Dates covered: April 8-14, 2019 (week 15 of 52)
Business
The “Two Weeks’ Notice” Approach to Changing Jobs Is Bad for Companies and Employees (via Harvard Business Review)
In some industries and age groups, job hopping is the norm; this article advocates making the topic of changing jobs less taboo. Some companies have established a program that (1) encourages open discussions between employer and employee, (2) trains managers on how to spot issues early on, (3) spells out what’s fixable and what’s not, (4) defines a transition for employees to find a new job while being employed.
Career
How I Survived the Transition From Developer to Manager (via The Software Mentor)
These types of posts are common these days, but everyone handles the transition a bit differently and learns something new. Having a company that embodies healthy practices — 1:1s, individual leadership styles, ability to fail, good communication — makes this easier.
5 Questions to Ask When Starting a New Job (via Harvard Business Review)
- How will I create value?
- How am I expected to behave?
- Whose support is critical?
- How will I get some early wins?
- What skills do I need to develop to succeed in this role?
Communication
Make Your Meetings a Safe Space for Honest Conversation (via Harvard Business Review)
There are tons of good tips in here for facilitators and participants alike.
- Explain the permissions for yourself and your participants (e.g., permission to hold dominators back, permission to spend more time on a topic)
- Focus on psychological safety
Culture
Research: Why Managers Ignore Employees’ Ideas (via Harvard Business Review)
The results aren’t all that surprising. The two situations where managers are more likely to ignore ideas are (1) when the manager has no power to effect change, and/or (2) the manager is pressured to focus on short-term gains.
The Biggest Hurdles Recent Graduates Face Entering the Workforce (via Harvard Business Review)
- Feedback — grads are used to being graded (and with reasonable frequency) on their efforts
- Relationships — new workers are interacting with a different demographic of people, and can’t pick/choose/shed those relationships as easily
- Accountability — in school, it’s your grade; in the workforce, it’s your team/company/project
The Dual-Purpose Playbook (via Harvard Business Review)
This article is about “doing well to do good” and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Companies are quick to abandon social goals in the quest for profitability.
- Setting goals & monitoring progress — do the research, and set goals that are explicit and enduring. Keep a learning mindset while developing social KPIs.
- Structuring the organization — sometimes having separate parts of the org to different activities (instead of one doing social and profit) helps; don’t let tension bring things down — surface it and discuss
- Hiring and socializing employees — hire people with social and business skills (or blank slate that you can train); you need to communicate your dual goals/values frequently
- Practicing dual-minded leadership — decisions should consider business and social impacts; boards serve as guardians
Leadership
How to Lead Your Fellow Rainmakers (via Harvard Business Review)
Leadership is a bit odd in professional services firms because the power lies with the “rainmakers” (bringing in clients, earning fees), and they may have no interest in leading. Those leaders must master three dynamics: establishing legitimacy, maneuvering politically, and negotiating perpetually.
To Develop Leadership Skills, Practice in a Low-Risk Environment (via Harvard Business Review)
Leaders need a variety of skills — managing politics, building bridges, raising difficult issues, showing up with confidence, handling people who push back, etc. Lectures and mock role-playing aren’t a good place to practice, because the perceived and actual risk are low. Seek out opportunities with high perceived risk and low actual risk (e.g,. negotiating a lower rate with a phone rep).
The Psychology Behind Unethical Behavior (via Harvard Business Review)
“The reality is that, for many leaders, there is no true straight-and-narrow path to follow. You beat the path as you go. Therefore, ethical leadership relies a lot on your personal judgment.”
- Omnipotence can be checked by owning your own flaws and letting people call you out on them
- Cultural numbness (going along with the group norm instead of your own moral compass) can be checked by asking yourself if you’d be uncomfortable telling a journalist what’s going on
- Justified neglect (risk of getting caught is low, rationalizing how your action causes minimal harm) is checked by creating formal and social contracts that obligate both you and your colleagues to do what’s right
Process
Operational Transparency (via Harvard Business Review)
This was a fascinating piece about how our transparent efficiency (think ATMs instead of human tellers, robot pickers instead of humans at a warehouse) have lowered our value and expectations, because we don’t appreciate what’s going on behind the scenes. The article describes several goods and services companies that give customers more feedback about what’s really being done and how far along they are. There are also several examples where being transparent can backfire.
8 Ways to Read the Books You Wish You Had Time For (via Harvard Business Review)
- Reduce the friction to picking up a book
- Avoid screens in bed (use a red lamp, prefer physical books)
- Make your phones less addictive
- Find a way to organize your books
- Use podcasts to help you find your next book
- Unfollow the news
- Read on devices that don’t do other things (or use physical books)
- Talk to local booksellers
The 3 Stages of Failure in Life and Work (And How to Fix Them) (via Software Lead Weekly)
- Failure of tactics — the how; record your process, measure your outcomes, review/adjust
- Failure of strategy — the what; launch it quickly, do it cheaply, revise it rapidly
- Failure of vision — the why; take stock of your life, determine what’s non-negotiable, navigate criticism
Hiring SOP (via Software Lead Weekly)
A detailed checklist of how one company does hiring, all the way from defining the position, to creating an offer.
How to Remember Anything Forever-ish (via Software Lead Weekly)
An engaging comic-laden post about spaced repetition, a process to help you retain what you’ve learned. This approach uses cards, and there are recommended apps as well.
Security
Architecture and Design for CompTIA Security+ (via Pluralsight)
This module covers frameworks, best practices, secure configuration, network architecture, systems design, staging and deployment, embedded systems, application development and deployment, cloud and virtualization, automation strategies, and physical security controls.
Software development
You Might Not Need Integration Tests (via The Software Mentor)
This boils down to CI/CD tools being mature enough to use things like canary deployments instead of complex or brittle integration tests.
High throughput pull request reviews (via The Software Mentor)
The takeaway is the same with any kind of communication: The author needs to consider the audience. As a PR creator, make it easy for the reviewer to focus… get the idea across for the change, highlight areas where you need their help, etc.
Three practices that will make you a more efficient programmer (via The Software Mentor)
- Keep a journal of useful things you’ve found
- Automate repeating tasks
- Share with your team
Why Good Developers Write Bad Unit Tests (via The Software Mentor)
Test code isn’t the same as production code. Don’t make the reader have to decipher your logic, repeat yourself to minimize context jumps, avoid helper methods, use long test names, use magic numbers.