/Leadership

Dumb Leadership Mistakes I’ve Made

- Laura Tacho tl;dr: (1) Dismissing intuition. (2) Data-driven theater. (3) Trying to be smart instead of making other people smart. (4) Not utilizing experts soon enough. (5) Not realizing that I’m not an engineering leader.

featured in #565

Radiate Intent

- Lee Byron tl;dr: “This is classic advice when operating in a large organization. There’s a problem to be solved, you have a bold solution in mind and everything necessary to take action, but there will be very real costs felt broadly. You think the tradeoff is worth it, but will your team or higher-ups agree?”

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What Finesse Looks Like When Reading People And Situations

- Wes Kao tl;dr: Wes covers: (1) Share bad news effectively. (2) Understand power dynamics. (3) Know when to call someone out. (4) Understand intention vs impact. (5) Recognize the question behind the question. (6) Consider what’s advantageous for both parties. (7) Realize popular adages aren’t fully accurate. 

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Managing Irritating People

- Dan Rockwell tl;dr: Record the top three strengths of everyone on your team. Discuss your observations publicly in a team meeting. “I notice three important strengths in Mary.” Before Mary speaks, ask team members what strengths they notice in her. Check in with Mary. “On a scale of 1:10 how accurate are we?” Use your strengths list in one on ones. Explore ways to apply each person’s strengths to organizational goals. Ask, “How could you maximize your strengths?”

featured in #564

To Build A Meritocracy

- Max Levchin tl;dr: “High-performance culture is pretty easy to define: a culture of individuals doing productive work for the company in the most efficient way possible and helping others do the same, while generally having a good time. But what do you actually do to have such a culture? And what do you not do?” Max jotted down a few incomplete one-liners of what that means to me him as a founder and CEO. 

featured in #564

To Build A Meritocracy

- Max Levchin tl;dr: “High-performance culture is pretty easy to define: a culture of individuals doing productive work for the company in the most efficient way possible and helping others do the same, while generally having a good time. But what do you actually do to have such a culture? And what do you not do?” Max jotted down a few incomplete one-liners of what that means to me him as a founder and CEO. 

featured in #563

The Measurement Trap

- Mike Fisher tl;dr: “Nike’s story serves as a powerful example of how an overreliance on measurable outcomes can lead to the erosion of the very elements that once made a company great. While the road to recovery for Nike may be long and costly, the lesson for leaders is clear: not everything that matters can be measured, and not everything that can be measured matters.”

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Solving Staffing Challenges With Concentric Circles

- James Stanier tl;dr: “When you are faced with no obvious way to solve a staffing challenge, it can be helpful to think about the problem differently. One way to do this is to think about the situation in terms of concentric circles. What I mean by concentric circles is imagining that the team asking for more people is at the center of a series of circles.”

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Decision-Making Pitfalls For Technical Leaders

- Chelsea Troy tl;dr: “In my experience, it is at least the case that when programmers become trial-by-fire managers, they realize they don’t know how to do their jobs. Technical leadership — tech lead roles, principal eng roles, and even the dreaded “player-coach” role—those sneak up on people. A lot of times there’s still programming involved, so folks feel prepared. Their experience has exposed them to technical decisions and it got them promoted, so the way they do it is probably fine. Right?” Chelsea discusses 3 pitfalls she commonly sees. 

featured in #563

Decision-Making Pitfalls For Technical Leaders

- Chelsea Troy tl;dr: “In my experience, it is at least the case that when programmers become trial-by-fire managers, they realize they don’t know how to do their jobs. Technical leadership — tech lead roles, principal eng roles, and even the dreaded “player-coach” role—those sneak up on people. A lot of times there’s still programming involved, so folks feel prepared. Their experience has exposed them to technical decisions and it got them promoted, so the way they do it is probably fine. Right?” Chelsea discusses 3 pitfalls she commonly sees. 

featured in #562