Articles for category: Leadership

May 10, 2018

Greg Thomas

Delivering the Bad News

The first thing that entered your mind: You messed up, you made a mistake, I can’t believe you are here, what a waste of time. The first thing that should come out of your mouth: You did well on X, Y needs some work, here’s what we’re going to do to get you there. Your first thought gets out all your frustrations, in your head but is not the delivery your team needs. The person on your team already knows they screwed up, they don’t need to hear it in stereo. What they need to hear is where do they

May 9, 2018

Greg Thomas

Your Morning Scrum is killing your Team’s Dynamic

I’ve had this conversation with many a person before, but it bears repeating one more time. Someone popularized the concept of a morning SCRUM to get everyone off to the races, ready to go on the day’s work and had some good success with it. And it does work. When everyone is in the office at the same time. When everyone is starting at the same time. When everyone has not yet started the day. When you have a team that is comprised of late owls, early risers (that’s me), remote workers in different time zones with some people in

April 30, 2018

Greg Thomas

The Confusion in Coaching

We all coach, every day. Helping our kids be better. Working with our parents. Getting the most out of our team. Working with our peers. At some point, someone gives you that title of being a coach (maybe believe that you helped them over some mythical hurdle). But therein comes the confusion, because the end goal is never for the coach to become the “great imparter of knowledge”, but really their goal is to learn as much as they are giving.

April 24, 2018

Greg Thomas

The Sprint Kick-Off

Sprints are meant to roll-over from one to another, backlogs become unpacked, priorities reset, work assigned, new tasks created and the engine revs up for another lap around the track. But what if you don’t know where you are going? How often do you jump into a car having no idea what’s happening or where you are going? Not very often. How do you get your team on board with what is being delivered in the next sprint? Sit them down at your next stand-up for 15 minutes and walk them through the goals and contingencies if things go well

April 20, 2018

Greg Thomas

The Key to a Successful Morning Stand-Up

The Leader of the Stand-Up knows what everyone is doing before the call begins. Very simple, often ignored. Stand-Ups are not about what is in the queue or what is showing red on the Kanban board, it’s about what is coming next and what the team needs to be moving towards. A Stand-Up where everyone repeats what is currently in their task queue is a waste of a stand-up and an interruption to everyone’s deliverables. The Leader of a Stand-Up must come in already knowing what people are working on and where they are going to next.  From there, creating

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