Becoming a Manager As I’ve said before on this blog: when I started my career, it was never my intention to become a manager. I always wanted to be a software engineer (and one day an architect or principal engineer), and I worked really hard to deepened my technical knowledge as I possibly could. I [...]
Every year I become a better manager. As time goes I get better and better (just like a great bottle of wine). As I reflect on my growth, one of the more shocking lessons was learning to how it important it was to build relationships with my peers. In big companies, your performance is often calibrated [...]
I am shy and introverted and the thought of going out with the intention of meeting other people, starting conversations with strangers, and making small talk is one of the activities I dread most. I can’t deal with silence (which makes me seem chatty and it is really just the fact I am trying [...]
Delegating: Are You Ignoring This Key To Success? In this week’s issue of the Technology Leadership Newsletter, a particular article from the Harvard Business Review caught my attention: “More Direct Reports Make Life Easier”. This article was interesting to me because I am little enamored with the concept of non-hierarchical leadership. I love the [...]
No one comes to work to do a bad job; and I would argue that most people want to be exceptional in their roles. For most of us we spend years in school, and then countless hours pursuing additional knowledge and honing our craft (and I know this holds true for anyone who choices a [...]
Focus on early wins (Note: This post is part of a series for new technical leaders that are joining a new company, or taking over a new organization or team; and while written for new CTOs, VPs of Engineering, or Software Managers, could be applied to other technical positions. This is also written largely for [...]
(Note: This post is part of a series for new technical leaders that are joining a new company, or taking over a new organization or team; and while written for new CTOs, VPs of Engineering, or Software Managers, could be applied to other technical positions. This is also written largely for smaller to mid-size teams [...]
(Note: This post is part of a series for new technical leaders that are joining a new company, or taking over a new organization or team; and while written for new CTOs, VPs of Engineering, or Software Managers, could be applied to other technical positions. This is also written largely for smaller to mid-size teams [...]
Hello everyone! I have a new post – only it isn’t a new post as much as a new section on my blog for new technology managers. I am not quite done with all the posts yet, and will be finishing over the next couple of weeks. I started collecting and recording my thoughts from [...]
Time for a change In relationships, they say that people get an itch every seven years or so to make a change or shake things up. While I am not sure what the standard timeline is for jobs or careers, mine seems to be about 2 years. The last few years it seems about 2-3 [...]