Business
Where Net Promoter Score Goes Wrong (via Harvard Business Review)
This reminds me of the body mass index (BMI) issue — it’s not accurate, but it’s simple to compute and reason about. Humans are weird and can do things like generally be a detractor for a company but promote it in certain instances. The article suggests inquiring about actual advocacy rather than an inclination to recommend.
The Two Big Reasons That Digital Transformations Fail (via Harvard Business Review)
- Disagreement about what the goals are — the people planning the work and those doing the work need to be aligned
- Having one set of people do the pilot, and another set of people do the scaling
Case Study: Your Star Salesperson Lied. Should He Get a Second Chance? (via Harvard Business Review)
It’s a dilemma when your top performer commits an ethical violation such as falsifying reports. Do you tolerate their behavior and set a precedent for other issues, or risk that person taking your clients?
Lessons from Keith Rabois Essay 5: How to Become a Magnet for Talent and Assess Talent (via Software Lead Weekly)
Full disclosure: I only read the summary. I don’t do much in the startup scene, but I do look at articles from time to time to see what challenges are faced when building a team for that kind of environment.
Career
How to Manage the Emotional Roller Coaster of a Job Search (via Harvard Business Review)
- Know the rollercoaster of emotions is coming — flurries of activity followed by radio silence, thinking you nailed the interview only to not get an offer
- Process your emotions — journaling and mindfulness meditation can help
- Get support — talking to a coach, therapist, or peers can help you get perspective
- Engage in energizing activities — destress through hobbies, listening to music, or exercise
- Put things into perspective — it’s easy to feel powerless; remember you are not likely your target company’s priority, even though they are to you
Coaching for Change (via Harvard Business Review)
- Coaching is about helping, not telling people what to do.
- Is this individual open to change?
- You need to build a relationship with the person instead of only offering advice.
- “Humble inquiry” has several good questions for 1:1s… What does success look like to you? How do you want others to see you?
- You want to leave people feeling energized and empowered to improve.
- Coaching doesn’t have to be 1:1 — you can have a coaching group that focus on different angles.
The (Real) 11 Reasons I Don’t Hire You (via The Software Mentor)
Given I’m hiring people at the moment, I can resonate with many of these reasons. It’s all about alignment of what a company needs with what the candidate has to offer now and in the future.
- Scarcity of positions
- Diversity of skills and experiences
- You’re not what the team needs
- We’re not confident you’ll be successful here
- Operating levels (you can’t have all seniors or all juniors)
- We don’t have the kind of work you want
- Communication skills are a must
- Culture mismatch (startup vs. stable enterprise)
- You only have one reason to work here (e.g., woman founder)
- You’ll only tolerate working here
- Interviewing is an art and sometimes we miss good people and let in less-than-ideal people
You Didn’t Land Your Dream Job. Now What? (via Harvard Business Review)
- Put your rejection into context
- Channel frustration into motivation
- Find another way to achieve your goal
- Find ways to stay on the company’s radar
Communication
How to Look and Sound Confident During a Presentation (via Harvard Business Review)
- Make eye contact
- Keep an open stance
- Use gestures
- Eliminate filler words
- Take time to pause
- Vary your pace
Leadership
Helping Your Team Feel the Purpose in Their Work (via Harvard Business Review)
- Make it personal — for example, bring in someone who’s been personally impacted by your work/company
- Make it authentic — if you don’t believe in the work, people will see through any attempts you have to go through the motions about rallying them to the cause
- Make it perpetual — don’t save the motivation techniques until morale is low; make it a habit
Agile Knoxville meetup: What Motivates Your Team?
About ten of us brainstormed (with sticky notes and pens) what lack of motivation looks like, things we can do to motivate others, and how we can connect problems to solutions.
How Motivation Can Fix Public Systems (via TED)
What to Do If Your Employee Starts to Outshine You (via Harvard Business Review)
“Motivation doesn’t just appear. Something needs to change to make you care.” Although the example applies to healthcare in India, the core message works anywhere: accountability, healthy competition, and empowerment motivates people.
- Assess whether their self-promotion is hindering their performance
- Manage your self-doubt by staying objective
- Always be consistent when addressing their behavior
- Don’t derail yourself by getting dragged into a contest
- Learn from their audacity
Process
What the Lean Startup Method Gets Right and Wrong (via Harvard Business Review)
The part that works is the scientific approach about forming hypothesis and taking action based on what you learn. The parts that don’t work are (1) asking customers what they want instead of driving that innovation yourself — you’ll likely only get incremental improvements, and (2) although you need to know your customers, it’s better to have a theory about why your company is going to win.
When It’s OK to Trust Your Gut on a Big Decision (via Harvard Business Review)
“Recent research suggests that it can be useful, especially in highly uncertain circumstances where further data gathering and analysis won’t sway you one way or another. Where there is debilitating evidence that delays decision making, trusting your gut allows leaders the freedom to move forward.”
Software Development
How Tech Debt Impacts Everyone in the Company (via The Software Mentor)
Our habit is to focus on shipping new features and minimize how often we pay back technical debt; however, the larger a system becomes, the more inevitable tech debt becomes. This article shows how technical debt impacts every aspect of your organization — not just developers/engineering.
Yes, You Should Estimate Software Projects (via Software Lead Weekly)
- Most of how the world works (i.e., those that depend on your project) are date-based, because they have their own timelines, too.
- Everyone misses estimates; it’s better to communicate early and often.
- It’s okay to not ship everything you promised; it’s better to ship something, or a different set of things.
- Deadlines give the team focus and drive.
- Having to estimate forces you to think about the tricky stuff first — making unknowns a bit more known.
- When you miss your estimate, ask why and come up with ways to learn from those misses.