Agile
9 Things Wildly Successful Agile Coaches Do (via Agile Amped)
- Agile Coaching Exchange (ACE) in North America is an organization with an intent to bring coaches together around the mission of building competency and community — http://agilecoachingexchange.com/
- (The guest, Alicia McLain, found this via an ICF topic by the same name.)
- (Disclaimer: This episode is geared toward what seems like freelance coaching where you need things to focus on to attract/win new clients to coach.)
- (1) Niche — what’s your spin on your coaching and servicing?
- (2) Unique brand of IP — content, materials, and consistency in your message
- (3) Look successful — branding, consistency, and structures as a business operator
- (4) Do more than coaching — use all four verbs of the Cynefin framework (teach, mentor, facilitate, mentor)
- (5) Having a virtual brand — when you Google yourself, do you get what you expect? First impressions count.
- (6) Invest in your business — websites, marketing, bookkeepers
- (7) Avoid the lone ranger syndrome — community is important, bring people together
- (8) People aware of you can be your salespeople — getting you referred to others is valuable
- (9) Build business daily — get on LinkedIn, blogging
Effective Product Management (via Software Lead Weekly)
A bit on the long side, but full of good commentary about what product management is and is not. Topics include key virtues, things the author has seen work well, and some anti-patterns for this role.
Business
Companies Used to Share How Each Dollar of Revenue Was Spent (via Harvard Business Review)
- “Moreover, while the shares of revenue going to wages and dividends were uncorrelated before 1970, they became extremely negatively correlated afterward, indicating that the two groups — employees and shareholders — were put more in competition for firm resources with each other after 1970.” (Note: The 1970 date comes from an essay published by Milton Friedman about shareholder supremacy.)
- I also learned that mandates in CEO pay disclosures back in 1934 didn’t lower executive compensation; it raised it, because many CEOs found they weren’t getting as much as their peers.
What’s Next for Silicon Valley? (via Harvard Business Review)
- How we got such a concentration of wealth and power: American primacy, cheap capital, the smartphone and other such tech, a benign regulatory environment.
- The micro-targeted advertising model will increasingly be under attack and will weaken.
- More rights for gig workers and the end of “zero hours” contracts.
- There will be big winners and many failures in the direct to consumer (D2C) and online product subscription model.
- Companies that focus on “conscious capitalism” and empathetic tech will have an advantage.
Career
How to waste your career, one comfortable year at a time (via Jamie Phillips)
Articles like these sometimes don’t sit well with me. They highlight that our industry (and it may not just be limited to tech) values growth, and de-values stability from a career sense. The sunk cost fallacy is real, and there’s no way to run experiments to see whether leaving a company earlier (instead of being “loyal”) would be better or worse for you. Technically I could probably be “farther along” in my career if I hadn’t stayed as long as I did, but I may have missed out on opportunities to mentor others and to play a role in projects that gave me experiences I wouldn’t otherwise have. The five criteria — accomplishment, impact, growth/future alignment, challenge, and community — are solid aspects people should periodically consider for themselves to see if their current role/company fits.
Culture
How to Promote Racial Equity in the Workplace (via Harvard Business Review)
- PRESS: problem awareness, root-cause analysis, empathy, strategies to address problems, and sacrifice (willing to invest time/energy)
- Research consistently reveals that many Whites believe racism toward people of color has decreased.
- It’s much easier to blame individuals than to fix toxic environments. Many people underestimate the pull of their environment on actions, positions, and outcomes.
- To address issues, you need to work on all of these simultaneously: personal attitudes, informal cultural norms, and formal institutional policies. “The hard part is getting people to actually adopt them. Even the best strategies are worthless without implementation.”
- Put the energy where it’s needed to increase equity, not just equality.
- “…focus on hiring well-qualified people who show good promise, and then should invest time, effort, and resources into helping them reach their potential.”
How to Defeat Busy Culture (via Harvard Business Review)
- Incentivize boundary-setting; aim to eliminate the stigma of taking time off (especially from top leadership)
- Focus on your core contribution; take a closer look at how many things you’re saying “yes” to
- Lean on lateral and external influencers; use positive peer-pressure from social connections
Communication
How to Build Rapport … While Wearing a Mask (via Harvard Business Review)
- Avoid clear masks that show your mouth (they fog up easily)
- Practice PAVE (pause, accentuate, volume, emotion)
- Practice active listening
- Use gestures and body language
- Mirror your counterpart
- Keep your torso and toes pointed in the same direction
- Smile with your eyes
- Know when Zoom might be a better choice
Leadership
Meetings are one of most effective ways to manage well; Chapter 8 of Radical Candor covers ten types of these meetings. This week, our book club focused on 1:1s, staff meetings, and think time.
Preventing Burnout Is About Empathetic Leadership (via Harvard Business Review)
This article covers many of the same techniques I’ve been sharing for some time — know your people, care as much about employees as your products, foster psychological safety. The platinum rule (which I’m surprised the author didn’t call out by name) is key: Do unto others as they would have done to themselves.
Leaders, Are You Feeling the Burden of Pandemic-Related Decisions? (via Harvard Business Review)
- Take preemptive action
- Don’t separate yourself from your team
- Correct your own mistakes as publicly as possible
- Provide extra support for people who need it
- Model appropriate behavior to set a healthy example
- Focus on appreciation and gratitude
Leaders Need to Harness Aristotle’s 3 Types of Knowledge (via Harvard Business Review)
“This ability to size up a situation and the kinds of knowledge it calls for is a skill you can develop with deliberate practice, but the essential first step is simply to appreciate that those different kinds of knowledge exist, and that it’s your responsibility to recognize which ones are called for when. Aristotle’s efforts notwithstanding, most leaders haven’t thought much about realms of knowledge [techne = craft knowledge, episteme = scientific knowledge, phronesis = ethical judgment] and what problems they can solve. Expect that to change as enterprises, and societies, take on increasingly complex and large-scale challenges — and leaders are increasingly judged on the thinking that goes into them.”