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
The Confidence Villains
Leaders inspire people to persevere in the face of adversity and ultimately derive energy from the challenge of confronting their villains. Completing Katty Kay’s and Claire Shipman’s inspirational book The Confidence Code, left me feeling every good story needs a villain. “Gore isn’t required for a good story, but adversity is.” – Celeste Ng Being… 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
New Hires
The three most impactful people in determining the joy, success and fulfillment an employee finds in their job… I have discovered that typically none of the these three people fully appreciates the honor and responsibility that is bestowed upon them to have this impact on another human. These three people are crucial not only in… Read More
Where to Begin the Journey?
When a new person joins your team, the first impression you make on them sets the foundation for the rest of your journey together. Before you impress upon them your intentions and objectives as a leader, you should first establish with yourself what you believe to be the foundation of such as relationship. See also… Read More
Talent Code Applied
Talent Code is where Daniel Coyle describes deep learning through short repetitions and feedback loops. I have applied this approach in coaching sports and in business. An interview with Tim Ferriss is included at the end of The Art of Learning – An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance by chess and Tai Chi world champion… Read More
The Root Cause of a 10x Engineer
There has been much discussion about the “10x engineer” and whether they exist in this galaxy or are illusive unicorns – creatures of our imagination and fairy tales. People who have been in the industry for a while, especially in high growth and highly successful companies swear they have seen them. Having worked at various… Read More
So, you want to be a manager
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. Naturally, we want our employees to develop and grow and explore unknowns in their careers, and we want them to set them up for success in… 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
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
Level 5 Leading
I like to framing styles of leadership as I see them in the fish story. I’m adding a level 5 here that is not as easy to grasp as the others: Level 1 leading – The Micromanager – tells them what to do – gives them a fish. There are some leaders that can be… Read More