One of the professional development training items on the books for FY18-19 at work was the book Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager by Michael Lopp. This post gives a quick overview of what I learned,…
All posts tagged “Management”
Summary: The Ideal Team Player
One of the professional development training items on the books for FY18-19 at work was the book The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues by Patrick Lencioni. This post gives a quick overview of…
Control, Competence, and Clarity
TL;DR — As a leader, be aware of the levels of control, competence, and clarity for your teams so that you can help them be effective. Understand that each variable is on a spectrum, and your team will feel differently…
Summary: Management Strategies that Will Increase Productivity Today
One of the professional development training items on the books for FY17-18 at work was a Pluralsight course I’ve had on my to-watch list for several years: Management Strategies that Will Increase Productivity Today by Jay Mcfarland. This post gives a…
Trip Report: Management and Leadership Skills for First-time Supervisors and Managers
In January 2017, I was promoted to Team Leader. This move is a more formal management position, as I now have three people I supervise. To help in this transition, it was suggested that I enroll in some introductory management/leadership…
Work Culture Commentary from .NET Rocks! 1406
I was catching up on my podcast listening while doing some chores this weekend. One of these was .NET Rocks! 1406: Punishment Driven Development with guest Louise Elliott. There were too many times when I told myself “oooh, that’s good…
StrengthsFinder Assessment Results
Two months ago (May 2015) I read the book First, Break All the Rules, which was recommended to me by a manager where I work. This book talks about the results of over 80,000 surveys of workers and managers, in…
Peopleware
I recently finished reading Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (3rd ed.). The book is a collection of essays about people-related issues that apply to software development (aimed more so toward managers). The authors, Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, are software consultants that…
Casting Error
For the past few years, I’ve been a team lead for my company. I think of it as “management lite,” where I don’t have all the responsibility, but I get to figure out how to manage tasks and the people…