The WEF estimates that it will take the U.S. another 208 years to reach gender equality. So, women and minorities may need to lean in for some time. As leaders though, we should lean out to create space so others may lean in. Read More
Confidence Villains
Leaders inspire people to persevere in the face of adversity and ultimately derive energy from the challenge of confronting their villains. Read More
Radical Candor, Meaningful Conversations
Radical Candor is an overlooked asset in creating high-performance teams when that candor is built upon a foundation of trust. The Harvard Business Review artcile One Out of Every Two Managers Is Terrible at Accountability starts with: “Out of all the things we expect of leaders — taking charge, setting strategy, empowering people, driving execution,… Read More
The Root Cause of a 10x Engineer
The “10x Engineer” has been discussed as to whether they are illusive creatures of our imagination or simply elusive. If elusive, how do we find them? Read More
Start with Trust
Start with trust to set the foundations of a relationships when a new person joins your team. The first impression you make on them sets the foundation for the rest of your journey together. Read More
New Hires
New hires present the best opportunityto put employees on their path to achieve their greatest potential. There are three very impactful people in determining the joy, success and fulfillment an employee finds in their job… Read More
Talent Code Applied
In Talent Code, Daniel Coyle describes deep learning via short repetitions, feedback loops. I have applied this approach in coaching sports and in business. Read More
Developing new managers
In developing talent within an organization, there are times where an individual contributor , often one that has excelled as an engineer, may be interested in becoming a manager. Read More
The Room Where it Happens
As leaders, much of the magic happens in the one-on-one conversations either in the privacy of a physical of virtual room (think Skype or Zoom) or on a walk-about as a more neutral setting and where you also benefit from the energy of being in Motion. These conversations should sometimes be as non-threatening as a… Read More
Vectors of Influence
In helping leaders manage the dynamics of teams navigating the uncertainty in the market or new approaches in the work-place, it is not uncommon for them to be confronted with team members having differences of opinion. In fact, to arrive at the best solutions, there is a lot of value in fostering discussions based on… Read More
Perspectives
Perspectives are helpful when facing a big, life decision with multiple aspects at play. Read More
Handling Interrupts
For any team that is responsible for existing systems that are already in use while also iterating on those systems to enhance and/or improve them there is also typically the burden of interrupts from the existing system. Forward progress is best made with concentrated effort that is focused and uninterrupted. How does one balance these… Read More
The Dark Side of Agile
Along with the virtues of Agile Software Development also can come some destructive downsides that can erode trust and effectiveness within your company culture. I recently attended a 3-day Scrum certification class where the founder of the particular methodology was the instructor. He insisted that managers not participate in standup meetings, planning meetings, grooming sessions,… Read More
Lean Staffing – It’s about the People
In his insightful book The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, Eric Ries speaks of his startup lessons learned at IMVU and from many other companies he came to know afterwards including Intuit. In The Lean Startup and also his more recent book, The Leader’s Guide, Eric focuses… Read More
Organic Orange Observations
In my efforts to inspire my students to find and describe things they didn’t see at first. I had a fun exercise I used in science and writing classes. I’d place a box of organic oranges on my desk and ask each student to come and choose one to take back to their desk. Then… Read More
Heart Rate Meditation
There can many advantages for mind, body and soul to being able to calm oneself to be more present and aware when trying to notice opportunities previously overlooked. Much of the guidance on meditation starts with focusing on the breath. I found it to be more effective to focus on the heart in a way… Read More
Building Collaborative Groups with Broken Squares
In his book The Culture Code – The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, Daniel Coyle refers to a competition at Stanford where business students in university squared off against kindergartners. The four-person teams had to beat the clock and build a tower using uncooked spaghetti, tape and string with a marshmallow on top. You would… Read More
Different Stokes for Different Folks
My high school history teacher Mr. Hupert always used to say “different strokes fo different folks” in explaining how under different circumstances in different times with different people, different forms of government were effective. So, too, I discovered, it is with effective software development methodologies. When I joined IMVU, we were continuously deploying to our… Read More
Data: Trust but Verify
In his book, The Lean Startup, Eric Ries writes about the processes we used at IMVU to get Minimal Viable Products out there as experiments to observe the customer adoption as the prototypical Lean Startup. I stepped in after Eric went off to evangelize Lean Startup principles to the industry. I remember an experiment we… Read More