management
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Four things I learned from coaching that made me a better leader
→: Four things I learned from coaching that made me a better leaderAbout 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
→: Facilitating Good Decision Making: Context, Scope, and TimeframeSomeone 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
→: Podcast: It Shipped that WayWe 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
→: DOU Podcast: Empathy, Empowerment and FeedbackI 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
→: Business Insider piece on Remote WorkI’m in Business Insider talking about remote work, the article is paywalled [link].
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Escaping The House Elf Management Trap
→: Escaping The House Elf Management TrapI 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
→: 7 Suggestions for Writing a Good Self ReviewOriginally 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…
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Meta Problems and Where to Find Them
→: Meta Problems and Where to Find ThemMeta-problem (n): root cause issues of a collection of symptom problems. One of the things I do as an engineering director, is live in the realm of the meta problem. The thing that is behind the problems that people are talking about. For instance, a meta problem of an individualistic mindset on the team might…
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The Anatomy of a 1:1
→: The Anatomy of a 1:1Broadly speaking, my overarching agenda for any 1:1 is as follows: It starts with the checkin, “how’s it going?”, an open ended question that some people respond with a status update, and some do not. The important thing is what comes next – finding out how the person feels. Sometimes a status update is useful…