Business
The Problem with Accounting for Employees as Costs Instead of Assets (via Harvard Business Review)
Current accounting practices worked when things were manufacturing-based: big piece of equipment needs a person to turn raw material into goods. In today’s world people are more than just labor, so how can we account for investing in them? One way is to track how much companies invest in training and average tenure.
In the Ecosystem Economy, What’s Your Strategy? (via Harvard Business Review)
Competition is less about creating new offerings and more about finding new ways to collaborate. Digital ecosystems are more complex, so companies need to be more adaptive, putting less focus on prescriptive techniques and more focus on experiments and inquiry.
Career
How to Get Noticed by Your Boss’s Boss (via Harvard Business Review)
- Demonstrate your commitment to your growth and to the company.
- Focus on the team’s success, rather than your own.
- Know your numbers and take ownership of your work.
- Do what you say you will and do it well.
- Continually train yourself to think strategically.
- Challenge old ways and find new solutions.
- Consistently improve your communication skills.
- Build relationships with people throughout the company.
- Live the values and purpose of the organization.
- Ask questions.
3 Reasons It’s So Hard to “Follow Your Passion” (via Harvard Business Review)
- Passion isn’t something you find; it’s something you develop
- Passion wanes over time
- Passion can lead us astray, so recognize limits
Exec 101 – First 30 days (via Software Lead Weekly)
This playbook has tips that apply even if you’re not in leadership when starting a new job.
- Relax — you are not the first person to be in this position; everyone struggles at first
- Meet everyone — observe meetings, who are people, how are they connected, what do they think is going well/poorly, ask them to introduce you to others
- Make obvious people changes early — after step 2 it will be clear where things aren’t working; if you don’t act on this, your standards will be questioned
- Build key relationships — direct reports, peers, your manager; never make people wonder where you are with things — overcommunicate at first; make sure your version of success is the same as their version of success
- Pick a crisis/early win — show you can jump in and get things done and add value; this justifies their decision to bring you on
- Communicate — most people won’t know what you do or relationships you’re forming; have a weekly summary write-up and send it out; share your observations with management
Culture
If Women Don’t Apply to Your Company, This Is Probably Why (via Harvard Business Review)
We shouldn’t be blaming women for not applying; we should instead be asking why our company isn’t attractive to them. One study showed some example signals that make women less engaged: college fraternity culture (late nights, social drinking), only men in active roles, only men in technical roles while women were in supportive roles. Look for the language in your job posts (e.g., “wrestles problems”) and signal that you want to grow candidates at your company.
Process
5 Simple Rules for Strategy Execution (via Harvard Business Review)
- Narrow your focus — better to have a few things you can accomplish then a long list that you may not complete
- Make the statements imperative — it should be action-oriented
- Give the statements owners — increases accountability
- Have separate meetings about strategy
- Appoint a monitor — there’s no sense in having a strategy with no follow-up to see how things are progressing
A good onboarding experience for new hires requires two key things (via Software Lead Weekly)
- Creating a feeling of belonging
- Creating a sense of accomplishment
Designing Your Workspace (via Software Lead Weekly)
This was a neat post about someone who works from his home office. He describes his gear and why it works for him. I’m not going to rush out and buy anything, but it’s interesting to see how people create their space.
A product manager’s perspective on technical debt (via Software Lead Weekly)
A good refresher on technical debt — what it is, how it comes about, where things typically fall over. Two best practices are (1) documentation, and (2) putting the tech debt in the backlog so it’s visible.