Dates covered: December 24-30, 2018 (week 52 of 52)
Career
How Executives Can Build a Side Career in Teaching (via Harvard Business Review)
It’s possible to land an adjunct position at a university without a PhD. It can be quite a bit of work, but rewarding.
- Figure out what leads you have — can someone make an introduction for you?
- Prepare a pitch about why you’d help their program — industry credentials help here.
- Prepare your CV and a syllabus of what you’d teach.
If Your Company Is Going Through a Public Scandal, Should You Leave? (via Harvard Business Review)
- Don’t beat yourself up; unless you actually were complicit in the scandal, you don’t need to feel guilty
- Understand the context; is this something that will blow over?
- Take a stand if necessary; if the issue is too inconsistent with your values, you may need to vote with your feet
- Consider your future; will this scandal impact the ability for you to get new clients, for example?
- Lay off the networking; if the scandal is large enough, you’re bound to have that be the icebreaker when people talk to you while networking
- Prepare for the challenges of searching; if you decide to leave, you may be considered “damaged goods” prepare for how you’ll handle that
Choosing Between Being a Business Leader or an Employee (via The Software Mentor)
This post claims there are two paths: leader or follower (employee). Maybe it was the mood I was in while reading it, but the vibe I got was that being a leader is crazy amounts of work (some have claimed it doesn’t have to be this way) and if you don’t like that, you can have a seat right over here at the kids table as a line-level employee.
Bored and Disengaged (via Harvard Business Review)
An episode of Dear HBR (there’s a transcript if you don’t have the time to listen to a 30-minute podcast) where three people ask for advice about being bored in their job. One reader had many roles but doesn’t seem to get excited about the companies. A second reader is moving up the ladder in IT and notices he gets bored easily and wonders if he should be worried about this trait. The last reader is a senior analyst who headed up a team and as the team grew he became the low man on the totem pole and got the grunt work. It’s a decent read/listen, as you can get two people providing some possible solutions and rationale behind them.
The Pros and Cons of Perfectionism, According to Research (via Harvard Business Review)
The study grouped perfectionists into two groups: excellence-seeking and failure-avoiding. The group with the most negative effects (burnout, stress, depression, workaholism) were in the failure-avoiding group. There doesn’t seem to be a relationship between perfectionism and performance; it is correlated with motivation and conscientiousness, which are generally desirable traits in the workplace. Managers can dial down reminding perfectionists of performance goals (they’re already aware of them anyway) and encourage setting goals for rejuvenating, non-work activities to mitigate stress and burnout.
Culture
Why Family Businesses Need to Find the Right Level of Conflict (via Harvard Business Review)
Business involves conflict, which can be tricky when you’re working with family. Conflict should be in the “Goldilocks Zone.” With too much conflict, there can’t be constructive conversations; with too little (more common) important issues don’t get discussed until tension has built up. Some questions to answer “yes” to…
- Are we better together than apart?
- Is there an “elephant in the room?”
- Do we like each other well enough to work and celebrate together?
Communication
Pitching Your Idea Effectively
This short course is about how to make business pitches in varying formats. Although it leans toward the milieu of startups, the techniques could apply inside a company as well. The three formats are the elevator pitch, the short-form pitch, and the 10/20/30 pitch. The course covers when/why to use the different formats and recommends what should go in each.
Environment
The Story of Sustainability in 2018: “We Have About 12 Years Left” (via Harvard Business Review)
Most of the stories cited in this article are pretty depressing: catastrophic weather events, coral death, threatened ecosystsems, US environmental protections weakening. On the positive side, businesses are starting to step up, investors are paying more attention to climate-aware and sustainable businesses, and clean technology is becoming more prevalent and cheaper.
Management
Do Your Seasonal Employees Feel as Valued as They Should? (via Harvard Business Review)
Although a bit late in publication, if your company does seasonal work, there are some tips to help attract and retain new employees. First, make sure management is providing psychological safety (e.g., you can always ask questions even if it’s busy) and let them know that during onboarding. Second, treat everyone equally — these temporary employees should be given the same respect as existing employees. Third, if you treat seasonal employees well, they can become ambassadors for your brand. Fourth, personalize the perks and make them meaningful at the local level.
Starter wisdom for new managers — how to not suck and have people like you. (via The Software Mentor)
- It’s not about you, it’s about your team
- You will become a shock absorber, shit umbrella, and complaint box
- Find out what makes your team members tick
- Ask why you’re in management (growth, execution, development, etc.)
- Communicate relentlessly and fearlessly
- Don’t take credit for your team’s work
- Everyone works differently; not everyone needs the same things from you
- Set up some ideals, and realize they’ll change over time through doing the work
How to Help Your Employees Stay Productive Around the Holidays (via Harvard Business Review)
- Make asking for time off easier; many are uncomfortable asking for additional time
- If possible, close the office or allow people to work remotely
- Make sure managers are trained on how to have these conversations with employees (many are not)
Leadership Guide for the Reluctant Leader (via Software Lead Weekly)
Leadership isn’t only for management (negotiation, communication, public/team speaking). Some topics David mentioned that I’ve seen before… The Ideal Team Player, we can get pretty far just on technical skills so our personal skills don’t grow, the DISC profile (dominance, influence, compliance, steadiness), CliftonStrengths, avoiding multitasking. Some good questions to ask before quitting a job: Have you done everything you can do? If you left now, would you have any regrets?
Technology
SQL is Dead, Hail to Flux (via The Software Mentor)
If you ignore the hyperbole — i.e., X is dead, I never want to miss out — the post covers the basics of Flux, a scripting language for querying databases and piping the output to whatever you want. Most of the examples seem to deal with trying to do mathematical things with data, which SQL isn’t necessarily built for. It looks lightweight, and consequently, looks like it could suffer from the fractured landscape that aligns with package managers (i.e., everything is a package so there are thousands of them and probably not well-curated).