Loved this.  Cynthia Maxwell (Slack, Apple, Pinterest) decided to monitor the flow states of the people who worked for her, and then figure out how to get them into flow more frequently.  Sounds tricky, but it’s not - this is a) a great idea and b) a terrific example of how creating a simple process can make a big difference.  Recommended.

Rather brilliant: all the things a developer can do to help out the project manager they are working with.  As an ex-project manager, reading this made me happy.  It’s practical and direct.  Try discussing it with your engineering teams: I think you’ll like the results.

Another useful reminder that you have ample opportunity to check in and connect with you team members before they show up looking a little sheepish with a great offer from another company.

The Radical Candor model encourages direct feedback.  It also encourages caring about the people around you (seems like a basic idea when I state it so clearly, but there we are).  In Radical Candor workshops, the question “well, how do I show I care?” comes up with some frequency.  Here are some good, easy, simple ways to get started.

A cool and direct meditation on how software actually gets built, and why diversity is important.  The best of the very many reactions to the Google Memo IMHO.

“I find it confusing that anyone could even suggest that communication is a different skill that is optional for programmers. This is what we do. We write our code in programming languages. We define things and then they exist. We make real things using language”

As time goes on I am of the opinion that skillfully disagreeing is one of the most useful thing a human can learn (I may be exaggerating a bit, but not much).  It’s how we grow, how we work with other people to grow and how we build things (companies, products, relationships).  It’s simple to describe (and well-described here), hard to do.

“What if you had the chance to film something 55 miles wide traveling just over Mach 3 with your drone? As it turns out, on August 21st 2017, you’ll have that very opportunity. A solar eclipse, or…”

Good to get out of the Bay Area Bubble occasionally.

“The Grameen Foundation’s e-Warehouse project in Kenya helps small farmers properly store their crops while waiting for prices to hit an optimal level and can also connect them to advances against their crops. In Turkey, Vodafone’s Farmers’ Club combines free information with notifications and a members-only marketplace.The program has grown to more than 900,000 active users”

“As the coach, you must stand in a position of personal strength that allows you to drop your guard and immerse yourself in your boss’s thinking”

Joe notes: this is tricky, but worth it.

“In other words, to begin to influence upward, you’ll need to start by learning what is important to your manager and the business”

Sounds obvious, often isn’t.

A good list, put together by Rands.  Check it out.  How do you appear to your team?  How do you appear to your boss?

Pretty fascinating, and rather dense, with a ton of tips for building connection. Probably too much to absorb them all, but grab one or two that resonate, and try them.

“Suspending your ego is nothing more complex than putting other individuals’ wants, needs, and perceptions of reality ahead of your own” (joe notes: see above - tricky).

I’m sure I’ve posted this before, but it’s so good I’ll probably post it several times a year indefinitely.  Super-simple, subtle, but easy to grasp tips for getting to Great as a manager.

A useful model for structuring coaching conversations.  Step 2, about “reality”, is easier to say than to do.  Requires “lack of ego” and careful listening.

A super-helpful list of “powerful questions” to have in your back pocket when you are coaching your team.  These questions are not hard or complicated, but invite reflection, engagement and depth.

More strong, practical advice from Camille Fournier.

“Our engineering teams are not overgrown children. They are not idiot-savants who can produce software but must be given sufficient cookies to do so. They are highly paid professionals. Let’s treat them that way”

Cool process.  Fun (slightly scatalogical) article.

Referenced in the article above: a good framework for running post-mortems.

Definitions of leadership are hard to get right - they tend to become a laundry list of excellent traits that you’d never actually see in one person.  So this is interesting: an achievable, tightly defined list of expectations for leaders (who BuzzFeed defines as pretty much everybody).   Good stuff.

Wonderful.  “Building shared understanding” is a critical goal of anybody working in or leading a team.  It takes time and energy.  The post breaks down a list of places where shared understanding can start to drift, and the effort it takes to get it back.  A valuable article.