Makes the case for relying on years of accumulated knowledge to avoid getting tangled up in over-thinking. Good article - takes the subject seriously.

“Unthinking is the ability to apply years of learning at the crucial moment by removing your thinking self from the equation”

Nice article on “processing fluency” - our tendency to believe things that are easy to process: that have been repeated frequently; that are short, and simple; that are easily accessible (fonts, typography).

A little scary. But also gives some clear indications about how to communicate things you want a lot of people to feel are valuable.

Management has moved from being the task of organizing a large number of independent actors, to guiding a large number of deeply connected creative beings. Very cool article.

I’ve been thinking about writing this for a while, and finally got to it: why anger is such a common tool in management, and what the costs are. A personal history of using anger in management, and how I came to leave it behind.

Communication is very heavily influenced by what our intentions are. And our intentions are often only semi-conscious (“to make this person wrong”, for example). A good, clear post about clarifying the purpose of a communication.

A clear set of techniques for dealing with conversations where the participants are very far apart. The example it uses is a political conversation (sigh), but the tools are clear, and valuable.

A great analysis of how we step on our own feet in trying to delegate, and what to do better (example: don’t ask “how can I help?”). Super, practical stuff.

A pretty complete and well-considered piece on building a Perf Management system at Stripe. Thorough.

“What’s really interesting are the rough edges and unexpected emergent behaviors that come into play when you start to design and run these performance systems with lots of real people involved" Yep.

Cool, smart post from Marcus on the need to explain the “why” of our leadership directions and decisions. Introduces the “Taco Bell Theory of Leadership” (!).

A good, simple, introduction to “open questions” - a super helpful technique for widening conversation and getting through logjams. Worth the quick read.

A pretty interesting day at Google. Fascinating to see where this goes.

A recent “shock horror, Silicon Valley is weird” article in the WSJ about Netflix prompted me to write about why feedback is hard, and why some cultures resort to the “Take Your Medicine” approach: “this will be nasty, but you’ll benefit from it”. Radical Candor differs from those approaches in ways that make it more work, but more human. Take a look.

This is a tiny post, but I just love the concept (hat tip to Marcus for finding it). “Lullaby Language” is pleasant, sloppy language that lets us off the hook. “Should” (yes, we should do that), “just” (we’ll just update the OS). Feel free to discover your own, and call it out when you hear it.

This may seem out of the realm of leadership skills. But story-telling is a critical set of techniques, and this is a terrific introduction. Next time you’re planning a presentation that needs a narrative, take a read of this article and figure out which story template you’re going to use. It’ll help.

Includes the notion of “flexing the hierarchy”, which I think people who are comfortable in leadership do instinctively, but may be counter-intuitive to folks in their first one or two leadership positions. Worth reading.

A breakdown of John Doerr’s “Measure What Matters”. If you’re implementing OKRs, this will save you having to read the book.

A typically unvarnished and therefore pretty fascinating conversation about real software engineering salaries on Hacker News.

Deeply enjoyable news about some legacy code.

Introducing a model I’ve been working with in one on one coaching and feedback workshops for a while. Helps understanding of what’s going on in a conversation. People have generally found it useful. Give it a look.

This was new to me - another way of categorizing conversations. Models are good.