management - The Next Level

The Water Cooler Outside Time and Space

People usually worry about recreating the serendipitous water cooler talk in a remote context. In fact Marissa Goldberg (@mar15sa on Twitter) has a great thread about this very topic. It's an important and worthwhile consideration as a leader. Today though, I'm going to turn the issue on its head, and

engineering-management

Nothing's on Fire... So Now What?

So you've done it. No more fires. You're the dog that has caught the car that you've spent so long chasing, you didn't know what you'd do when you finally caught it. You can start to feel like you're missing something important. Or that you're being complacent. Or maybe things

fundamentals

Don't Rush Your Current Work

At work it can often feel like you need to hurry up and crank out the current piece of work. And so you think, maybe I'll just cut corners a bit. I'll just skip writing those tests. Or I'll just skip refactoring the code at the end of my red-green-refactor

management

The Three Essential Feedback Types for Your Next 1:1

There are three critical kinds of feedback you ought to be using during your 1:1s. Evaluation, appreciation, and coaching.

engineering-management

Making Training Time Stick

Recently I was asking some software engineering leaders about what they do for training for members of their team or organization. The answers wouldn't surprise most engineering leaders. Aside from many stating that their organizations don't offer any training, most called out the standard fare of supplying books, budget for

management

You're Encouraging Your Team to Lie to You

Not intentionally, but there's a good chance you're behaving in a way that encourages your team to lie to you.