A comprehensive set of excellent posts by Chelsea Troy about feedback - framing it, receiving it, attracting it, and more.

Another useful feedback model. In particular, the idea of “staying on your side of the net” is cool (““I think a different approach will be more helpful” vs “You didn’t think through this enough”).

Nice. A FAQ followup to Part 1. Got a tricky question? Take a look.

The first couple of times you implement OKRs, things can get anywhere from uncertain to messy. This first of two articles is clear, practical stuff. Unless you’re completely certain about how you implement OKRs, give this a read.

Great article about one of the more difficult transitions for any group or company: from a small, tight team operating more or less independently, to the first moments of (oh no!) structure and planning.

This transition gets lost in the shuffle amongst stories of growth from 10 to 1,000 or $50,000 to $1Bn, but it’s a tough one, so if you’re in the middle of it, give this a read (or if you ever think you are going to start a company - it’ll happen!).

Well, turns out if your partner supports you when you come home complaining about the boss, co-worker, unpleasant client, you are much more likely to escalate and otherwise act badly in the conflict. Good to know (!).

“After their partners took their side, 20% of participants wanted to see their adversary “hurt and miserable,” compared to only 6% of those who did not receive this sort of support. And 41% of those who received empathetic responses tried to live as if their adversary didn’t exist, compared to only 15% of those who didn’t receive unwavering support”

Love this super-short, practical and heart-felt post. What to do when you’ve had a bad interaction with somebody at work. It’s great.

I liked this: several interesting ways to answer incoming requests for guidance by communicating more than just the specific answer. By communicating context and background knowledge you can pull yourself out of the role of being a point person for hundreds of random asks. Delegation!

Useful, complete set of principles for communication, and processes for day to day communication.

Smart techniques for using Slack (and others) for asynchronous communication in such a way that unnecessary catchups, meetings, email threads etc are avoided.

Interesting account of a career progression from IC to successful Engineering Manager in two massively scaling companies.

I love this. Really short, to the point, and directly addressing an issue that everyone comes across eventually: how do I work with somebody I dislike, or even hate? Read on!

(Those of you who have read Radical Candor, or done a workshop, might reflect on the RC model and wonder: OK, I need to go up the caring axis. How do I do that for somebody I really don’t like? This article gives some clues).

This is neat. A set of practical suggestions about how to check in before a meeting starts, with excellent explanations about why it’s a good idea: essentially to establish a quick human connection for everyone in the room before the guts of the meeting begins. Try it - make your own version!

All the stories our brains can hassle us with when we’re trying to do our leadership job: “I don’t make a difference”, “I can’t do it…” and many many more. They don’t help! Ashley does us all a favor by describing hers. See how many resonate with you!

A useful reminder that when we lose a little focus and slip into lazy responses in a meeting, people notice. If you find yourself about to use one of these phrases, take a pause, pay attention, and try something different!

Super nice application of the Radical Candor model to code reviews and design reviews - two processes in which being direct is very necessary, whilst at the same time as recognizing the need to be careful and caring at a human level. (hat tip the always great SWLW)

Introduces the idea of an “Engineering Effort Profile” to characterize where your precious engineering effort is actually going. And proposes tools to measure it. Interesting approach (and, yes, this is a marketing piece, so bear that in mind. Kinda cool though).

“The fast pace that characterized the past 12-18 months, when you would germinate an idea and write the code in less than a few days, has evaporated. Suddenly, the product and engineering teams are bogged down. Every innovation requires a Herculean effort to achieve. Why?” Read on…

This is pretty wild: when we disagree with somebody, the less we pay attention to how strongly they hold their opinion - in other words, we don’t care if they kind of hold the opinion, or hold it very strongly. And when we agree, we mirror the confidence of the other person - if they are confident in the opinion, we will be.

And here’s an article taking issue with CFRs and suggesting a slightly different model.