…Those are the things that this blog will be about. Throughout the week I'll point to articles around the web—on blogs and at news sites—that will help us develop these skills and highlight their use (or abuse) throughout the world of IT. And a couple times a week I'll post a longer form article with tips and techniques gained from my own experience over the years. Welcome to the first post of the Career Focus blog. I’ve been blogging and writing in other places for a while, and I’m excited to have the chance to reach even more folks through InfoWorld.About MeI’m John West, and you can find out more about me here. The short of it is that I’m the director of a top 20 supercomputing center for the federal government and also the acting deputy director of an R&D laboratory specializing in information technology. All in all I’m responsible for leading around 500 people and $98M in budgets. I’m passionate about the idea that technology professionals are creating a big part of the future that everyone will get to experience. It is our job to create, invent, discover, and build the things that will be part of the fabric of everyone else’s future. Think telegraph, TV, radio, computers, the internet, and cellphones, then add 10 years.But in order to build a future that’s worth having, and one in which everyone really benefits, we need to do a great job. Not a good job: a great job.About this blog To do great work we need to do a lot better with the fundamental skills that we’re too often let to pick up on our own. Skills like strong leadership, no matter if you’ve been on the job for 1 day or 10,000 days. And skills like effective writing, public and interpersonal speaking, and career management.Those are the things that this blog will be about. Throughout the week I’ll point to articles around the web—on blogs and at news sites—that will help us develop these skills and highlight their use (or abuse) throughout the world of IT. And a couple times a week I’ll post a longer form article with tips and techniques gained from my own experience over the years.Get in touch Thanks for stopping by. This will naturally start out as a one way experience, but I hope it will grow into a conversation as time goes on.If I say something that doesn’t match your experience, or if you’ve been through something that you’d like everyone to know more about, post a comment or send me an email at john@onlytraitofaleader.com. The web is at its best when everyone takes part. Careers