Starts with some Elon Musk worship (no judgement: we’ve all been there), and then gets into a simple, but useful model illustrating how vital alignment around direction is (hence: vectors).  Worth a quick read.

ICO madness!  Fred Wilson doesn’t like them.

Another excellent post from Lara Hogan: a set of questions to help you get to know your reports. Practical.  Smart (and not just for your first one on one).

It’s easier to criticise than praise, and yet praise is felt less and needs to be given more.  A good reminder that we slip into criticising easily when managing, and what to do about it.

Useful questions to ask yourself in dealing with tricky situations. Most of them are along the lines of “what is really going on with this person?  what do I know?  what do I need to know?”.  A bit long, but the lists of questions will be handy.

Solid article: exhaustion is a status symbol, workaholism hurts in the long term.  What you can do about it without sacrificing the intensity you need to be successful.

“But when it comes to people, “move fast and break things” doesn’t work. Because the “thing” being broken is a person”

Makes sense: brainstorming requires vulnerability and trust.  Telling an embarrassing story to the group opens it all up.  Neat.

Ben Horowtiz’s blunt style re-enforcing the point that to lead successfully over the long term, you have to know (and be able to stick to) your own values and boundaries.

Good analogy: we learn management initially by establishing control - dates, todo lists, agendas.  As we grow, we figure out that this is only half the job - the other half is encouraging growth, randomness, creativity.  Helpful article.

Data on remote working: ease of hiring, retention etc etc. Super valuable if you’re looking at establishing/expanding/contracting a remote team.

A sharp, sad, honest read about the long-term effects of dealing with aggression, bias, call it what you want.  The career options avoided, the paths not taken.  This is happening, in our industry (in all industries) now.

The same point - the continuous weight of daily behavior towards women, but in HBS-speak.  Less emotionally impactful, more direct in terms of how to adjust behavior on a day to day basis.

With every revolution, technology has always threatened to generate mass unemployment, but somehow hasn’t.  Will it this time?   A neat look at jobs that didn’t exist even five years ago.

Just that: what people take pics of with their phone.  We’re less solipsistic that we might think (somewhat less, anyway).

Detailed description of how to do weekly updates.  A simple, well-done communication process that can make a huge difference to team cohesion.

This is specifically about design, but it’s applicable to a wide range of tricky conversations.  Love the categories of Common Ego Monsters (HiPPO - Highest Paid Persons Opinion), and how to deal.  Fun, useful read.

A post from far outside the tech world, but highly relevant to  avoiding the “you’re just WRONG” trap in any context.  Easy read. Directly useful tips.

Four techniques to use to give tough yet honest feedback: just that.  Always good to be reminded.

A short, but punchy, article about the joy of “flow”, and how multi-tasking is directly opposed to it.  Includes a useful chart of how much of your brain you waste in task-switching when doing more than one thing at once.

A super-nice illustration of the “flow state” - the balance of being challenged enough that we are not bored, but not so much we are anxious.  A great model to bear in mind when you are considering which of your team members are in flow, which are too stressed (yeah, OK), and which are bored.