My working experience with Michael Peterson has been as a peer-level manager delivering challenging technology-based services within a highly political environment.
As a senior manager, working with technical and upwardly mobile team members (supplemented with specialized contractors), his role was to deliver operational and development systems services. This included, in part, staff and contractor acquisition, client services, personnel development, financial management, service delivery and cross-team coordination.
While IT functions needed to be maintained through strong business and IT processes, the critical component to the success required development of strong people skills within the team [by serving as their coach]. During this period Michael faced an over-arching awareness that issues could and would arise, and possibly escalate rapidly within and beyond the team’s direct control.
In this highly charged environment, issues needed to be resolved in a timely manner. To be successful his team, as a unit, needed to maintain a highly credible position in the organization. This credibility was built on shared respect, personal/team integrity, knowledge and commitment. The most important role of any leader, as I see it, is to establish/repair and enhance these attributes. I can attest to the fact that Michael’s successes are founded on this business model and his objective is to extend this approach to others in achieving their goals.
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