Posts by Marcus Blankenship

My 23-year-old daughter, Maggie, has a scar above her right eye. She was hit in the face, by a guy with a golf club.   She dropped like a rock, blood streaming down her dress. My wife screaming. I was frozen, stunned.   I bent to help her, still holding the club.   I have…

Chris, a Senior Programmer, leaned on the table as Bill wrapped up his proposal about improving the dev process. Chris unleashed a short, sharp question:“Bill, what’s the goal here?” Just as expected from a virtual punch in the face, Bill looked stunned. Staggering a bit, Bill tried to defend, “Chris, we’re trying to reduce the…

In today’s small group mentoring session we had a bunch of good questions which touched on topics like: How do I manage difficult developers? Identifying and communicating our hidden expectations of developers Transitioning from a “family” to “sport-team” mindset Finding new areas of growth for ourselves What to do when people leave in droves All…

This week on Programming Leadership we discuss “getting real” about software projects. Listen Now -> Programming Leadership Podcast Show notes Leadership is creating an environment where everyone can contribute. We can’t say yes to something until we can honestly say no to something. Look for the good and the bad in the retrospective of a…

How you frame a problem can make all the difference in how you solve it. Let me illustrate so you can watch for this today at work. The drama I watched the other team work. Twelve people had 15 minutes to draw a map of the USA with the 50 states, and label the state…

We were trying to solve a problem, but we’re going in circles – generating ideas faster than we could consider them. It was like twelve people playing a game of chess. Some people retracted into the shadows; others advanced into the light. Alliances formed around ideas, advancing them and then defending them. Many times I…

I just returned from attending the greatest technical leadership training on the planet, which has been running for over 40 years. It’s over five days of experiential training led by two amazing masters of technical leadership and human systems. (FYI – This is not a sponsored post, just my humble opinions.) So, now my mind…

Long-time friend, Sam, wrote me an important lesson he realized when thinking sbout how I look for coffee. Sam wrote: One big danger I see in the approach is to scan like this, you have to: 1) be a real expert for coffee and 2) know very exactly what you want. This can be good…

Long-time reader Jim was reading yesterday’s email about baristas from the #1 rated coffee shop in America and pointed out an interesting idea: “One thing I’ll add is that the best shops are often rigid or uncompromising about something that ends up being inconvenient for customers.” I also found many practices of great coffee shops…

In my workshop’s I teach people how to spot and capture lessons from everyday situations.  Below is an example of that sort of thinking. =============== I travel about a fair bit. When I arrive in a new place, I always look for where to get a good cup of coffee. (BTW, I could use some…

I’m reading a few books right now which all running around in my brain, impacting my ideas on technical leadership, systems, software, and people. I thought I’d share them with you, in case you had a lull in your summer reading list. I’m going to give them in the order I started them because one…

I’ve been a jittery, nervous wreck for a week because of the workshop which starts on Wednesday. It reminds me of singing a solo in a Junior High musical – I’m terrified that I’ll forget the words, look like an idiot… or pee my pants on stage. Yeah – you get it: I’m nervous. I…

Most people feel the leader’s #1 job is to get people to follow them. After all, they might think, a leader without followers is… just a dude (or dudette) standing out in a field, all alone. Thus, most leadership ideas relate to the acquisition and use of power, influence, and manipulation. At one extreme you…

I’ve been helping a client hire Engineering Managers the past few months, so interviewing (on both sides of the table) is on my mind. Here are four mistakes to avoid when interviewing for a job. Oh, and if you’re the one conducting interviews, ask yourself how you feel when people do these things. Mistake 1:…

I didn’t write to you yesterday because I had nothing interesting to say. As a young Team Lead, I would not have done this. Back then I believed that saying something was always better than saying nothing. Even when I had no specific ideas to contribute, I would open my mouth and fill the void…