Clumps of Stars: The Importance of Group Level Direction.
Defining a group, or sub-level vision and mission can sometimes feel like a fool's errand. But the STARS framework can help you understand when and why it's important to do so.
Latest
"Hybrid is Hard" - Survey Full Results.
After talking to multiple people I started to feel that there was a significant trend toward people feeling that Hybrid work, spending some time working from home, and sometime in the office, wasn't really playing out to be the perfect post-COVID "new normal" scenario that people were anticipating.
Research has
“Hybrid is Hard” - Your Back To The Office Plan is Failing.
Most of us have received the email. The title reads “Back To The Office Policy” it starts with something like “We all believe that face-to-face collaboration is part of creating a vibrant, fun, and effective work policy.”.”
The internal comms team knows this isn’t going to be 100% popular,
"Hybrid is Hard" - The Myth of The Collaborative Workplace.
We’ve been sold the myth that hybrid work is the perfect mix between being productive and being focused in your curated, comfortable home office space. Then spending a day or two in the office being hyper-collaborative with your teammates.
However, my recent survey shows that 60% of hybrid workers
CSS: Cascading Support Systems
What do Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk have in common?
Experts have suggested that these three men show borderline signs of being psychopaths.
But they're not the "murdery" kind of Phycopath. The definition of psychopathic behavior doesn’t in fact, cover much about killing people. At its core
The CTO's Golden Derrière: The misguided perception of rockstar tech leads.
Over the last couple of decades, the explosion of tech companies led to their leaders being idolized as people with superhuman capabilities; Gods of industry, savant business leaders with visionary missions to change the world.
However, they're simply not much better than you or me.
People love to use the
Why I’ve not been writing
I grew strong. I Learned how to be a lead. But now I’m back from Input Space… to write some articles.
The Rock is My Rock, Why Not Thinking is OK
Don't let 'side hustle pornstars' intimidate you into feeling bad about being lazy and unproductive. It's OK to sit on the sofa and turn your brain off for as long as you like.
Build your own personal leadership manifesto.
Want to understand what defines you as a leader, use this step by step process to define your own leadership manifesto.
The Highs and Lows, Emotions at Work: How to Avoid Burnout Through Emotional Labour.
It's easier to burn someone out through emotional labour than physical labour. This isn't something we can keep ignoring.
Are your values a motivational poster or a battle standard.
Are your company values a boring motivational poster stuck on the wall, or a battle standard that you lead your team under?
Are you building straight, white, male, middle-class products for straight, white, male, middle-class people?
Quit worrying about what your git branch is called and hire for diversity already.
The Working From Home Killer Tip No One Is Talking About.
Everyone is talking about their great tips for 'Working From Home' but there is one killer tool we're not talking about.
Stepping Down as a Dictator: Giving Great Teams Permission to Make Awesome Decisions.
At Klarna, we hire amazing people. This statement isn’t hyperbole. I’ve not met one person in the year that I’ve been at Klarna who didn’t impress me in some way.
10x Team Killers. A Single Point of Failure.
10x developers are a risk I'm not willing to take. They are not a sustainable rock to build your team on.
When I grow up, I want to be just like you!
Do you consider yourself to be a role model? Well, believe it or not, you are. Whatever stage of your career you are at, there is someone somewhere looking up to you and thinking, ‘I want to be just like them.’
Why I built Titlify: Job Title Hyper Inflation
I built a spoof job listing site, Titlify, as a protest about the industries' problem with job title hyperinflation. Why did I do that?
Agency Developer: The Path to Product Development Super Powers
Agency developers make incredible product developer, they're used to delivering at least 10 products every year and have seen the whites of the clients eyes.
Tools I Love: The Online Lightning Decision Jam
I love online Lightning Decision Jams as a way to make collective decision-making easier for remote teams.
“Developers don’t like development plans” and other bullshit I’ve heard.
If you think personal development plans are too much work. You are a negligent manager. And quite possibly an arsehole.
A Dyslexic's Fear of Silent Meetings
People have started talking about silent meetings, and as someone who has dyslexia, this is terrifying.
Bonus Post: Things I Use to Beat Dyslexia
I suffer from dyslexia. I thought it might be helpful to share a few things that help me in my day to day life.
Software is Easy, People are Hard: a Small Team Lead Manifesto.
Over the last couple of months of brain-farting, I’ve started to collect the things I’ve been posting into several categories. These categories have become a ‘manifesto’ for how I *want* to lead a small team.
Arseholes are Arseholes, However Talented they are.
It's not OK to let someone be an arsehole just because they are talented. Challenging their behaviour is essential.
The Crying Game: It's OK to Cry at Work!
People cry at work, probably more than you think. Crying at work is OK. If it makes you uncomfortable, then that’s your problem.
Stuck in the Middle (Management) With You.
Middle management isn’t sexy, but it’s essential. It’s not a dirty word. I'm a middle manager and I'm proud.
Feedback: Be a little German, Be a little American.
Giving feedback is hard; giving good feedback is even harder. What can we learn from the alternating extremes of German and American feedback cultures?
Does the Tech Industry have a Drinking Problem?
Is the social acceptability of drinking within the tech industry causing us an exclusion problem?
The Friend Zone: Not Just a Problem for Dudebros.
Getting 'Friend Zoned' is a fear of all douchebag alpha male dudebros. But, as a manager how do you balance being a friend with being a colleague?
Comfort Zones: Pushing Your Team to Greatness, One Step at a Time.
Being outside of your comfort zone is, well, uncomfortable. However, it's a place where there are creative things to learn and excellent growth opportunities. So how do you support your team take their first steps into a world so loved by shouty management gurus?
Imposter Syndrome: How to deal with it in others.
One of the biggest challenges of leading a team of developers is dealing with their fragile egos and the problems that arrive from Imposter Syndrome.