Articles for category: Leadership

June 25, 2021

Greg Thomas

What are we calling it now?

Whatever it is, make sure everyone is calling it the same thing. Make sure everyone knows the reason that it is called that “thing”. Ensure the name and meaning are clear to everyone, put it into your lexicon. If there is feeling behind it, make sure everyone feels it. We can call things whatever we want, we can change the name daily (if we want to confuse everyone at large) and we can keep iterating over the same thing over and over again. But if no one knows why you are changing it and if no one is buying into

June 23, 2021

Greg Thomas

A new Meeting Type

I call it the Upfront – it might have other names to you, but this is possibly the least offensive one. What happens at the Upfront? The upfront is a meeting where everyone that is attending knows that brutal honesty is required. There is no room for niceties and hand holding, it’s an all out discussion that would take place in a warroom if it were happening. There is a big problem and it requires everyone’s heads to get through it. The upfront is not there for solutioning, the upfront has only one goal – get everyone on the same

June 19, 2021

Greg Thomas

How long until your Estimates are right?

Three times. Three times until your estimates mean something on what you are working on. The First Time – You’re new to whatever it is you’re creating. You are learning as you create, you are going down rabbit holes and filtering out new ideas and throwing away initial designs. The Second Time – You know enough to be dangerous, but you are still learning. You have picked up some tricks, did a learning and validation of your ideas and now you are putting them into place for the first time. The Third Time – You’ve been around the blocks a

June 16, 2021

Greg Thomas

Running a Team Meeting

Team Meetings are tricky to run because invariably it interrupts someone’s day when they are deep into a problem. I’ve been on all sides of a team meeting and know this to be the case. But it’s a necessity when you have more than one person on your team (that means you). It’s a check-in to make sure everyone is on the right thing, everyone is pushing forward and if people need help, they are getting it. If you’re not sure how to run one, here’s a quick walkthrough. One – Any events outside of the team that everyone here

June 14, 2021

Greg Thomas

Challenge Your Team

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 of it. I asked for more time so I could think of it. This encounter made me think how everyone always needs to be challenged,

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