What is "high-quality LMX"?
Ever had a bad boss? Maybe you didn’t trust him, or she didn’t like you? Perhaps you spent more time trying to keep your job than doing your job. Maybe you also felt that other people were treated better than you, or your boss didn’t give you a fair chance to succeed. If this sounds […]
Eat dessert first
Yesterday I told you about Oliver’s incredible moment in his 1:1 meeting. He noticed what was happening, then stopped and dug in deeper. This resulted in a deeper connection than had happened in past 1:1 meetings. As you might expect, this happened at the end of the conversation. Saving the best for last Oliver’s story […]
Notice when something amazing happens in your 1:1s
Oliver told me, “My 1:1 meeting with Sean surprised me this week. It was a bit deeper, more personal. Out of the blue, he mentioned he was bored with the machine learning tutorials and wanted to get his hands dirty with it. I thought he didn’t like the subject, but I’d misread him. His honesty […]
Ruining your 1:1 meetings with 'optimizations'
Matt asked me, “Is there any way to optimize my 1:1 meetings? They take so much time from my week that I am often rescheduling and chasing them across my week. I see new software systems which claim to help with planning them, tracking them, accountability, etc. Do you recommend this kind of optimization?” Yes, […]
Why millennials hate your open door policy
It’s Tuesday, and your team is quietly working away. Chris was stuck on a bug. Selena was feeling discouraged about learning Clojure. Zach was bored writing another report. Dan was confused about a requirement. Matt was juggling customer calls with coding. Carrie was trying to figure out what to work on next. Jason was worried […]
Are you abusing agile burn-down (or up) charts?
I like burn-down (or burn-up) charts. I like seeing them on walls and in conference rooms serving as information radiators. But some of you might be abusing your tables without realizing it. Or, maybe your boss (or Product Owner) might be using them to harm you and your team. Here are some phrases I’ve heard which […]
When you have a relation you speak the same language.
I’ve been watching Chef’s Table on Netflix, which is a great series. In the first episode, Massimo Bottura says “When you have a relation, you speak the same language. If you speak the same language, you can share a dialog.” I like that ordering: Step 1: build a relation(ship) Step 2: speak the same language […]
Are you a Debt Drunk?
As a young man, I was pretty bad with money. I racked up too much debt, yet I still needed a reliable car to drive. This meant taking out a high-risk loan (read: high-interest loan), and sitting for an hour with a loan officer explaining my poor decisions, and promising it would be different this […]
Why your boss doesn't care about "Tech Debt"
Look, can I get real for a minute? Your boss doesn’t care about Tech Debt. Neither does your customer, your VPE, the owner of the company or anyone who uses your software. They don’t give a golly-gosh-darn about how bad the last person left the code. They don’t care that it’s not “elegant,” or it’s […]
Agile, you've been a bad friend.
I like agile, but I’m starting to wonder if it likes me back. I have every reason to like agile development: it saved me from the dangerous, isolating waterfall processes that I suffered under for ten years. Heck, I wasn’t even allowed to talk to the internal customers that used my software! That job was […]
A 4-year old morality
This quiz was given to a group of 4-year olds. See if you can guess how they answered. Jimmy is running through the house after being told not to, and accidentally breaks one of his mother’s plates. Helen is helping her mother put away the dishes and accidentally drops four plates, breaking them all. Who […]
Lies programmers tell
Programmers are liars. I was. You were. Maybe you still are. Sometimes I still am. Here are a few gems I’ve heard… 1. “Yeah, I tested it.” 2. “It worked on my machine.” 3. “It was too simple for a code review.” 4. “Everything is fine.” The last one is what I wrote about yesterday. […]
Blindsided by a happy developer
When Tim gave his two-week notice to leave the company, I was shocked. He was the first developer I’d hired at my business, Creo. I hired him as an untested, unproven intern his senior year of college. I’d groomed him, invested in him, trained him, and been friends with him. So when he came […]
"That word makes my blood boil."
“JUST” It’s one of the worst four-letter words I know. Whenever I catch myself using it, I stop and apologize. And when I hear it, I hold up my hand and stop the person speaking. Let me give you some examples from last week… “Just put a form up to collect their e-mail…” “Just make […]
Are you in "the friend zone"?
When I was in high-school the worst phrase a guy could hear was “I like you as a friend.” Oh, the anguish and trauma of unrequited love! It was a curse to be a”friend” with someone you were sweet on. It was practically impossible to move from “friends” to “more than friends.” These days, […]