Burnout
3 Types of Burnout, and How to Overcome Them (via HBR)
- Overload — working harder and more frantically to achieve success. Develop stronger emotional regulation skills, and separate your self-worth from your work.
- Under-challenged — being bored and understimulated leading to low motivation. Set a small goal to learn a new skill in 30 days, and try job crafting.
- Neglect — feeling helpless in the face of challenges. Find ways to regain agency (especially things you can say no to), and focus on what you can control.
Conflict
How to Handle Office Gossip … When It’s About You (via HBR)
- Don’t listen if you can’t act. Let the person who told you about it know that you will be addressing it with the gossiper.
- “Be humble. Don’t frame the conversation (even implicitly) as ‘Shame on you for talking behind my back,’ but rather as ‘If I have failed you in some way, I really want to understand it. Or if my skills are coming up short, I need that feedback.'”
- Once you’ve addressed the content of the gossip, explain a better way (process) to get to a solution.
Culture
Rekindling a Sense of Community at Work (via HBR)
- Create mutual learning opportunities.
- Tap into the power of nostalgia.
- Eat or cook together.
- Plug into your local community.
- Create virtual shared experiences.
- Make rest and renewal a team effort.
Leadership
The Art of Leadership: Small Things, Done Well (via Cameron Presley)
Having enjoyed Lopp’s other book Managing Humans, this one delivers in much the same way. There are bite-sized chapters that can be read out of order, organized by the type of tech leadership role the author has held (manager, director, executive). Some things may not be applicable for every leader, but it’s insightful to hear someone’s lessons they wish they had earlier in their career.
Motivation
Feeling Demotivated? Consider How Your Job Helps Others. (via HBR)
- Find ways to bring the clients/customers closer to those doing the work
- Encourage and support your colleagues; build relationships
- Become more integrated with your community
- Explain how their work serves the financial interests of the firm
- Treat your vendors and partners with kindness
- Realize that their work is in service of something (e.g., supporting loved ones)
Onboarding
How Much Should New Hires Focus on Building Peer Relationships? (via HBR)
- Don’t go too broad too soon; it’s not likely to help you get up to speed as fast.
- Don’t pair up with others that are pretty new; they may not be able to get you the answers you need.
- However, other rookies may be able to answer more obvious questions (and you’ll likely feel more comfortable talking to others that are more like you).
- Have HR facilitate meaningful connections between new hires.
- Encourage newcomers to balance networking and learning about work tasks.
- Conduct regular pulse checks to determine new hires’ progress on building relationships and acquiring key work-related skills, and then identify opportunities for support and adjustment accordingly.
Politics
Whey Staying Neutral Backfires (via HBR)
- “The authors found that staying neutral can make you come across as more suspicious and untrustworthy than simply sharing your opinion, even if your audience disagrees with that opinion. As such, the authors suggest that if someone asks for your opinion, you should certainly be considerate, thoughtful, and respectful in your response — but you shouldn’t be afraid to take a side.”
- “Of course, there is certainly a place for thoughtful neutrality. In our studies, participants were generally much more tolerant of neutral messaging if it seemed to reflect genuine uncertainty or middle-ground beliefs, rather than coming across like a strategic dodge.”
Technology process
Technical Evaluation of a Startup (via SWLW)
This was an interesting checklist of sorts about processes a technical startup uses (team organization, engineering process, Agile workflow, code reviews, release processes, technical architecture review, data warehousing).