inevitably arrives.

Why Technology Leaders Must Speak the Language of Finance

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned throughout my career is that technology leadership is fundamentally a business discipline.

Technology decisions influence capital allocation, operating expense, productivity, risk, customer experience, and long-term enterprise value. Yet many organizations still treat finance and technology as separate conversations.

The most effective organizations recognize they are the same conversation viewed from different perspectives.

Technology Is an Investment Portfolio

Every organization has more technology opportunities than it has resources to pursue them.

Infrastructure modernization.

Cybersecurity.

Cloud adoption.

Artificial intelligence.

Data platforms.

Application modernization.

Digital transformation.

The question is rarely whether these initiatives have value.

The question is which investments should be made first.

Finance brings discipline to capital allocation.

Technology brings understanding of operational capability, technical risk, and long-term sustainability.

Together, they determine where limited resources will create the greatest business value.

Speaking a Common Language

Technology leaders often explain solutions in technical terms.

Finance leaders evaluate decisions through business outcomes.

Both perspectives are necessary.

When proposing a major technology initiative, executives should be able to explain not only how the technology works, but also how it affects revenue, operating expense, productivity, resilience, customer experience, regulatory compliance, and enterprise risk.

Successful technology leaders translate technical decisions into business outcomes.

That translation builds trust.

Cost Is Only One Dimension

Technology discussions frequently begin with cost.

The more important conversation is value.

A larger initial investment may reduce operating expense for years.

Infrastructure modernization may reduce outages, improve productivity, strengthen cybersecurity, simplify vendor management, and accelerate future initiatives.

Artificial intelligence may reduce repetitive work while allowing highly skilled employees to focus on higher-value analysis.

The objective is not minimizing technology spending.

It is maximizing organizational return.

Better Decisions Require Partnership

Finance should not evaluate technology investments after decisions have already been made.

Likewise, technology should not treat financial review as a final approval step.

The strongest organizations involve finance early in technology planning and technology leaders early in financial planning.

That partnership produces more realistic business cases, stronger prioritization, better forecasting, and more disciplined execution.

It also improves organizational confidence because investment decisions are based on shared understanding rather than competing priorities.

Leadership Beyond Technology

The role of today’s technology executive extends far beyond infrastructure and applications.

Technology leaders help organizations allocate capital, manage enterprise risk, evaluate acquisitions, improve operations, strengthen governance, and enable long-term growth.

Those responsibilities require financial fluency as much as technical expertise.

Understanding finance does not make technology leaders less technical.

It makes them more effective business leaders.

A Shared Objective

Finance and technology ultimately pursue the same objective: creating sustainable enterprise value.

Finance provides financial discipline.

Technology provides operational capability.

When both functions work together from the beginning, organizations make better decisions, invest more wisely, and execute with greater confidence.

The strongest technology leaders do not simply understand technology.

They understand how technology creates business value.

Building High-Performing Technology Teams

Technology organizations succeed because of people.

Infrastructure, cloud platforms, cybersecurity tools, automation, and artificial intelligence all matter. But none of them consistently create value without capable teams making sound decisions every day.

Looking back over my career, the strongest technology organizations I have been part of shared several characteristics. They were not defined by the newest technology or the largest budgets. They were defined by leadership, trust, accountability, and a commitment to developing people.

Create Clarity Before Accountability

People perform best when expectations are clear.

That means more than assigning work. Teams should understand why the work matters, how success will be measured, how it supports broader business objectives, and where they have the authority to make decisions.

When priorities continually shift or responsibilities are unclear, even highly capable teams struggle.

Good leadership creates clarity before demanding accountability.

Develop People, Not Just Systems

Technology evolves continuously.

The most valuable investment leaders can make is developing people who can adapt with it.

That includes technical training, certainly, but also communication, business understanding, decision-making, and leadership skills.

Many of the strongest contributors I have worked with grew because someone gave them an opportunity to solve a larger problem—not because they were assigned another routine task.

Organizations benefit when leaders actively create those opportunities.

Trust Produces Better Decisions

Technology work depends on judgment.

Engineers solve problems that cannot always be anticipated through procedures or documentation alone.

Leaders who build trust encourage people to raise concerns early, challenge assumptions respectfully, and share ideas without fear of criticism.

The result is not simply better morale.

It is better decision-making.

Remove Obstacles, Don’t Create Them

Leadership is not measured by how many decisions require executive approval.

It is measured by how effectively leaders enable their teams to execute.

That means eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy, clarifying priorities, resolving conflicts quickly, and ensuring teams have the tools, information, and authority needed to succeed.

The best leaders spend as much time removing obstacles as assigning work.

Build Teams That Learn

Technology organizations improve through continuous learning.

Projects succeed.

Projects fail.

Incidents occur.

New technologies emerge.

Each experience provides an opportunity to strengthen the organization.

High-performing teams conduct thoughtful retrospectives, document lessons learned, improve processes, and share knowledge across the organization.

Continuous improvement is not an initiative.

It becomes part of the culture.

Leadership Is Measured by the Team

One of the most important lessons I have learned is that leadership is not measured by individual expertise.

It is measured by the capability of the people around you.

The strongest leaders develop environments where individuals grow, collaboration becomes natural, accountability is shared, and success continues long after the leader has moved on.

Technology changes constantly.

Great leadership principles do not.

Organizations that invest in their people, encourage learning, and create trust consistently outperform organizations that rely solely on technical excellence.

Ultimately, technology leaders build more than systems.

They build teams capable of solving problems the organization has not yet encountered.

The Gabarée Family Chocolate Babka Recipe

Chocolate babka has become a family tradition in our home. Over the years I’ve experimented with several recipes before settling on this version, adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. The result is a rich brioche dough filled with a silky chocolate ganache that has become one of our favorite treats to share with family and friends

Prep Time: 2 hours 
Cook Time: 35 minutes 
Chilling time: 12 hours 
Total Time: 14 hours 35 minutes 
Yield: 2 loaves

Ingredients

Tools and Miscellaneous:

Food scale (if available)

Measuring cup

Tablespoon

Teaspoon

Stand mixer with dough hook

Hand mixer

Spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl when mixing the dough

Olive Oil to coat the bowl for when the dough is proofing

Plastic wrap to cover the dough bowl when proofing

Serrated knife

Two 9×5-inch bread pans

Butter for the sides of the bread pans 

Parchment paper for the bottoms of the bread pans

Offset spatula (preferred) or a regular one if an offset spatula is not available to spread chocolate filling

Brioche: 

4⅜ cups (530 g) all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting 

½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar 

1 tablespoon (14 g) instant dry yeast 

3 large eggs 

½ cup (118 ml) water 

1 teaspoon (6 g) fine sea salt (do not use if butter is salted)

⅔ cup (150 g) unsalted butter, cut into small slices and softened to room temperature

Olive Oil to coat the bowl for when the dough is proofing

Butter for the bread pans 

Parchment paper for the bread pans

Chocolate Filling (modified chocolate ganache): 

200g (7 oz.) 70% dark chocolate 

½ cup (115 g) salted butter 

½ cup (60 g) powdered sugar 

⅓ cup (80 ml) heavy cream 

⅓ cup (50 g) unsweetened cacao powder 

Sugar Syrup: 

½ cup (118 ml) water 

½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar 

Instructions

Make the Dough:
Using a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Using the same hand mixer, mix the eggs with the creamed butter and sugar. Heat the water to between 105F and 112F. Mix yeast into the heated water using a fork.

Place flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix on low speed until combined. Add the water/yeast mixture and continue to mix on low speed until incorporated. The dough will be mostly dry and crumbly at this point. Add the creamed butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix on medium speed until the dough comes together, 2-3 minutes. Continue mixing for about 10 minutes on medium speed until the dough is completely smooth, elastic, and shiny. It will look soft and might be sticky – that’s ok. During mixing, you will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

With floured hands, transfer dough to a large mixing bowl brushed with olive oil, cover with plastic wrap, and leave in the refrigerator to proof for at least half a day or overnight. The dough may not look like it has risen much, but that's okay. If placed for a long time in the fridge, the dough can become hard; that’s also okay; leave it at room temperature until it’s easy to work with, usually around 30-60 minutes.

Grease two loaf pans (I usually use 9×5-inch pans, but a bit smaller or larger pans would also work), butter the sides of each pan, and line the bottoms with parchment paper for easy release later. Set aside.

Make the Filling:
In a double boiler (or medium saucepan with an aluminum bowl resting over it), bring water to a full boil. Place chocolate, butter, heavy cream, cocoa powder, and sugar into the top bowl. Lower the heat to moderate and melt together the contents of the top bowl, mixing frequently with a spatula. The mixture will have a fudgy look and consistency at this point. Reduce the heat to low and continue to mix until fully melted and completely smooth. Set aside the bowl to cool. It will thicken and become spreadable as it cools. You can also place it in the refrigerator briefly until you get a spreadable consistency.

Roll and Shape the Dough:
Divide the dough in half. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, and shape it into a rectangle measuring 16×12 inches (40×30 cm) and 0.25 inches (0.64 cm) thick. Fold the dough onto itself until it is about 25% it's original rolled-out size. Roll the dough out again, shaping it into a rectangle measuring 16×12 inches (40×30 cm) and 0.25 inches (0.64 cm) thick. Repeat the folding and rolling process one more time. Now position the dough so that the long side is closest to you. Repeat the above process for the other half of the dough.

Add the Filling and Shape the Babka:
Using an offset spatula, spread half of the chocolate mixture over the rectangle. It is ok to have some ganache left over. Spread just enough to cover the dough, between 0.15 (0.38 cm) and 0.25 inches (0.64 cm). Too much ganache will make the babka soggy and taste off-balance.

Use both hands to roll up the rectangle like a roulade, starting from the long side closest to you and ending at the other long end. Press to seal the dampened end onto the roulade, then use both hands to even out the roll into a perfect, thick cigar. Rest the cigar on its seam.

Using a serrated knife, gently cut the roll in half lengthwise, starting at the top and finishing at the seam, essentially dividing the log into two long, even halves, with the layers of dough and filling visible along the length of both halves. With the cut sides facing up, gently press together one end of each half, then lift the right half over the left half. Repeat this process, but this time, lift the left half over the right to create a simple two-pronged plait. Gently squeeze together the other ends so you are left with the two halves intertwined, showing the filling on top.

Carefully lift the cake into a loaf pan. Don’t worry if there are gaps in the pan since the cake will rise and will eventually look fine, even if it looks messy at this point. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and leave to rise at room temperature for 1 to 1½ hours until almost doubled in size. Repeat to make the second babka.

Bake the Chocolate Babka:
Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C, allowing plenty of time to heat fully before the uncooked babkas have finished rising. Remove the plastic wrap and place the cakes on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown on top. If you have a thermometer, you are looking for an internal temperature of about 200ºF/93ºC degrees.

Make and Apply the Syrup:
While the cakes are in the oven, make the syrup. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring water and sugar to a boil. As soon as the sugar dissolves, remove from heat and set aside to cool. As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, brush the syrup over them. Use all of the syrup, even if it looks like you used a lot. Let cakes cool until they are warm, then remove from pans and let cool completely before serving.

Serve:
Serve by itself warm or at room temperature. It also pairs nicely with ice cream and coffee.

This Chocolate Babka will stay fresh for 24 hours in an airtight container at room temperature, but will also be just fine for around five days in a plastic bread bag with a twist tie.