Business
The CEO of Canada Goose on Creating a Homegrown Luxury Brand (via Harvard Business Review)
An interesting highlight piece of a company choosing quality, a well-trained workforce in their own country, and sticking to their principles even when it’s not the most profitable choice. Although they are a luxury brand, I’m glad such companies exist; I grow tired of commoditized goods, planned obsolescence, and obsequiousness to shareholders.
The Dirty Secret of Capitalism — and a Way Forward (via TED)
- markets are gardens, not jungles
- inclusion creates economic growth
- corporations exist to improve the welfare of all stakeholders
- greed != good
- laws of economics are a choice, not a guarantee
Why Fixing Software Bugs Should Be the CEO’s Problem (via Harvard Business Review)
The title is misleading… Why Awareness of Software Bugs Should Be the CEO’s Problem. The article covers IBM and Microsoft and how they dealt with problems in the 1990s. A quality management system (QMS) helps provide oversight and standards about how high-severity and pervasive issues are handled.
The Strategy Behind TikTok’s Global Rise (via Harvard Business Review)
I knew TikTok was based in China, but didn’t know much about its history or its meteoric rise in popularity. Unlike other social media platforms, it uses AI to explicitly decide content and user associations, rather than suggesting them.
Career
17 Reasons NOT to Be a Manager (via Cameron Presley)
Although it’s an opinion piece, I’ve anecdotally found several of the arguments to be true (especially numbers 2, 3, and 5). The point is to enter that career change with open eyes and with thoughtful intent rather than “more power = good” or chasing a higher paycheck.
How Dual-Career Couples Make It Work (via Harvard Business Review)
Most of these types of career articles assume the readers are flying solo, or focus on the relationships side; This author wanted something more holistic. (This is one in a series of articles for this issue of HBR, so more to come.) The author covers three major transitions: working as a couple when a major life event occurs, reinventing yourselves as careers shift, and dealing with loss and opportunity.
Reasons to Give Management a Try (via Software Lead Weekly)
This is the counterpoint to the article about why not get into management (see above).
- You know what you might be getting yourself into
- You’ll have a direct impact on people
- Organizations are just as interesting as projects
- You want to challenge existing power structures
- Potential for more compensation
- Leadership will be the core of your work
- Storytelling and communication can be fun
- You’ll build new muscles
- Helping people feels really good
Communication
How to Rehearse for an Important Presentation (via Harvard Business Review)
- Rehearse (more than you think you should)
- Nail the first two minutes and last two minutes
- Practice under mild stress (e.g., small group)
- Record your rehearsal
- Ask for feedback
Leadership
How to motivate employees? Don’t. (via Signal v. Noise)
Motivation is something people have, not something you give them.
- Ask individuals what motivates them
- Tailor your approach to each individual
- Create choices
- Stop monitoring them
- Acknowledge what you can’t fix
- Clarify expectations
To Coach Junior Employees, Start with 4 Conversations (via Harvard Business Review)
As a coach, your job is not to provide solutions, but to clarify questions they’re trying to answer. Four topics that often arise…
- How to build resilience (bouncing back from setbacks)
- How to influence others
- How to job-craft
- How to break out of a mental rut
8 Things Leaders Do That Make Employees Quit (via Harvard Business Review)
- Inconsistent goals or expectations
- Having too many process constraints
- Wasting your resources
- Putting people in the wrong roles
- Assigning boring or overly easy tasks
- Failing to create a psychologically safe culture
- Creating a work environment that is too safe
- Leading with bias
What to Say When Your Employee Makes a Mistake (via Harvard Business Review)
- Pause before acting out of emotion
- Decide what you want your outcome to be
- Ask yourself whether what you say will help achieve your outcome
Levels of Us vs. Them (via Software Lead Weekly)
This post covers five versions of opposition (me vs. you, our team vs. the other team, etc.) and what those behaviors look like.
Productivity
Five Years of Home Office: A Recap (via Software Lead Weekly)
The author explains what it’s been like — good and bad — being a remote employee for this current company (which was his first remote gig). He also lists some suggestions for making the most out of the experience.
Security
Why Companies Are Forming Cybersecurity Alliances (via Harvard Business Review)
In short, because government is focused on other issues. “These alliances are a symptom of the breakdown of trust between policy makers and those they’re making polices for.”
Software development
Traditional Agile is Now Missing the Point (via David Starr)
The Agile Manifesto has been around 18 years now. DevOps is the next logical extension where we integrate everything together instead of just Agile software development.