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At our last Tech Leads Mentoring group, we discussed how to handle a load of reviewing 15-30 resumes per day. My primary suggestion was to create clearer filters that HR/recruiters could use to test for what you cared about: culture, tech skills, etc.  This would allow you eliminate many unqualified candidates quickly, and pursue the best…

Have you noticed I tell a lot of stories?  Falling off a cliff.  Deleting 50k lines of code.  The time I was told I didn’t have the, ahem… _backbone_ to manage a department. You might think I’m naturally a storyteller, but you’d be wrong.  I learned to tell stories the first time I led a…

I got some interesting feedback yesterday about my #SoftwareManager slack room. It turns out it kinda sucks.  Ouch. Not because it’s full of trolls, or because we post random HN stuff.  In fact, the discussions are consistently high-value, interesting, helpful discussions. So, why does my slack channel suck, and yours probably does as well? Because…

Customers, bosses, and clients don’t understand why software takes so long.  After all, it just looks like typing, so how hard can it be?  Houses, cars and other physical things benefit from obvious complexity and codified standards.  Software development often has neither. For example, when I asked my home builder to add a small deck on my…

I had a thought this morning:  What’s your #1 goal of pull-request reviews? Pick only one: [   ] To catch bugs which could cause downtime [   ] To ensure your team adheres to best practices [   ] To improve code before it hits production [   ] To improve your team’s coding and…

Picture this: My first real coding job out of college, my first big project.  “Create a Direct Bill / Credit Memo entry system in the ERP.  Model it after the Order Entry system.”  Six weeks into the project, on a Tuesday at 11:13 a.m. I type a command to remove all the temp files that…

15 years ago I fell off a cliff on the Oregon coast. I was walking too close to an edge covered in brush.  My wife and three small kids were standing about 20 feet away, safely behind the railing, as I said those famous last words: “Stay there; I just want a better view for…

I’m studying for mid-terms, getting ready for eight days of vacation, working with a designer on a new book cover, and feeling a bit stretched. When I searched for a book cover designer, I thought: “All I need to do is hire the right book designer and then book sales will take off.” Even as…

I need to lose weight, so I try to walk every day.  Some of you might recall that I went to Europe 18 months ago, and I’ve gained 20 pounds since then.  Ugh! To try and reverse this trend, I walk for 45-60m each day.  And I always walk the same familiar route each day.  I don’t…

The Satir Change Model, created by Virginia Satir, depicts personal and organizational change as five stages: Late Status Quo Resistance Chaos Integration New Status Quo The move from Late Status Quo to Resistance is caused by a foreign element, which provokes the status quo.  Gets people talking.  Gets them thinking.  Maybe even makes them angry. It’s…

When I left my last job, I didn’t leave well, and that has caused me angst and regret.  When you do leave well you exit gracefully, without burning bridges, without getting the legal department involved, and leaving the door open to return someday. But if you don’t leave well, then things get messy.  In my case……

“Dude, she totally ghosted me,” Ryan said. “What does that mean?” I asked. “That’s when a gal just stops responding to your texts or calls.  You have no idea why.  You wonder ‘Is her phone dead?  Is she dead?’  Then you get super insecure about yourself.  ‘What did I say? What did I do?  Why aren’t…

Saying “No” is hard for me because I worry how the other person will react.  They might become aggressive, or they might retract.  Either way, it feels wrong. To be honest, it makes my stomach ache just thinking about saying “No,” especially to my boss or client.  But saying “No” is an important part of your manager…

Olivier wrote me last week: I’d be interested in tips on how to bring positivity in a team that is exhausted and stressed out. This got me thinking that some of you might not be working in “ideal” circumstances.  You might not be able to apply what I teach because you don’t control the process.  Or…

Your technical skills may be eroding, you might miss the thrill of coding, but you feel better than ever.  How? You learned that wholehearted leadership is an act of creation. When we stop coding, we feel a sense of loss.  I missed creating something awesome; something I was proud of. When you lead with your whole…