Occupational Burnout
If only I could learn without living
Feedback Loops
Modern software is built on feedback loops. The tighter the feedback loop, the better the outcomes.
Team Meetings
Thoughts on effective Team Meetings
Decision Making
You may have seen this quotation from Steve Jobs shared on LinkedIn: “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Joel Spolsky agrees. His management trilogy (mentioned in What Does a Manager...
Hiring
Staffing a team is one of the most important activities a manager can do. The right mix of personalities, traits, backgrounds, and talents will set a team up for success. The wrong mix could ruin the team (maybe). The correct mix of teammates will require hiring and firing. A rigorous...
What is the purpose of a hierarchical organization?
By a rough approximation I think this is how we got here. For millions of years humans lived in small groups. Then agriculture came along and larger groups of humans lived together. There were cities and nations. At some point groups organized militaries to defend their new cities and nations....
What does a manager do?
The answer to this, and many questions ahead of us, is “it depends”. A manager’s job is to improve outcomes. On the way to improving outcomes a manager may hire and fire, teach and train, delegate, or do it themselves. As a manager you’ll have to manage up, manage out,...
What is a 1on1 and why is it important?
A cursory Google search for how do one on one will provide a surplus of advice. There’s no shortage of templates, systems, strategies, and hacks for holding a one on one. Tools and techniques can be helpful, but we must start with the purpose of a 1on1. 1on1s are for...
What is the core of leadership?
In a word: expectations. But let’s start at the beginning. A leader can’t be everywhere. They can’t do everything. An effective leader imbues their colleagues with the right information, right motivation, and correct thinking to execute without oversight. Bill Walsh, linked below, believes leader is synonymous with teacher. A leader...