Dates covered: April 1-7, 2019 (week 14 of 52)
Business
The Innovation Equation (via Harvard Business Review)
There are four parameters: equity fraction (what you get from outcomes instead of rank — hard equity = financial stakes, soft equity = recognition), fitness ratio (project-skill fit vs. return on politicking), management span (how many direct reports you have), and salary growth. The recommended ways to increase innovation: celebrate results instead of rank, use soft equity, take politics out, invest in training, get the right employees doing the right thing, fine-tune the spans, appoint a chief incentives officer.
Companies Need to Prepare for the Next Economic Downturn (via Harvard Business Review)
Depending on what report you read, the worst is behind us, or it will be bleak really soon (and for some time). Acting early, taking a long-term perspective, and focusing on growth (not just cost-cutting) are what many companies that survived the last downturn did. We have several risks to the current economy — technical, social, environmental, economic state. The article outlines some steps companies can take to be ready.
How to Make Startup Stock Options a Better Deal for Employees (via Harvard Business Review)
This was an informative article, given that I’ve never worked at a startup, my last company was public already, and my current company is private and employee owned. I’d recommend this to any employee of any company type to understand where stock options came from (1970s), the role the played, and how that role has changed. (Hint: It’s in the founder’s and venture capital’s favor, not the employees — especially if you join late.)
Career
On Failure (via Software Lead Weekly)
An affirmative piece with helpful assurances such as “A lack of visible progress is not a lack of progress.” There’s a difference between some of the things we do being failures vs. ourselves being failures. Most of what we read/hear about is the success stories (or the catastrophic failures); most of us are in between those two extremes.
Communication
How to Talk with a Coworker Who’s Having a Tough Time (via Harvard Business Review)
- “It seems like this is impacting you significantly; tell me more.” vs. “You’re making too big of a deal.”
- “What do you need to move forward?” vs. “Get over it.”
- “You seem worried; what’s troubling you most?” vs. “Stop worrying.”
How to Take Criticism Well (via Harvard Business Review)
- Be prepared for people who will disagree
- Calibrate your response instead of thinking of it as a catastrophe
- Gauge all of the responses, not just one naysayer
- Apply the criticism to your role, not yourself
- Check in with peers (i.e., your personal “board of directors”)
- Take time to pause and take care of yourself
How to Speak Up in a Meeting, and When to Hold Back (via Harvard Business Review)
When speaking up… prepare a few comments in advance, ask “why you” to ensure credibility, pause and breathe to build your confidence. These are some scenarios where you should hold back… only trying to look smart, empowering those on your team (so they never have to on their own), if your comment is better suited to a one-on-one conversation.
The Feedback Fallacy (via Harvard Business Review)
Telling people what we think about their performance and what they can do better can actually hinder development. Research shows we can’t reliably rate others, criticism impairs performance, and excellence is hard to define (and isn’t the opposite of failure). Productive feedback is about helping people see what’s working, and for negative feedback to be framed in the feelings of the person giving the feedback (e.g., instead of “Here’s where you need to improve”, say “Here’s what worked best for me, and here’s why”).
Culture
Meritocracy doesn’t exist, and believing it does is bad for you (via The Software Mentor)
Luck has more to do with success than people want to believe. This post talks about some studies that show the “paradox of meritocracy”, where our belief in merit makes us more discriminatory. It reminds me of a post I wrote some time back about fate-driven career management.
Leadership
Why Inclusive Leaders Are Good for Organizations, and How to Become One (via Harvard Business Review)
- Visible commitment – making diversity and inclusion a personal priority
- Humility – being modest about capabilities, admitting mistakes
- Awareness of bias — we all have blind spots; work for meritocracy
- Curiosity about others — listen without judgment, use empathy
- Cultural intelligence — attentive to other cultures
- Effective collaboration — empower others, create psychological safety
5 Reasons Executives Wait Too Long to Fire Their Direct Reports (via Harvard Business Review)
- A determination to fix others
- Fear that doing so will damage their career
- Ego (if you’ve hired this person)
- Concern that it will be taken poorly in the public eye
- Perceived indispensability, but these things happen
Process
The Right Way to Lead Design Thinking (via Harvard Business Review)
“Design-thinking methods — such as empathizing with users and conducting experiments knowing many will fail — often seem subjective and personal to employees accustomed to being told to be rational and objective. Employees can be shocked and dismayed by findings, feel like they are spinning their wheels, or find it difficult to shed preconceptions about the product or service they’ve been providing. Their anxieties may derail the project. Leaders — without being heavy handed — need to help teams make the space and time for new ideas to emerge and maintain an overall sense of direction and purpose.”
Overcoming Negativity (via Harvard Business Review)
These 30-minute podcasts are interesting; a panel of three people discuss three “how do I handle this” questions that are sent in. In this episode, the topics are (1) a boss that constantly criticizes you, (2) you’ve been fired unexpectedly, or (3) your coworkers complain about you to your boss.
Complexity Bias: Why We Prefer Complicated to Simple (via Software Lead Weekly)
This essay was thought-provoking and philosophical… Why do we make things out (or prefer them) to be more complicated than they are? There are many interesting examples.
Productivity
9 Ways to Say No to Busywork and Unrealistic Deadlines (via Harvard Business Review)
- Say no to time commitments that aren’t the best use of your day
- Avoid attending meetings where you aren’t needed
- Pass on lunch invites where you already interact with those individuals often throughout the day
- Say no to tasks that aren’t your job
- Gracefully decline projects that are optional
- Don’t volunteer to help when the option comes up
- Consider alternate deadlines when the dates are somewhat arbitrary
- Have downtime (e.g., don’t reply on weekends/nights)
- Explain current priorities/deadlines to your boss
Why We Don’t Ask for More Time on Deadlines (But Probably Should) (via Harvard Business Review)
Some tips for managers…
- Tell those that ask for more time that they’re not alone
- Share that you sometimes ask for extensions
- Clarify whether a deadline is flexible
Software development
Storing UTC Is Not a Silver Bullet (via The Software Mentor)
Time zones and daylight savings time makes for many edge cases, and always using UTC doesn’t solve every problem. The favored option seems to be to note the local time of an event as well as the time zone ID and the current rules.
Moving forward after a Code Spike (via The Software Mentor)
Sometimes you need a time-boxed effort to figure out something (e.g., an algorithm, communicating with a new service). The result it code that’s not production-ready. This article goes over several ways to address what comes out of the code spike (e.g., archive it, have pros and cons discussion about it).
A Smart Programmer Understands The Problems Worth Fixing (via The Software Mentor)
Sometimes the most correct solution will take too long to deliver or will be too messy to maintain. You have to pick your battles.