I was lazy due to the festive season and travels. That means plenty of links for today. Leadership Engineering strategy notes. - I think I posted the articles in a previous edition. Many good resources in this one. Navigators - interesting approach. I guess in some companies these are architects or staff engineers. TBM 257: How to Make the Case for Slowing Down to Speed Up - many strategies, align with the main values and strategies. ...
I liked the story about Backstage from Spotify. The monaspace font is also lovely. Leadership Adam Bryant on how to know if you’re ready to become a leader. [Podcast] - lots of good stuff. A Practical Handbook For Engineering Management- another guide. I have just browsed a bit for now. Team Charters are a trap. - oh, I quite like them, but … “Empowering bottoms up mission-setting in an organization that practices top-down resource allocation is a trap.” ...
The podcasts I enjoyed especially this week are the Lego Overboard and Open source at a crossroad episodes. I also liked the WFH vs RTO blog post. Leadership Managing cost efficiency at scale-ups [Podcast] - nothing surprising, but still good S5, Ep. 20: What’s Up With Performance Improvement Plans? [Podcast] - interesting that they can be weaponised and figuring this out is nearly impossible. ...
This time around I enjoyed the interviews with Simon Sinek and Olive Burkeman with Culture First. Leadership Are You Being the Bottleneck or Building the Bridge? Lessons on Cross-Functional Leadership [Podcast] - lots of good stuff about communication and DEI Simon Sinek on the power of putting culture first [Podcast] - older interview Measuring developer productivity? A response to McKinsey - Gergely Orosz and Kent Beck responding to McKinsey’s post. (there is also a second part now) ...
I am skipping every second week currently, with the result that today is a bit long. I loved the podcast about the U-Cycle initiative in Ukraine and one about the climate-grandmas in Switzerland. Leadership Measuring Success & Performance of Managers - A Deep Dive [Podcast] - measuring individual contributors is already hard, measuring managers even more so. Admiral Linda Fagan on servant leadership [Podcast] - I usually skip military leadership lessons, this is great, though. ...