Monty Hernandez, PMP, MS

Leaders, ask not what your reports can do for you but what you can do for your reports. Maximize your impact by fostering environments where people can do their best work. Great post from John Cutler about shifting a reactive perspective and getting clarity on how to respond when things seem too complex. #Leadership #ProductDevelopment #PeopleFirst #Empathy

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🏠💻 Navigating the digital world as a parent just got easier! We’re excited to introduce our 2024 Screen Smart program, helping parents set healthy digital boundaries and utilize Meta’s parental tools effectively. Learn more about guiding your teens safely in the digital age. #ScreenSmart #SafeTech

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As I speak with colleagues around tech and adjacent industries, I consistently hear the same stories. Workers seem to be more frustrated than they were 10 years ago for what they see as a loss of power and autonomy. Specifically, I often hear workers feel ignored. Their insights, requests and advice fall on deaf ears. Solutions are prescribed to them instead of by them. The other complaint centers around quality. My colleagues consistently tell tales of the need for speed over everything else. These issues leave workers frustrated and angry. I'm told their recommendations are routinely ignored, forcing them to put out low quality products. Then, when there are severe issues in market, they're routinely blamed despite their earlier warnings. Boeing, for better or worse, seems to be closer to the norm right now. Companies bucking this trend should be applauded and will likely find themselves with considerable advantages down the line! You want to be a company bucking this trend, it will pay off handsomely, just not right away.

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🌟Standing Firm on the Solid Ground of Trust — A Woman’s Perspective in Tech Leadership🌟 As a woman in tech leadership, I've navigated my fair share of challenges and triumphs. But one constant that has guided me through this journey is the Leadership Law of Solid Ground, which emphasizes the fundamental importance of trust and integrity in leadership. 🧱Building Trust Through Transparency: In the tech world, where innovation moves rapidly and decisions can have far-reaching implications, transparency is not just a policy—it's a practice. It means being open about processes, successes, and failures. By embracing transparency, I've found that teams feel more empowered, involved, and secure—reaffirming that their leader is someone who values honesty and open communication. Maintaining Integrity Amidst Pressure: Tech often demands quick decisions and actions. Amidst this pressure, the temptation to cut corners can be high. However, maintaining integrity means standing firm on your values, even when it’s challenging. This commitment not only sets a standard for your team but also builds a resilient foundation that can weather any storm. 🪔The Role of Vulnerability: Leadership involves strength, but it also requires vulnerability. Admitting when you don't have all the answers or acknowledging your mistakes are powerful ways to demonstrate to your team that you are human and approachable. This vulnerability helps in building a deeper trust and encourages a culture where learning from errors is seen as a stepping stone to greatness. Empowering Others: Trust is a two-way street. By trusting my team's expertise and decisions, I empower them, which in turn strengthens their trust in my leadership. This mutual trust enhances our collaboration and creativity, crucial for innovation in tech. 🎬Conclusion: To my fellow leaders, remember that our position is as much a privilege as it is a responsibility. Trust is the solid ground upon which effective leadership is built, and once it is established, it allows not just for individual success, but for collective achievement. I’d love to hear how the Law of Solid Ground has impacted your leadership journey. Please share your experiences and let’s continue to support each other in our paths to effective leadership. #lawofsolidground #servantleadership #womenoftech

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We have a new site -- https://lnkd.in/g545TmgZ I'm proud to work for a company that's redefining #WhatsPossible for teams across the world. Nintex is now the possibility engine and is here to serve organizations by helping them take control of their processes, automate workflows, and create applications for efficiency. By putting the power of automation in the hands of people across teams, organizations can remove friction from work and inspire teams to build a culture of efficiency. Imagine what's possible with process automation, powered by AI, on our new site: https://lnkd.in/g545TmgZ #Nintex #Automation

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🌟 Leadership Insight: The Power of Deep Care in Leadership 🌟 As leaders, our role extends beyond managing projects to truly caring for our people. Throughout my career, I've observed that while projects will come and go, the lasting impact we have on our team members remains vivid in our memories. This realization underscores the importance of showing deep care in leadership, a concept that resonates deeply with me. Leadership is not just about guiding projects but nurturing people. Here are practical ways leaders can show deep care: 1) Quality Time: Invest in one-on-one time with team members. This can be as simple as regular check-ins or casual coffee meetings where the focus is on listening and understanding their personal and professional goals. 2) Empathy: Show genuine empathy. Acknowledge the challenges they face and be there to support them. This means being approachable and available when they need guidance or simply someone to listen. 3) Personal Attention: Pay attention to the small details that matter to them. Celebrate their birthdays, acknowledge their work anniversaries, and be present in moments of personal significance. 4) Open Communication: Foster an environment where open communication is encouraged. Let your team know that their ideas and opinions are valued and that it’s safe to express themselves without fear of judgment. 5) Supportive Feedback: Provide constructive feedback in a way that encourages growth and improvement, not fear or resentment. Recognize their efforts publicly and offer guidance discreetly. Each interaction is an opportunity to reinforce how much you care. The true essence of leadership lies in building trust and fostering a safe environment where team members feel seen, heard, and valued. I encourage every leader to reflect on this: "Did you remember to show deep care for your team? How can you make your team members feel truly valued today?" The best leaders focus on leaving a lasting positive impact on our people. After all, at the end of the day, it’s the people and our relationships with them that we’ll remember most. #TechLeadership #Leadership #Teamwork #ShowDeepCare

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Joshua has once again delivered amazing value to the TPM Community in the form of his 2nd edition Technical Program Management Handbook. (He also launched the amazing cross-industry-cutting TPM Summit event with a few other equally awesome co-leads: Josie Gillan, Zhanat Abylkassym, plus Josh's wife as an honorary TPM.) But let's look back at the book. Here's a glimpse of how his book delivers the WOW factor: First off, it is very comprehensive: from career paths to hard skills to soft skills and beyond. It truly is a handbook, ie a guide to doing the job really well. My full-length review will focus on the things that make his book unique among other TPM books: 1️⃣ A pragmatic deconstruction of Emotional Intelligence as a TPM 2️⃣ A section dedicated to TPM's Driving Clarity. This really sets an amazing context for the book. 3️⃣ System Design and Architecture. He really puts the T in TPM. 4️⃣ Using Generative AI as a TPM. Understanding this will help keep your skills relevant. TLDR: Should you get this book? Only if you're a TPM wanting to get better at TPM-ing. So...yes. But I'm excited to be writing a full review of his book in an upcoming newsletter post (🔗 link to newsletter in comments). Josh’s TPM Handbook: https://a.co/d/hgNzMNP

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Announcing AI Shell at #MSIgnite, come to BRK396 tomorrow to learn more! @StevenBucher13 and I will discuss what AI can bring to your command line experience! https://lnkd.in/gjX3BiUA

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Every year around this time, I step back from my day to day to really think about what I’ve learned this past year in my career. This year has been full of opportunities to learn, stretch, and grow. #AdobeLife #careers #careergrowth #ProductManagement #product

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Today, as I stand at the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Seattle for the first time, I am overwhelmed with a sense of awe and gratitude. It feels like being a kid in a candy store, surrounded by endless possibilities and dreams realized. This moment is the culmination of an 18-year journey, a dream that began when I graduated from a rural college in South of India with big aspirations. Coming from a traditional background where women are often not encouraged to aim high, I had very few role models to look up to in the family. Yet, I dared to dream, fueled by the hard work and sacrifices of my parents, the unwavering support of my husband, and the inspiration from my beloved daughter. Their belief in me has been my rock through the highs and lows. Navigating biases and judgmental attitudes as a woman of color, as a woman in technology, & as a working mother has been challenging. However, I am grateful for the journey so far, learning and growing through each experience. By taking on more challenging opportunities, I’ve been able to learn and develop, despite the obstacles along the way. Thanks to amazing and incredible people (my mentors and friends) who have been a part of this journey. As I participate in this global hackathon, there is so much more to learn, to give back, and to grow. This experience humbles me and reminds me of the importance of staying grounded and appreciative. Here’s to continuing to dream, aspire, and achieve. Signing off with my fav quote : “Look at the sky. Remind yourself about the cosmos. Seek vastness at the every opportunity, inorder to see the smallness of yourself.” #grattitude #globalhackathon2024 #Microsoftlife

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Safety by design is important in today's tech world, especially in the generative AI space, where Microsoft is committing to child protection principles for generative AI technology. I encourage any company building or deploying generative AI tech to consider joining this collective commitment! --> Thorn and All Tech Is Human

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Amazon's return-to-office (RTO) mandate is sparking debate about whether it prioritizes traditional management over modern innovation. 💼 Laszlo Bock, ex-Google executive, argues that Amazon’s 5-day RTO rule reflects old-school thinking in an era that calls for flexibility. 🏢 CEO Andy Jassy’s push for office presence contrasts with the evolving hybrid work trend, raising concerns about talent retention. 🧐 Critics suggest this shift could backfire, leading to employee dissatisfaction and potential departures. 📉 Research hints Jassy might reverse course next year, as many companies struggle to maintain rigid office mandates. #Leadership #FutureOfWork #Innovation 💡 Traditional office models can hinder innovation by ignoring modern employee needs like flexibility and work-life balance. 🔍 Bock compares the mandate to sticking with outdated practices, missing an opportunity for adaptive leadership. 🔄 The potential for a future rollback suggests companies may need to reassess their RTO policies for long-term success. https://lnkd.in/gh-xSwTj

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My favorite topic. I’ll be covering strategies for learning from past incidents, and honestly any situation (it doesn’t have to be an “incident”!). Developing a learning culture is so paramount to resilience and safety in operations. You’ll leave with changes you can start implementing today, techniques for getting better ROI out of past events, and ways to instill collaboration in learning across your organization. Come join!

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I’m thrilled to introduce PeakFusion, a strategic consulting firm dedicated to bridging the gap between industry innovators and military leaders. Our mission is to help companies with groundbreaking technology navigate the complexities of the Department of Defense and ensure their solutions make a real impact where it’s needed most. At PEAKFUSION, we’re focused on more than just introducing technology to the DoD—we’re committed to engaging directly with military leaders to understand their most pressing challenges and acting as a conduit between the industry and the military. By fostering strong relationships and enabling better collaboration, we help align cutting-edge solutions with real-world defense needs, creating a thriving ecosystem where technology and military requirements work hand in hand. If you’re in the business of solving critical defense problems with your technology, PEAKFUSION is here to help you navigate the processes, connect with the right partners, and ultimately drive success for both your company and the defense sector. Let’s work together to transform challenges into opportunities and create a stronger, more connected defense ecosystem. Www.peakfusion.io #DefenseInnovation #DoD #TechSolutions #MilitaryEngagement #StrategicConsulting #NDIA

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Thrilled to see Microsoft leading the way with Local LLMs that can run directly on PCs. This marks the start of a new conversational interface where computers communicate more like humans. I hope Microsoft allows developers to tap into the LLM layer to build custom applications, rather than restricting Local LLMs to Microsoft products alone. With the advent of Local LLMs, should we rethink the fees for Code Copilot? Perhaps it could be free for students and small businesses, and only charge enterprises for cloud-based Git repo scanning. Exciting times are ahead for the tech industry. Check out the link below to learn more about Microsoft's latest innovation. #Microsoft #GenAI #Copilot https://lnkd.in/gP8Ws-Kp

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Businesses know that they need to use AI, but have questions about how confident they can be in the quality of the results and how to use it responsibly. Here is a great article from Cerebral Valley from a company Galileo's GenAI Studio, that is working on tools to make this possible. Galileo AI https://lnkd.in/gjRCHpPS

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I'm so proud of the work that went into the OpenVMM and OpenHCL. My team has focused on storage devices, and there is a ton of great code in this repo contributed by the engineers working on this (me: I'm a manager, so of sometimes dubious value :)). It's very exciting to see this code become open source! Not only is this a checkpoint in all the hard work that goes into writing a new VMM (and in my team's case: storage emulation code), it also marks a new way of working for some of us. While many engineers in Microsoft from different orgs have contributed already, we're going to keep developing this in the open. As the blog post below mentions, reach out on GitHub or Zulip. Or, you can contribute to the code itself (anyone else love debugging IDE emulators?). While we're already using this code in Azure (over 1.5 million VMs last month, according to the blog), there's still plenty of interesting and exciting stuff to go do.

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Balancing Act: My Journey as a Technical Program Manager I'm excited to share a personal reflection on something we all strive for: work-life balance. As a Technical Program Manager, the lines between work and personal life often blur, but over time, I've discovered strategies that have helped me find harmony. #technicalprogrammanager #projectmanagement #techleadership #programmanagement #innovation #technology #worklifebalance #problemsolving #criticalthinking #troubleshooting #solutionfocused #teamwork #collaborativeefforts #tpm #innovation #technology #workplace #ai #TechnicalProgramManager #ProjectManagement #TechLeadership #ProgramManagement #Innovation #AgileMethodology #TeamManagement #TechnicalExpertise #StrategicPlanning #LeadershipSkills #StressFreeLife #WorkLifeBalance #MentalWellness #SelfCare #Mindfulness #HealthyHabits #StressManagement #ProductivityTips #RelaxationTechniques #PositiveMindset #innovation #management #humanresources #digitalmarketing #technology #creativity #future #futurism #entrepreneurship #careers #markets #startups #marketing #socialmedia #venturecapital #socialnetworking #leanstartups #branding #advertisingandmarketing #motivation #personaldevelopment #investing #jobinterviews #sustainability #personalbranding #education #customerrelations #productivity #sales #socialentrepreneurship #ai

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