Articles for category: Leadership

August 28, 2019

Greg Thomas

The Successful Software Manager

When I first became a Software Manager, I was pretty lost, not sure what to do or where to start. I was pretty lucky in that I had a strong supporting environment and picked things up over time. Recently I was reading the book – “The Successful Software Manager” by Herman Fung and this brought me back to that first day to when I wasn’t sure where to start, what to work on, where I should be focusing my time and what I should be looking to do next week, month, year, etc with the team. Over the years, I’ve

Who do you Surround Yourself with?

You can’t always choose the best of the best of the best to surround yourself with. And you shouldn’t. You won’t learn as much when everything is perfect and everything is awesome. You need the struggle. You need the hiccups. You need the ups and downs and the disparate personalities to help you get better and grow. Those are the conditions that will help you grow and will help you teach other people how to level up and grow as well. Don’t go for perfect, go for tough, challenging, complicated opportunities – that’s where you grow, that’s where you deliver

Actions are where it’s At

It doesn’t matter, what you say or how many times you say it. How often you stand up in front of people to deliver that slick powerpoint that checks all the boxes for how good you can be. It doesn’t matter. Because no one will remember. They will remember how you acted and that’s what matters. Translation: Words are nice, but when not backed up by actions they mean very little and are only taken at face value.

The Long Road Back

If I can, I will take the long road back after a customer trip. The whole, hassle to get there, rush, rush with barely a moment to catch our breaths does nothing for me. I don’t get to think about the customer visits that just took place. I don’t get to think about what comes next and how we should attack it. I don’t get to focus on what needs to be done and what can wait. I don’t get to do any of it and that’s why the long road back can be better then the quick flight forward.

July 29, 2019

Greg Thomas

What about Me?

I hear this too often. What about me? How’s that fair to me? What should I do? Help me? Not, How do we make this work for everyone? Is that fair for all of us? What should we do about this? How can we help each other? I’m probably not the only one. When I wrote down those first four questions I felt my shoulders sink as I wrote it. It’s about me, me and nothing else. But when I wrote the next four lines, it wasn’t about me, it was about me, you and whoever else was involved. We