Feedback is a subject that comes up often whenever I talk to executives in tech. It is one of the greatest tools you wield in order to drive your team forward. However, it is also something that leaders in tech are notoriously bad at. When it comes to the way that they provide feedback, there […]
In most companies, departments, and teams, one can find team members that have been there for ages. You know the type: early employee, highly respected, exceedingly valuable to the organization. They know they are in charge of the preservation of the oral lore regarding why Things Were Done That Way, What Were They Thinking, and […]
As a consultant, I get to experience onboarding into organizations more times in a year than most people will do in their whole careers. Without fail, this process provides me with added insights into the organizations and their underlying issues. If every new hire is required to wait about a week before getting access to […]
Imagine a “sprint demo,” that meeting that’s intended to review what the team has completed and get acceptance. What the players are doing is rushing through it, asking if any glitch or mismatch is cause enough to reject the task as completed. Now picture a planning session where estimations are done after the fact to […]
We all have opinions, especially technical people. But just because we are opinionated it doesn’t mean that you should have an opinion about everything. And even if you do have opinions about every single thing, it doesn’t mean that you should be debating it when it doesn’t matter! Now, this is rarely the issue for […]
Senior, Staff, Principal, Sergeant, Lead, any many more are common in our industry, as everyone are getting words added to their titles. What too often goes unnoticed is that words have meanings. At least, they should. I always say that these titles should come hand in hand with the responsibility to be active and present […]
No matter how awesome you used to be at your previous roles, doing technical work, pushing out code or adjusting pixels, you should always remember that that’s not what you should be focusing on as your position changes. Drive-by-architecting can be even worse than drive-by-management. It’s one thing to be told to change priorities because […]
In my day-to-day, I happen across a lot of whining in two main scenarios. One is when I’m with my 3 kids. The other is listening to leaders vent. Only one of these is ok. And don’t get me wrong, venting can be helpful, but too often it becomes the default and only action taken. […]
In viticulture it is known that even if you take the best vine from your vineyard, no matter how much awards it has already received, and put it in a vineyard someplace else, you will not get the same results. I think the clearest example is the stark difference between the wines made on the […]
Many leaders, be it CTOs, VPs, or directors, are drowning in their day-to-day work. Often, one of the reasons is that they are busy constantly providing answers and decisions to their teams. It might feel appropriate, as you are a decision maker after all, right? Yet, you should not be trigger happy with that power. […]