Don't pretend it didn't happen.
Sitting in my office, door slightly ajar, I heard Jimmy, the QA guy, talking loudly and sarcastically to of my programmers. “So, Vinuth, will it work this time? Huh?” I sat up, listening intently. The dev mumbled something, and Jimmy snorted and left. As he passed my door, he smiled and pleasantly said, “Hey boss!”, giving […]
Stepping on the shoes
At my last job, my boss told me I had the knack of “Stepping on someone’s toes without scuffing their shoes.” I didn’t understand that at the time, but eventually, it sank in. I’d learned the art of giving feedback without being offensive. As a Tech Lead and Software Manager, that skill proved to be […]
Do you love blank stares?
What do these questions all have in common? “Would you like me to poke you in the eye?” “Shall I get out my home movies?” “Did you want to talk about Trump?” “Would you like to see my goiter?” “Do you have any feedback for me in our last 2 minutes?” The answer? You’ll probably […]
Q&A: How did you know you wanted to be an engineering manager?
Turagd emailed me this question a few days ago: “How did you know you wanted to be an engineering manager?” Like many of you, I didn’t set out to be an engineering manager. In fact, I understood completely when a coaching client told me: “I never prepared for this move in my career.” Let […]
Death by 1,440 cuts
In the 5 second survey I sent, I asked: What is your hardest problem at work right now? You said that you don’t have enough time to get everything done. You stated the problem in different ways… “Balancing development with being able to delegate responsibility.” “Balancing management tasks with actual work.” “time management with many […]
Would you count moving a meeting from 1:30 to 2:30 as a broken promise?
Today Samuel wrote me this question… “Would you count moving a meeting from 1:30 to 2:30 as a broken promise? I have to do this a lot as nobody respects blocked calendar time in this corporate culture. I want to know if this kind of schedule tuning would be perceived poorly.” Great question Samuel! Yes, […]
You don't have the balls for this job.
“Marcus, you don’t have the backbone for this job. You simply don’t have the balls. I’m telling you this for your benefit.” Writing that today makes me nauseous. In my mind, I’m instantly transported back into Jim’s office. See, I’d just interviewed for a job I thought was already mine… I’d been promised the promotion […]
[Video] "Your code was hard to maintain."
Optimism is your worst enemy
You need to quit being so optimistic. You heard me right. Quit being optimistic about your new hires. Your estimates. Your new clients. Your upcoming projects. Your team’s ability to deliver on-time. What your boss thinks of you. See, that optimism is working against you. It’s blinding you to reality. It’s like the devil sitting […]
Ever get your priorities "re-aligned" by your boss?
When I started leading a team, I got bogged down pretty quickly in it and ran back to coding. I liked the title and the money, but I spent my days hiding in my office coding “important” new features. Nothing was getting done fast enough, and work was piling up, so it made sense that […]
The Wrong Section of the Bookstore
I’ve always loved books. As a teenager I spent weekends browsing the Sci-Fi section of the book store and eventually migrated to the Computer Programming section. Many happy hours were spent among those shelves. After I became a Team Lead, I noticed my browsing habits slowly changed. I started to take an interest in the […]