I have submitted a pre-conference session to present at the PASS SQLRally, May 11, 2011 in Orlando, FL. My session is entitled Leadership and Team Management Skills for the Database Professional. If you've ever attended my 1-hr professional development session at the PASS Summit, which has scored highest in the professional development track, then you've seen a preview of what we'll be covering over the course of the full day. During the session I will discuss how most IT leaders earned their promotions based on technical competency, not on leadership or managerial skills. Technical … [Read more...]
SQLRally Precon Voting
Filed Under: Conferences, Opinion, Presentations, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Management, Professional Development, Training
Plays Well With Others – Upsizing Your Skills With OCW
In our last installment , I describe the three essential skills I felt were hallmarks of the best and most successful directors that I’ve worked with. Good directors, indeed good strategic leaders of all stripes, usually have at least one or more of these skills: strategic planning, visionary goals, and emotional intelligence. The good news about these skills, and lots of other skills that can advance your career, is that you can learn them. Many people will spend a fortune on a classroom approach to learning these sorts of skills via an MBA. If you’re a penny pincher, you can get a leg … [Read more...]
Filed Under: On-Line Resources, Opinion, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Strategies, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Best Practices, Career, Goals, Plays Well With Others, Professional Development
DBTA: Getting Up to Speed on the SQL Server Social Media Scene
If you haven't paid attention to the new social media, you're doing yourself a disservice. Just as email was a game-changer in the 1980s and the internet revolutionized society in the 1990s, social media is making a huge impact on the way people work and interact today. Personally, I was skeptical about social networking until some good friends persuaded me to give it a trial run. It seemed like a great way to dither away some valuable time, but I didn't see the business value in the whole proposition until I tried it. [READ MORE] … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Cloud, DBTA, On-Line Resources, Opinion, PASS, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks, Trends Tagged With: Career, DBA, Professional Development, SQLPASS, SQLSaturday, Tools, Writing
Plays Well With Others – Successful Directors versus Successful Technologists
The skills that enable a person to be a top-tier database professional have very little to do with being a successful member of a board of directors. So what skills are needed for a person to be successful on a board of directors for any large organization? Here are a handful of skills, in no particular order, that I’ve seen demonstrated by very successful directors from days past: Strategic thinking Let’s face it - technology is detail-oriented work. No database professional can be truly effective at their job if they never get the parameters correct when calling a function, can’t … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Challenges, Ethics, Governance, Opinion, PASS, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Strategies Tagged With: Career, Management, Plays Well With Others, Professional Development, SQLPASS
Video: SQL Server Disk Optimization
Since the release of SQL Server 2005, companies have been investing heavily in SQL Server for their business-critical applications. DBAs are now challenged with supporting ever-growing datasets and making efficient use of allocated disk space in both production and enterprise storage environments. Yet DBAs seldom have a clear picture of their data storage and therefore cannot determine whether they are getting a worthwhile return on their storage investment or if an out-of-disk situation is looming. In this presentation, Kevin will address these challenges and explore methodologies to help … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Challenges, Hardware, IO, Opinion, Performance, Presentations, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tool Time, Video Tagged With: Best Practices, DBA, Developer, DMV, Internals, Monitoring, Performance, SQL Server 2005, Tools & Scripts, Video
DBTA: The Ebb and Flow of SQL Server Instrumentation
Microsoft SQL Server's relational engine has offered new instrumentation that improves by light years with each new release. The introduction of Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) in SQL Server 2005 provided a much-needed equivalent to Oracle's long-standing and capable V$ and X$ system views. SQL Server 2008 has provided another dramatic improvement to its instrumentation with Extended Events (also known as XEvents) that promises to offer even greater opportunities to tune, trace and troubleshoot the inner workings of a SQL Server application. All of this stands in stark contrast with the … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, DBTA, Opinion, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Trends Tagged With: DBA, DBTA, Developer, DMV, SQL Server 2008 R2
DBTA:A Look at Upcoming Enhancements in SQL Server 2008 R2
At a rather muted Microsoft TechEd in Los Angeles in May, the crowds were diminished and the educational content was slimmed down. In the past, SQL Server sessions were so abundant that you'd have trouble choosing which of several you might want to attend. This year, the state of the economy was reflected in many ways, including the one, or, in just a few cases, two sessions per time slot allotted SQL Server professionals. Despite the low ebb, the Microsoft SQL Server team made an exciting announcement about the upcoming availability of the SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP (Community Technology … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Databases, DBTA, Opinion, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: DBA, DBTA, Developer, news analysis, SQL Server 2008 R2
Plays Well With Others – Acing the Interview
In the past few columns, we’ve talked about how to conduct an interview and, dreadfully, how to dismiss a member of your team. I this post I would like to discuss the whole process from the candidate’s point of view. For the job candidate, an interview is your opportunity to showcase your talents and the strengths that you bring to an organization. It’s also your opportunity to demonstrate the unique talents you, as a potential team member, offer. Never forget that interviews are a form of competition, so each and every advantageous characteristic you can demonstrate to your potential … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Opinion, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Professional Development
Plays Well With Others – The “Unhiring” Process
It’s not a pleasant topic to discuss. There are typically two general scenarios for involuntary separation – layoffs and termination. Layoffs entail a general reduction in work force due to a need to reduce expenses. Layoffs usually imply that those it affects were dismissed through no fault of their own and that they were otherwise good employees. Termination, on the other hand, indicates that the employee had failed to meet the expectations of the job and was otherwise incompatible with the needs of the employer. This is such an unpleasant topic that people manufacture lots of words to … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Opinion, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Best Practices, Management, Plays Well With Others, Professional Development
DBTA: Is it Time for a Professional Code of Ethics for DBAs?
In my many years on the board of directors of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS), I frequently exhorted our members to strive for individual achievement and personal excellence. One of the best paths for many SQL Server professionals is through certification, especially if they lack years of demonstrated on-the-job experience. However, certification only paints half the picture. While it might demonstrate, at a minimum, that you passed a test (or several tests) about the database technology, it tells nothing about your standards for good conduct. [READ MORE] … [Read more...]
Filed Under: DBTA, Opinion, Professional Development, Trends Tagged With: Certification, DBTA, Professional Development, SQLPASS
