The problem infects the world of IT, too. It’s big — and getting worse.
Clippings Posts
I am a firm believer that you always, always owe your existing team first crack at any and every opportunity that arises from within. It may not always be possible; you may need someone with more experience or a different skillset than you have on your team, but you owe it to your team to seriously explore the possibility, every time, before you give in and begin to explore outside possibilities.
Culture is felt through the behaviors that are reinforced or discouraged on a day-to-day basis on teams. If you want to get a sense of the story of the leader and team’s culture, use detailed questions. You will get a much better sense based on the responses, especially if the leader struggles to think of what to say. If you are a manager, prepare to answer detailed questions that illustrate your team’s culture.
Know your enemy, know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be defeated
Becoming an engineering manager for the first time can feel lonely. It’s how I felt – and other engineering managers I’ve talked with confessed the same feeling on transitioning from engineer to manager.
Today’s working fathers care about success both in their careers and at home. They take pride in being good providers for their families and dedicating the time and effort necessary to be loving fathers, partners, and spouses. But many find that their career success cuts both ways. Some find themselves enmeshed in a career that, while it has many merits, may no longer fit their full range of life priorities, especially as fathers, and keeps them from feeling fully successful at work and home.
The fundamental lesson here is that for any repeating process it is important to consider both planning horizons and cycle time and the impact those have on the incentives they create for teams. When possible, having transparency about long term schedules and more continuous evaluation processes will remove gamesmanship from the equation and allow teams to focus primarily on the problem they are trying to solve.
I wouldn’t be able to do this without the vast amount of open-source software and managed services at my disposal. I feel like I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, who did all the hard work before me, and I’m very grateful for that.
The boss casts a very long shadow. Your job satisfaction is profoundly molded by your boss’s competence; and your own team’s job satisfaction levels depend on your competence.
As anyone reading this knows, the Ever Given was stuck in the Suez Canal for just over 6 days. It blocked a route that normally carried ~10% of the world’s trade. More importantly (at least for this post), it also generated more than 10% of the world’s memes.