Articles for category: Leadership

December 16, 2015

Greg Thomas

The Wedge

The Wedge is a mythical concept that sometimes emerges on your team or in your project, always in the form of a person.  It’s appearance can vary  between the starting calm of a project or the maelstrom of a delivery gone awry.  Whichever the case the damage can be far reaching. The one that complains about the smallest issues, making mountains out of mole hills on a daily basis. The one that disrupts others workspaces and efforts to complete work with a constant stream of inane chatter or actions that seek to disrupt. The one that throws up roadblocks to

December 11, 2015

Greg Thomas

Don’t do What Everyone Else is Doing

I love reading articles that espouse everything you should be doing, and not just what you should be doing, but who you should be following, and who you should be reading, and what tenants you should be following, etc, etc It takes the learning out of it, there’s no pressure any more because now you can offload this work onto someone else, just wait for them to come out with a new post next week and you’ll be good to go – pat yourself on the back you found the wholly grail.   Best courses/classes I ever took had nothing to

December 10, 2015

Greg Thomas

You can Chase Waterfalls

I’ve always admired Blizzard’s approach to shipping software – “We’ll ship when it’s ready” – policy to shipping software. And I love it – I love that the quality and featureset come first to the user – the experience of logging in for the first time to an incredible experience is first and foremost. But can it apply everywhere?  Can it work in your industry? Maybe?  At some point in development, Blizzard (and DISCLAIMER – I have never worked at Blizzard, nor do I know anyone from Blizzard) someone is going to start asking – “Guys really, when are we

December 9, 2015

Greg Thomas

The Working Manager

That’s an oxymoron right?  Don’t all Managers/Leaders work?  I heard this term coined many years – “You’re a working manager, Greg” – okay, that’s good to know.  In the context of the below, I apply everything to the voice of the Software Development Manager. If you look at the difference between a Team Lead and a Manager – I’ve always equated the Team Lead to being the fun job – take an active role in coaching and mentoring, provide insights into what is happening on your projects and keep your hands in the mud.  If anything the Team Lead is

December 4, 2015

Greg Thomas

The Final Straw

Conflict in the workplace is nothing new – there is always someone you are not going to get along with, not see eye to eye with, butt heads with, etc, etc.  We’ve all worked with those people that we think are coasting through the day, leaving their work to others to pick up and take on. There are two paths to handling this situation – either confront them about it and find ways to work with them to make it better or walk away. This isn’t about walking away – that’s easy, push your chair back from the table stand-up,

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