再谈如何成为技术领袖
——技术不是充分条件
被访者：IBM软件集团两岸三地大中华区
总工程师 寇卫东
文/卢鸫翔
要想成为一名优秀的技术领袖，需要具备哪些方面的素质？我在IBM辅导很多年轻同事，如何才能帮助他们在职业生涯中成长为技术领军人物？是否只要拥有了过硬的技术本领，就能成为技术领袖？许多年轻的朋友技术拔尖，然而却觉得没有得到领导的赏识， 这又是什么原因呢？我常常都在思考这些问题。去年这个时候，我同读者朋友们分享了一些心得，我想结合自己多年的高校教育和IT从业经验，再同大家谈谈这一话题。
1.我很清楚地告诉大家，要成为技术领袖，技术是必要条件，但不是充分条件。如果一个人技术基础不够扎实，他几乎等同外行，领导其他技术人员不说没有可能，但至少会相当困难。另一方面我们在国内外都能看到不少拔尖的技术人员，有的是一流的科学家，有的是一流的技术专才，可一旦把他们放在领导岗位上，却都以失败告终。他们虽然技术出色，但是没有当领袖的能力，工作中四处碰壁，缺乏凝聚力，不得人心。
2.要成为技术领袖就要清楚公司的业务，知道技术应当如何配合业务需求。作为技术领袖，只有做到这点，才能使公司业务有大的发展，才会得到高层领导的认同。如果你只懂技术而不懂公司业务，或者你在大学工作而不懂领导教学科研，是没有办法胜任技术领袖的。我们钻研技术的朋友往往忽略了这一点，对某项技术非常专注，但是两耳不闻窗外事，没有把注意力放到公司的发展需求上来。
为了更好地协调个人职业发展与企业业务发展，需要处理好工作的优先级，分清主次。在日常工作当中，我常常为同事画下面这幅图，帮助他们进行分析。
如果有一项工作摆在面前，我们如何定义它的重要性，应该花多少力气去做？我们可以通过象限分析找出答案。第I象限表示此项工作对企业业务发展和个人职业发展都很重要，这是最完美的结合，优先级应该放在最高级。我们在企业中应该多做此类工作。第II象限表示此项工作对企业业务非常重要，但是对个人目前的职业发展看似并不特别重要。我们要以企业的利益为重，所以优先级应该放在第二位。第III象限表示此项工作对个人职业发展很重要，但是对企业业务发展不那么重要，我们应该把它放在第三位。第IV象限表示此项工作对企业业务发展和个人职业发展都不重要，优先级应该是最低的。对这类工作，自己最好不做或者少做；就是做，也应该尽可能少花时间去做；或是请其他同事去做，因为对你的个人职业发展不重要的工作不等于对其他同事的个人职业发展也不重要，换言之，此项工作可能对其他同事的个人职业发展很重要呢。
许多企业都在创造一种文化，希望能将企业业务发展和员工的个人职业发展紧密结合起来，尽管有时候很难兼顾。作为一名领袖人物，他一定更多地在关注大局，而不是仅仅看到自己。关注大局的人会处处从公司的业务、公司的需求出发。在实际工作中我们常常可以看到，一个真正把大局放在第一位的人，即便今天不是领袖，明天也一定非他莫属。现在的领导不欣赏，将来必会为其他领导所赏识。
3.一个能把握大局的人需要具备很多能力，其中非常重要的一项就是我下面要谈到的第三点——决策力。作为技术领袖，要有坚强的领导能力，敢于面对各种困难的挑战，敢于决断。有些人天生就有准确的决策能力，而更多人需要靠后天来培养。
在我的孩子还小的时候，我就给他灌输这种思想，培养锻炼他。如果他要问我，我就让他自己做决定，不论决定是对是错、是好是坏，在我看来都是正确的。因为最大的错误是该做决定时你举棋不定。再举一个例子，美国前总统布什刚刚上任的时候，很多人批评他没有总统的风范，但是经过几年的洗礼他的确拥有了总统的气质。原因又是什么呢？因为那个职位训练了他，很多情况他必须要做出决策。
对于程序员来说，虽然无法像领导那样做重大的决定，但仍然可以在自己的范围内做出决策。例如使用什么样的技术手段， 采用何种算法实现， 选择哪种数据结构，如何撰写文档，同谁一起合作，这些并不一定非要等老板或者构架师来判断。大家应该有意识地锻炼自己，慢慢成长，直到将来能够领导大的项目。每个人不可能一开始就能对一个完整的系统做出决策，可是如果不从当程序员的时候就开始锻炼自己，将来也做不了。
面对决策失败可能带来的后果，我们应该学会坦然面对，学会承担。如果不去做决策，不愿承担责任，就永远无法取得进步，无法获得做技术领袖的能力。
4.要想成为技术领袖必须有远见，有智慧。有远见有智慧的人才能有承担。我有一个在加拿大的同事，开始的时候只是一般的技术人员，很短的时间内就变成经理，再后来没有经过多长时间又被提升为主管。原因很简单：他有远见，并且有足够的智慧知道应该如何去做。像他这样的员工虽然刚开始的职位很低，但是公司领导觉得这样的人才对公司将来的发展大有帮助，另外，如果这样的员工离职，不但是公司的损失，还会助长竞争对手的实力。所以公司一旦有职位就会提升这样的员工。我们作为技术人员也是一样的道理，面对一套大的系统方案，只有穿透障碍看到未来，才有机会获得提升，成为技术领袖。
5.成为技术领袖需要自信、自觉和自律。自信，这和领导能力有关，没自信怎么来领导别人呢？自觉包含两个方面的内容：自我感知和自我解嘲。自我感知是要对自己有一个正确的评价，“人贵有自知之明”——我们老祖宗都这样讲。有些人不知道自己的情况，要么估计过低，要么估计过高，对自己没有一个公正的评价。很多事情要靠下意识的感觉，你可能并不知道具体发生了什么事情，但是凭感觉就能判断出对错。自嘲是能给自己台阶下，这很重要，往往很多人都做不到，一不小心就陷入骑虎难下的境地。另外对自己有一个正确的评价，才不会弄得自己下不来台。
自律就是要约束自己，保持良好的品行。自律不是做给别人看，也不是做给领导看，而是为自己而做。每个人心中都应该有把标尺，衡量什么事情该做，什么事情不该做。自律很关键，年轻人尤其应该加以重视。有好的人品才会得到大家信任，如果不自律，没有良好的品行，有谁会对他心悦诚服，又怎样来做大家的榜样呢？
6.勇于承担，敢于付出。也就是说一个人的工作既不是为了金钱，也不是为了名誉，单单只是为了实现自己人生的价值，获得成功。自己驱动自己，不畏艰难险阻，不达目的誓不罢休。不愿意承担，不愿意付出，处处计较得失的人是没有办法成为领袖的。
这里所说的成功，并非单纯的职位上的成功，还包括技术上的成功，做人的成功等。其中做人的成功最重要，往往却被最多的人所忽视。职位只不过是领导给的一个头衔，技术领袖所具有的影响力并不是单单靠领导所给的头衔就能获得的。不管大公司小公司，很重要的一点就是先做人。我认为衡量一个人是否成功，首先看做人，然后看技术，最后才是职位、名誉、金钱。而且往往人和技术做好了，金钱名誉就会随之而来。正如诺贝尔奖得主们无一人不是勤勤恳恳做事，假使一开始就想着名誉、奖金，或许他们永远都无法取得举世瞩目的成就。
成功是一个很宽泛的概念，如何衡量成功是因人而异的。一般来说，成功是一个正态分布的频谱，不是一个单脉冲。有些人拥有很高的职位、很丰厚的收入，但却没有家庭、没有生活，因为他们把所有心思都放在了工作上，最终获得了事业上的成功，一个脉冲式的成功。相对他们的度量标准来说是成功了，然而对另一些人来说，他们并不成功、或者不值得效仿。因为事业成功只是一方面，除了工作，我们还有生活，还有家庭的维系、子女的教育、八小时后的个人爱好。一个和谐的成功是一个频谱式的成功：也许没有哪一方面是特别突出的，但是有几个方面是相当好的，其他方面也还可以，这样综合来看是最好的。
7.能领会别人的感觉和想法，会与他人相处。一个拥有领袖潜质的人，往往能够很快感知周围的氛围，别人的感受，他能够通过简单的语言、位置调整，使大家轻松舒服地投入工作。
8.能把大家团结起来，人气旺。很多时候，某个人并不是领导，但是大家都愿意听他的话，成了无冕之王，这样的人即便现在不是，将来也必然会成为领袖，这只是时间的问题。
读者朋友们大多都是技术人员，但是大家不要被技术所束缚。我年轻的时候也走过弯路，希望这些心得体会能对年轻的朋友们有所帮助。成为技术领袖并非遥不可及，只需要比别人多付出一点坚定和执著，多注重先做人后做事。
http://www.programmer.com.cn/1127/

It’s clear that the technology industry is moving from the PC era to the cloud era in several significant ways. While cloud represents a new way for IT to deliver — and end users to consume — IT applications and services, this transition also represents a significant change in how applications, services and systems are defined. The move to cloud computing is the most important technology disruption since the transition from mainframe to client-server, or even since Al Gore invented the internet. While industry veterans like Oracle’s commander in chief declared it a fad, this is a decade-long trend that is here to stay, and one that will define the next generation of IT.
The movement itself has been in play for the last decade, however there continues to be a lot of (mis)information in the marketplace about the cloud. So much so that it is difficult for organizations to figure out what is real and what is not to help them develop a successful cloud strategy, or simply learn about technologies that have been specifically designed and purpose-built to meet this dramatic shift in technology. While it’s important to know what the cloud is, it’s just as important to separate the wheat from the chaff, and for IT to understand what cloud is not.
To this end, I encourage you not to add yet another definition of the cloud to your glossary, but to truly understand the top 5 things the cloud is not.
1. Cloud is not a place. People often talk about moving to the cloud as if they were moving to another city. But the cloud is not a place. In fact, the cloud can be anywhere, in your data center or someone else’s. Organizations that believe they are moving to a strategy that leaves legacy apps and systems behind are in for a rude awakening. The single most important way for enterprise organizations to prepare themselves for the cloud is to understand that the cloud is a radically new way of delivering, consuming and adopting IT services in a far more agile, efficient, and cost-effective manner, which will spread throughout the ether and be a mix of public, private, managed or hybrid clouds. By looking holistically at the cloud, organizations can optimize its benefits for their budgets, privacy needs, geographies and overall business needs.
2. Cloud is not server virtualization. Despite what many believe, and what many will tell you, the cloud is not the same as next-gen server virtualization. It doesn’t surprise me that many believe that by virtualizing their data center they will create a private cloud. Some vendors are intentionally trying to blur that line, aiming to convince customers that their vCenter clusters somehow deliver a private cloud. On the contrary, that is a gross exaggeration of the term cloud.
If you take a look at the way Amazon has built its cloud architecture, it becomes very clear that there are some fairly stark differences between a server virtualization environment and a true cloud architecture. While Amazon starts with Xen virtualization technology, the brains of its architecture comes with a new layer of software that Amazon built in an effort to create a new control plane, a new cloud orchestration layer that can manage all the infrastructure resources (compute, storage, networking) across all of their data centers. This is at the heart of the cloud’s technology disruption. Some analysts refer to this as the “hypervisor of hypervisors,” or a “new software category of cloud system software.”
The fact of the matter is that some of the major players are doing cloud without server virtualization. Take Google for example. They have deployed a cloud architecture that is not using server virtualization, but rather a bare metal infrastructure. So while virtualization can be an important ingredient of cloud, it is not always a requirement.
3. Cloud is not an island. Depending on what you’re reading, you’ll hear a lot about public clouds versus private clouds, and it may feel as if enterprises must make a wholesale decision on which way to go. But the cloud is not an island, it is not a place where you put all of your IT services, and then lose all interconnectivity and access. The recent Amazon outages have proven this to be an important point for any organization leveraging the cloud. The right cloud strategy will be one that enables you to have a hybrid approach with the ability to easily connect private and public clouds. Even the recent move by NASA to include Amazon Web Services as part of its cloud rollout after a significant investment in the build-out of its own technology proves that the market is moving to open, interoperable multi-cloud environments.
4. Cloud is not top-down. The cloud has up-ended the traditional IT approach to delivering services. The lines of business have been leading the charge in making the decision to move to cloud computing. With specific needs to get to market quickly, functional business leaders are consuming cloud services to avoid traditional IT processes. But we don’t need surveys to clarify this movement. The reality is that with the simple swipe of a credit card and the creation of an account, end users can gain instant access to infinite pools of IT resource to help test out a new idea, get their job done or even become more agile in their daily work. This is part of why this revolution is so powerful. The Consumerization of IT is driving this new movement. Users are already there and the C-level offices are just now trying to catch up with them. Those that embrace this move sooner rather than later will learn how to use the cloud as a strategic weapon before their competitors do. So the cloud is not top down, but rather a bottoms-up phenomenon.
5. Cloud is not hype. As I started this piece, I wrote about the (mis)information that has flooded the market and slowed progression and adoption of the cloud for some organizations. I’ve spoken with people in many organizations who are still skeptical of the cloud and believe that it is something that is very far off into the future. No doubt there is a lot of noise in the market with many claiming early victory in the hearts and minds of developers, with open source momentum, or beta products. The reality is that the cloud is ready now, and Citrix has more than 100 organizations that are running clouds in production today. Companies like AutoDesk, Edmunds.com, Nokia, Chatham Financial and others, already reaping the benefits.
My words of advice to companies considering a move to the cloud – learn from others who have already built highly scalable, successful clouds that have helped them transform the way they deliver and consume IT resources.
This is just the beginning of the discussion. There are many more topics that we will continue to talk about in the coming weeks, months, years (such as, cloud is not only an infrastructure and cloud is not just for service providers). All with the goal of helping organizations and the market understand what the cloud is and what it is not.
 
http://www.wired.com/cloudline/2012/06/top-5-things-the-cloud-is-not/