Posts by Marcus Blankenship

In my writing, I’ve been afraid of sharing too much of myself, sticking to safe topics and opinions, and trying not to offend anyone. Actually, now that I think about it, that’s how I’ve spent the past 54 years… 🙂 But I think, maybe, that time has come to an end. Or, something has changed. Caveat:…

Leading indicators are measures that we hope are proxies for measuring future change in our world. They may likely not be intrinsically valuable—except in the most profound way, acting as the vessel carrying our hopes and dreams to a far shore. For example, Claude.ai told me a common leading indicator of health is blood pressure, for lots…

It’s not an act of courage to enter a grocery store. Unless it’s on fire. We expect firefighters to be courageous enough to run toward situations we run from. When the situation isn’t dangerous, courage isn’t necessary. Anyone can do it. When we ask our team to “speak up” with courage, we’re subtly acknowledging that…

When I first started this list, back in 2014, I wrote that technical leaders should stop coding and focus on their teams. Now, here I am, working as an Engineering Manager, and I’m learning Go and Kubernetes. Why? I need a shared vocabulary with my team to be an effective leader. After all, if my…

Onboarding might be defined as, “A process of experimentation necessary to learn the unspoken rules, expectations, and norms in a new environment.” Never heard that before? I’m not surprised, as I just made it up. But, let me explain it. It’s a process – It takes a lot longer than you think, and doesn’t move…

In the second week of my new job, I’m feeling some strong urges. The urge to make a big impact. To be seen as a high-performer. To take action, make big moves, and leave my mark. The urge to impress.   But satisfying this urge will bring the opposite of what I really want. To…

Okay, so you know I started a new job. Can I use that as an excuse not to have worked on the book much? Hmmm… as I write this, the word ‘excuse’ stands out. I think I have my answer. Thankfully, I get another try next week. And you do too. 🙂 Instead, I’ll send…

Virginia Satir, the pioneer of family therapy and human systems, said: “The problem isn’t the problem; coping is.”   Ponder this for a moment: Today, the ‘problem’ that you have, or see, or is brought to you, isn’t a problem at all. It’s simply a situation, or some facts, or a pattern. There’s no naughty…

This has been a year of change for me. Old friends passed, new friends came. “Sure fire” ideas failed, and “long shots” succeeded.   Somehow, without my noticing, this email list became more than a “marketing channel.” And you become more than just a “target customer.” It might be a stretch, but I think we’re…

It’s easy to feel that meetings are a waste of time. “Too much talk, not enough action” frustrates some people. This seems especially true when the “talk” is mostly complaints. But I want you to reverse engineer your meeting. Pretend the meeting is an opaque, black box system. The visible outputs are what is said,…

There are many things you could do today. Three options are coding, consulting, or coaching. Each has its place, but how do you know which is fit for a given problem? Here’s how I think about it. Coding (or any hands-on work) is helpful when your team needs: A particular skill that you have, which…

Ever notice the same problems keep cropping up, year after year? It’s like “problem whack-a-mole” – you handle it in one situation only to have it pop up in another place. Most of us continue doing the same things, expecting different results.   I think we can do better. Let’s do different things. Think different…