If you aren’t challenging your team, you aren’t helping them grow. One of my most memorable performance reviews was one I was giving where I told the developer he was doing a great job, I wish I had ten of him, I’m learning from him, etc, etc. It was all true. His response – “That’s great to hear, now how do I get better?” The question threw me for a loop because I hadn’t thought…

In every team I lead, I try to isolate what our core values are. There are some values that go without saying that I carry with me. Tenets I think that every team should simply have; honesty, trust, open communication – these are always key for me. But beyond that, I always like to ask myself – “What kind of team do we want to be when we grow up?” – and from there I…

Odd title, but it’s coming, you know it’s coming. At some point in the future you’ll receive an email that says – “Everyone back in, it’s time to go back to the way things were”. You know that mail is coming, and you know when it does you’re going to look at all you’ve accomplished and go – “but I like working remote”. I know myself, the first day I’m back in the car, stuck…

Everone’s tired. Everyone has something going on that you don’t know about. But ignoring those hard conversations and those hard questions will only make things worst, will only cause distrress and confusion amongst your team in the short-run and long-run. I’m reminded of the interview we had with Heather Caudill a few months ago on Remotely Prepared where she talked about the need for these conversations and what value has come from initiating them and…

We all have one, someone, in some part of the company, organization, department, team that keeps us in play. When things go wrong, they jump into help. When things go right, they are there to make sure we get our due credit. When things blow up in our face, they encourage us to go on. When we need a moment, they find it and give it to us. When it’s time to move on, they…