Professional Development – 2020 – Week 11

Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/54585499@N04/

Business

How Medical Nonprofits Set Winning Strategy (via Harvard Business Review)

  • You need to decide what you’ll focus on and what you’ll not focus on
  • How will you fuel progress? Will you focus on research or execution?
  • Decide who you’ll need to hire and who you can partner with

What do executives do, anyway? (via Software Lead Weekly)

According to “High Output Management” by Andy Grove from the 1980s: define and enforce culture/values for the org, and ratify good decisions. The part about good decisions seems like a power-play, and I thought the executive brings nothing to the table except their title. Strategy came up, in that no one sets strategy: They choose values that let people in the org ultimately end up picking the “right” strategy, which is interesting and odd at the same time. Lastly, the author says little of this applies to small companies.

Research: How Speech Patterns Lead to Hiring Bias (via Harvard Business Review)

Hearing people pronounce words lets us make fairly accurate assumptions about socioeconomic status, which leads toward potential bias in hiring. Other than affirmative action (specifically hiring people of certain segments), how can we deal with this bias?

Career

What Job Crafting Looks Like (via Harvard Business Review)

“First, there is task crafting, which involves altering the type, scope, sequence, and number of tasks that make up your job. Next, you can relationally craft your job by altering whom you interact with in your work. Finally, there is cognitive crafting, where you modify the way you interpret the tasks and/or work you’re doing. To illustrate what each of these types look like, here are stories of three people who redesigned their jobs to unlock more meaning.”

Work in the Time of Corona (via Software Lead Weekly)

  • It’s okay to feel uncomfortable transitioning to remote work
  • Recreate your work rhythm (get dressed, walk during times you’d commute, have a separate space, keep things clean, stock snacks, eat lunch, get off social media)
  • Improve your video setup
  • Make social spaces
  • Know when to separate from work (a.k.a. go home)

A Letter to a New Product Manager (via Software Lead Weekly)

  • Talk to the users
  • Be metrics-driven
  • Prioritize the product roadmap
  • Be a communication hub
  • Develop product vision

Give It Time Before Deciding You Hate Your New Job (via Harvard Business Review)

  • Imposter syndrome and the learning curve are real. Think of this as a growth opportunity and keep a journal of accomplishments
  • You may be in the wrong place if the company values something you don’t (e.g., achievement vs. benevolence).
  • Check in with a mentor to keep you from settling for the status quo (i.e., better the devil you know) after you’ve been in the new role for a few months.

Communication

Don’t Hide Bad News in Times of Crisis (via Harvard Business Review)

You can’t manage a secret. Although people worry about their reputation, it’s the long game that matters. The first step is to create an environment where people can share the bad news without fear of repercussions. Initially, this will feel like you’re moving in the wrong direction because you’re finding information that’s indicating the problems (e.g., crime stats, patient safety issues, disease stats), but you can’t manage what you don’t see.

Best Practices for Instant Messaging at Work (via Harvard Business Review)

  • Adopt the tools your employees are already using.
  • Embrace all kinds of instant messaging – but set ground rules.
  • Respect work/life balance.
  • Promote face-to-face communication, too.

Health

What the U.S. Needs to Do – Right Now – to Fight Coronavirus (via Harvard Business Review)

  • Set up local testing sites where results can be returned by phone
  • Use telehealth to monitor the 80% of patients that will not need urgent care
  • Empower state and local governments to execute turnkey plans to make ICU space for people
  • Provide refresher training for family doctors and internists on ICU ventilation protocols
  • Incentivize companies that impact treatment to accelerate production

Leadership

The Key to Inclusive Leadership (via Harvard Business Review)

  1. Visible commitment: They articulate authentic commitment to diversity, challenge the status quo, hold others accountable, and make diversity and inclusion a personal priority.
  2. Humility: They are modest about capabilities, admit mistakes, and create the space for others to contribute.
  3. Awareness of bias: They show awareness of personal blind spots, as well as flaws in the system, and work hard to ensure a meritocracy.
  4. Curiosity about others: They demonstrate an open mindset and deep curiosity about others, listen without judgment, and seek with empathy to understand those around them.
  5. Cultural intelligence: They are attentive to others’ cultures and adapt as required.
  6. Effective collaboration: They empower others, pay attention to diversity of thinking and psychological safety, and focus on team cohesion.”

Build “Hardiness” Into Your Organizational Culture (via Harvard Business Review)

  • Demonstrate a strong sense of commitment, control, and challenge when responding to stressful circumstances.
  • As a group, discuss mistakes and failures in a positive way.
  • Provide opportunities for constructive performance feedback on a fairly regular basis.
  • Provide opportunities for socializing and interacting on the job and outside of work.

How to Work with Someone Who’s Disengaged (via Harvard Business Review)

  • What not to do…
    • Don’t make assumptions about their performance.
    • Don’t force an employee to be someone who they are not.
    • Don’t get emotional; prefer a transactional style of communication.
    • Don’t assign people tasks outside their area of expertise.
  • What to do…
    • Use extrinsic rather than intrinsic motivation
    • Focus on what they value
    • Respect people’s space

How to Spot an Incompetent Leader (via Harvard Business Review)

The key attribute is arrogance: a gap between confidence (how good you think you are) and competence (how good you actually are). This post covers our flawed archetypes of leaders and why hiring processes often let arrogant leaders into the organization.

An Elegant Puzzle – Part 1

Our book club is reading An Elegant Puzzle which is about engineering management. Today we talked about team size, high-performing teams, and top-down global optimization.

Process

Stop Feeling Guilty About Your To-Do List (via Harvard Business Review)

  • Reframe the situation (e.g., “I did a lot and I did my best”)
  • Gain perspective on your productivity (what did I get done vs. what didn’t I get done)
  • Recognize your limitations and be okay saying no
  • Get pragmatic about your to-do list: how much do you get done each week, pare down your list, be deliberate about where you focus, and pay attention to what gets done or not done on your list, embrace the state of non-completion
  • Set expectations with others (i.e., don’t people-please)
  • Practice self-empathy, and be patient

Society

Do Democracy and Capitalism Really Need Each Other? (via Harvard Business Review)

This article shares the responses of six economists and political scientists. The answer is nuanced, but there are some fundamentals of both forms of government that are at odds. Capitalism is focused on owners, democracy is focused on everyone.