We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Steve Buchanan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Steve below.

Steve, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?

Lesson learned: Break down bigger problems to make them more manageable. What may appear impossible at first always has a solution. Take action.

Context: I was leading a multi-million-dollar workstream on a very large project. My team was the first to start, and other workstreams depended on us. Leadership informed me that we were four weeks behind schedule from the project’s beginning. As a leader, I faced what seemed like an insurmountable challenge. I rallied my team, and together, we approached the issue methodically. We divided the tasks and conquered them one by one. Remarkably, not only did we catch up on the lost four weeks, but we also surpassed our goals. It took a team effort and buy-in from the entire team.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Steve Buchanan I’m from the Twin Cities and I’ve been in tech for 20 + years. My journey in tech started in my senior year of high school when I landed a position building computers/servers and working on networking for a small computer company. My interest in tech grew from there leading to me holding various roles throughout my career from internal IT to consulting (Avanade / Accenture). Today I am a ‘Principal Program Manager’ with Microsoft focused on improving the cloud, a book author x8, a Pluralsight Author x22, an international speaker, and a former 10-time Microsoft MVP. Ive presented at tech events, including, DevOps Days, Open Source North, Midwest Management Summit (MMS), Microsoft Ignite, BITCon, Experts Live Europe, OSCON, Inside Azure management, and user groups. Ive been a guest on over a dozen podcasts and has been featured in several publications including the Star Tribune (the 5th largest newspaper in the US).

I consider myself a technology generalist who enjoys architecting solutions that solve business problems staying active in the technical community and blogging about my adventures in the world of IT at www.buchatech.com

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Take the time to understand your team members. Discover their goals and aspirations, and identify how these align with your business and its mission. Focus on areas of agreement and embrace them. Gain their support for the mission, and witness the team’s energy soar.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I maintained integrity in my business dealings and demonstrated respect and empathy for others. I honored my commitments; when I promised to do something, I followed through on it. I always established clear expectations from the beginning. Most importantly, I focused on achieving tangible results through the grind and determination. In business many only talk, It is critical to take action.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.buchatech.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveabuchanan
• Twitter: buchatech