Regardless of your profession, a promotion can be the most exciting and scariest set of emotions you feel all at once. One day you’re a developer responsible for your genius level of code, the next day you’re responsible for THE team and dealing with all THE issues and questions that go along with it. Welcome to Overnight Leadership – where your career was upended in mere 24 hours. Moving into a more “formal” position of…
I strongly dislike conversations about Change. I like Change, but eschew conversations about it. Long, drawn out conversations, with many milestones, devil’s advocates discussions that lead into follow-ups to the follow-ups and target dates for delivery some time next month at the end of a cycle that may or may not happen. It get’s exhausting. What I do like is change. The conversations that take 15 minutes and establish a new direction that everyone moves…
Years ago, I was in a training session with one of our trainers and an actual customer. I was the new developer trying to learn about the product and what the business mindset behind it was. I remember the trainer explaining a crucial concept in the software, waiting for silence on the other end of the call and then putting the call on mute. “Wait for it. This is when it clicks and they realize…
In a world of texting and social media – we simply don’t say it enough anymore. This isn’t about writing cards with long stories of your life and times together. This isn’t about whether you volunteer to do a job on your own or get paid to it. This is about recognizing the efforts that someone put in, whether misguided or not and simply thanking them for their showing up. Want to know the easiest…
Minimum Best Effort (MBE) – the work required to achieve the most minimalistic of goals and “check the box” Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – the work required to create something that achieves a goal of being functional and usable on the path to achieving a larger goal. MBE is concerned with today, about creating something today, leaving it tomorrow and moving on, there is no ownership, there is no responsibility, there is no pride. MVP…