Articles for category: Initiative

October 9, 2020

Greg Thomas

Conveying Ideas

You have an idea. Seven months ago, you’d march into the room, grab the marker, cover the wall with your ingenious ideas as the team behind you consumed it all. When you were done, you’d drop the marker like a mic, sit down and bask in your glory as the team reveled in all that you created for them. Perhaps it didn’t quite happen like that, but you get the idea. Conveying an idea to your team is a much easier thing on-site than off. When you’re on-site you can see the moment your team starts to drift, where they

October 8, 2020

Greg Thomas

Hiring Remotely

On a good day, hiring people for your team is a challenge. A quick look at some articles I’ve written on interviewing further confirms how tricky this can be. Running a Technical Interview One Rule for Interviews How Not to Prep for an Interview – Part 2 Now Not to Prep for an Interview – Part I Stop the Memory Questions Getting Past the Gatekeeper Hire Someone Better Senior Years but Junior Experience Selling Yourself References Used to Mean Something And that is just what I’ve written about on this site alone and not in my book – Code Your

October 7, 2020

Greg Thomas

Owning a Problem

The easiest way to becoming a leader in whatever field you are in is a simple one. You don’t need a promotion. You don’t need a title. You don’t need to wait for someone to tell you it’s your turn. All you need is a problem and a problem that you are willing to solve and own. When you own a problem, when people see you starting to take responsibility for a problem their view on you changes. You go from being someone who works on “things” to someone who can “own” things, can push them through, can figure out

September 28, 2020

Greg Thomas

Setting Expectations

With the absence of video in a call, you’d think it’d be an easy task to dole out some work. Truth be told though, if you wait a week to see what happens you’ll come to realize that what you asked for is not what you are getting. Even worst, most likely not when you were expecting to get it. Setting expectations in person is a simple endeavour, when tasks are assigned we observe the person’s response, their body language, behaviour, eye movements, how they leave the room or write it down. Even in a video call you won’t capture

September 27, 2020

Greg Thomas

Had a Meeting No one Talked

Could this have been an email? Should this have been an email? No we should have been discussing these topics Were too many people in the room? There were a lot of people in the room, but only a quarter of them need to be there, the rest would not have said anything regardless. Were people missing? Yes. What’s the difference between the people that were missing and the ones that were there? The people that were missing are the ones that care. They care about every detail about what you are doing. They care about what happened, what went