Category: management
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What Makes a Good Team?
No team is perfect, but I think it’s often kind of obvious when a team is bad – there’s usually a level of chaos or drama, a sense that they can’t be relied on or don’t really deliver the value that the organization needs. I think it’s also quite obvious when a team is good,…
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DevZero Podcast: Metrics that Matter
We talked about decisions, communicating, and what makes engineering teams work well. Watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify.
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Four things I learned from coaching that made me a better leader
About two and a half years ago, I finally completed CTI’s coach training courses – about 18 months after I started them, and much longer thinking “I think this would be useful and one day I will take it”. I find some people conceive of coaching as being a professional advice giver, or asking questions,…
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Facilitating Good Decision Making: Context, Scope, and Timeframe
Someone asked me about my management philosophy recently, and after I stopped panicking (I wrote a book, I should have a philosphy… how do you summarize 400 pages and 2 years of your life in one sentence) I came up with: “My job is to make it easier for people to make good decisions.” What…
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Podcast: It Shipped that Way
We talked about hiring directors, the fallacy of “servant leadership”, and what makes teams great [listen].
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DOU Podcast: Empathy, Empowerment and Feedback
I recorded an episode of the DOU podcast with Oleks. It was an interesting and fun conversation!
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Business Insider piece on Remote Work
I’m in Business Insider talking about remote work, the article is paywalled [link].
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Escaping The House Elf Management Trap
I would love to find a new name for this, now that JK Rowling is cancelled, but in the Harry Potter books, house elves are powerful magical beings, who are condemned to (mostly invisible) servitude, largely of people who would uphold harmful power structures (much like JK Rowling herself). The tragedy of the house elf…
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7 Suggestions for Writing a Good Self Review
Originally shared internally and lightly edited for external readability. Note that this comes from a context where the self review is not part of the promotion packet so focuses on it as a tool to help the manager put together the review. Goal of a self review: None goals of self review: Your self review…