Professional Development – 2023 – Week 30

This video was about exposing API metrics from a .NET app to Prometheus and Grafana.

When APIs experience exceptions in “Development” mode (for ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT), you’ll see a stack trace; the stack trace isn’t present in “Production” mode.
The typical approach is to put all the logic in a try block, then in the catch block do some logging and then rethrow the exception (throw ex;).
Another approach is to not mention the exception to throw (throw;). This gives a richer stack trace.
Definitely don’t do throw new Exception(ex.Message); as you will lose the original stack trace.
(Microsoft Code Analysis and Rider will fuss at you about this.)

Promote divergent thinking by making associations among remote concepts and asking for ideas drawn from them.
Challenge expertise bias by initially not constraining generation by preconceived notions.
Assist in idea evaluation by asking for specificity or having it evaluate various properties such as feasibility, impact, etc.
Support idea refinement by combining ideas to create stronger ones.
Facilitate collaboration between designers and users.

Toxic workplaces can be described as disrespectful, noninclusive, unethical, cutthroat, and abusive.
Hybrid environments complicate matters because the dynamic is different, it’s fundamentally unbalanced, it can reduce cohesion and trust, and it makes issues harder to resolve.
To keep things from becoming toxic, leaders should educate employees to raise self-awareness, lay a foundation of empathy and psychological safety, have ongoing conversations, and intervene quickly.

We value the immediate and short-term future, but the higher up in the org chart you are, the farther out you need to look. We also have distance bias, where we prioritize decisions closer in time. Action: Block off time each month where you want your team to be in 3-6 months, then work backward.
We are promoted because of technical competence, however strong social skills (e.g., communication, empathy) are required to form relationships. Neuroimaging studies have shown that brain centers for goal focus and people focus are mutually exclusive. In more senior positions, you think of people as chess pieces rather than humans. Action: Be aware of this bias and make an effort to connect.
As individuals perceive themselves to be more powerful, they tend to become more optimistic — disconnecting them from the people working on the details. Action: Be aware of the bias and get buy in from the people doing the work.

How to Be a Purpose-Driven Leader Without Burning Out (via HBR)

The leaders doesn’t have to be solely responsible for supporting employees; asking people what they need lets them have a part to play.
It’s not a leader’s job to make people happy. Get people to think about the impact of decisions.
Don’t instinctively coach the weakest performers; coach the ones where your impact will be the greatest.

Clarify the difference between typical and maximal performance.
When they do something excellent, give feedback and discuss what they did to help them demonstrate that (e.g., spent more time preparing for a presentation).
Interpersonal issues affect productivity — star players on one team may not be stars on another, new team dynamics, lack of recognition.
Poor leadership, such as micromanagement, overly loose supervision, and poorly communicated objectives, will have an impact.

Physical engagement (e.g., polling, read this slide and share your thoughts on it)
Mental engagement (e.g., ask a question, share a compelling piece of information)
Linguistic engagement (e.g., people perk up when they hear “you”, “imagine…”, “think back to when…”

We dislike uncertainty; we’d rather be 100% sure of getting an electric shock vs 50% sure of not getting one.
Change involves some kind of loss. If change happens to us, our lives feel more limited.
We think that who we are right now is who we’ll be in the future, regardless of acknowledging how much we’ve changed from our past selves.
Identity paralysis = when you tie your identity to a single trait/skill
Think about what energizes you about your pursuits (e.g., being a violinist) rather than the pursuit itself.
Three questions you can ask when you get thrown a curveball. (1) How might this change change what you’re capable of? (2) How might this change change what you value? (3) How might this change change how you define yourself?

Geoff Mazeroff