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 […]
But I miss building things…
(This guest post is by Karen Degi. Karen is new enough to software leadership that her idealism hasn’t yet been worn down. You can find more of her writing at https://medium.com/@sheearan. If you are interested in writing a guest post, email me at marcus@marcusblankenship.com) As a manager, it’s easy to feel helpless, randomized, and like you […]
Changing Jobs, Changing Roles
Changing Jobs, Changing Roles By Max Schubert, guest columnist I was one of two technical leads on a software development team at my previous employer that grew from 2 engineers to 14 over the course of 6 years. We had a manager who gave us a lot of autonomy, coached me very well, and who […]
What to do the first two weeks as a new manager for an existing team
(This is a guest post from Mauro Chojrin. If you’d like to write a guest post about managing programmers, email me at marcus@marcusblankenship.com) TL;DR: watch this scene from Gladiator. Long version: Ok, start by watching this scene from Gladiator 🙂 The very first thing you need to do in order to lead effectively is to […]
[Video] Stop coding production tasks, seriously.
I know it’s hard, but you can’t be an effective COACH if you’re still acting like a PLAYER. Can you imagine if Michael Jordan split his time between coaching and practicing basketball? He wouldn’t have been a great NBA player, and probably wouldn’t have been a good manager either. If you’re leading a team, you […]
The Real Work of (Software) Management
I recently received an email from a reader, Anton, asking this question: How do I balance management with real work? This is a common question. What Anton wants are tools to help him manage his time and his workload. He’s having trouble “doing it all”, which is a symptom of a larger problem. The problem […]
Which developer on your team is looking for a new job?
Have you thought how expensive developer turnover is? In this Stack Overflow article, Rachel Malady dicusses studies that show the cost of losing an employee is about 2x their salary, and the cost of onboarding new employees is 6-9 months of their annual salary. Yikes! The costs of losing people are high, and not just […]
3 Steps to having that conversation that you are dreading, today
Did you wake up today with a work situation hanging over you head?
Chapter 12: The Answer to the Dreaded Annual Review: No Surprises
No matter what business you’re in or what position you hold, there’s one guarantee.
Chapter 11: Defusing Frustrating Situations with Gentle Corrections
Let me tell you a story. Bob the Coder is a great guy. He shows up on time, turns in quality work, and is reliably positive and easy to work with. You’re very glad he’s on your team. But there’s a problem. You like your employees to turn in a weekly report summarizing their work […]