Musings, thoughts, and services for engineering leaders
Between running a business, raising two kids, and somehow (I know somehow.... it's me... I keep saying yes) ending up on multiple boards and volunteer committees, I had reached a breaking point. I was constantly trying to use every minute of time available to me... Cher Horowitz's statement of "there are 24 usable hours in a day" was becoming my nightmare instead of my motivation. And I KNEW that…
So many conversations these days revolve around AI... even when we know there are lots of other things to talk about. In almost every conversation I have these days, whether it's with CTOs, nonprofit Executive Directors, fellow fractional executives, team managers, or ICs, AI is truly the next frontier in that it's changing so much about the world around us. And with that comes lots of questions,…
If you're at a larger company, this will sound familiar... You're an engineering leader with multiple teams or departments reporting to you. Each one is planning their quarterly, halfly, or annual gathering. You want them to have great experiences that move their work forward, but you also recognize that what one team needs (and what that team dynamic is) is different from what another team (even…
A friend recently asked me to send them the link to my blog post about having effective skip levels, and to my dismay, even though I talk about skip levels all the time, I hadn't ever actually put my thoughts into a blog post!! I'd only incorporated aspects of thinking through offsites as subsections of posts. So, here's your guide to effective skip levels. First off, what is a skip level?! A skip…
Let me set the scene... You're a manager, Director, VP, or CEO. You run a remote or hybrid team. You KNOW that getting people together builds high-performing teams, you know your team enjoys these opportunities, and you recognize why they're important. You have the budget, you've figured out the dates, you've waited maybe accidentally a bit too long to figure out what you'll actually be doing with…
Welcome back to a short 3-part series on everyone's favorite topic... reorgs! In our first post , we focused on what to look for when a reorg has resulted in you taking over a new area or department, as well as how to effectively set the tone and move forward. In our second post , we tackled what to do if you get a new manager as a result of a reorg. This final post will cover the last group…
Welcome back to a short 3-part series on everyone's favorite topic... reorgs! In our last post , we focused on what to look for when a reorg has resulted in you taking over a new area or department, as well as how to effectively set the tone and move forward. In a reorg, the leader shifting roles and the individuals on the ground get thought about a lot. How should we communicate this? How will…
A Leadership Retreat. For. Women. Let's break this down. We've all seen a thousand of them. The women's leadership retreats that focus on how busy women are. We balance so much. There's so much mental load. We do all the work things, then we come home and do all the house things, and then you add the kid things on top of that. Often women's leadership retreats are promoted as a chance to take a…
Re-orgs are just a part of life in companies and organizations. As the facts on the ground change, people need to move around and structures need to change. Departments get restructured, job descriptions and responsibilities change (slightly or drastically). Re-organizations can happen for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to people leaving due to layoffs, high growth and lots of…
Summertime. Most people think about summer as a different place, a chance to slow down, but for most leadership teams, the summer is the perfect time to refocus and align on critical outcomes for the rest of the calendar year. The summer provides the perfect opportunity to get the smaller group together while calls take a little longer to get returned and teammates are in and out of vacations, or,…
Friends! Colleagues! Random people who stumbled upon this post! We have a problem. And that problem is our unhealthy, counterproductive obsession with being productive. For those who know me, you'll laugh at this opening because many tell me I'm one of the most productive people they've ever met. And it's true! I utilize every minute of every day. My to-do list is immaculately organized into days,…
The mere mention of "goal setting" often elicits eye rolls and groans from just about everyone. And honestly, who can blame them? In my years working with teams and individuals across various sectors, It's a familiar cycle: organizations mandate goal-setting exercises, people dutifully write down objectives they think sound good, and then those documents gather digital dust until the next review…
A frequent topic among many leaders and leadership circles is how to maximize your level of influence. How do you get the initiatives, projects, and priorities that you want approved actually approved? How come that guy over there always gets a yes while you seem stuck in the no-zone? You find your projects and ideas constantly getting deprioritized or misunderstood, and, let's be honest, it's…
In Engineering, it's common to jump into a hackathon as a core activity for a group gathering. And why not? The working principle is that a hackathon scratches so many itches. Engineers are asking for it Product thinks it's a great idea It's energizing, you can feel the excitement when ideas come up, when teams start working, and when groups are demo-ing at the end People get to work with others…
What if you think your performance review is bullshit? This is very valid and a common feeling. It weaves and dives into all sort of different areas. The performance review process in general is annoying. The feedback I got was ridiculous. The feedback I received was biased. My manager doesn’t even know what I do so how can they effectively give me feedback (this is a common one the higher you get…
How often have you completed a performance review and identified actionable goals and next steps only to then not really look at them when work life gets busy again? The day to day, for anyone in a leadership role, gets extraordinarily busy. Think about your last 2 weeks. How many different kinds of tasks have you had to jump into? People don't frequently think of the post-review review. This is…
You want to do the best you can for your direct reports, but performance reviews are A LOT. You’ve got peer reviews and reviews of each of your direct reports, on top of all the usual duties and coaching other individuals on writing reviews. Within the mix of folks you’re writing reviews for, you’ll frequently have individuals in a few different spots… some that you need to provide more critical…
In part 1 of this series, we talked about writing your self-review, who reads it, how to format it, and more. In this next section, we’ll go into writing a review for your manager, and this works for managers at any level from line managers to writing a review for the CEO. Just like a performance review written for you, your goal in writing a review for your manager is to help them become better.…
It’s performance review time! Welcome to a brief series that will guide you through performance reviews including: writing your own self review, writing a review for your manager, writing reviews for the folks who report to you, and what happens after performance reviews. Let's start: Writing a good self-review Performance review time can feel like a useless check-the-box exercise but writing…
One way I frequently start conference talks is by having people take a pause and think for a moment about whatever topic I'm talking about. Pausing, and letting thoughts come to you through words, stories, viceral reactions, or whatever direction your brain takes the prompt in, can be helpful for centering us and focusing on what's to come. A key highlight of the work I've been doing and how I…
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love checklists. They’re helpful in organizing thoughts, to dos, and what needs to be done now vs. in the future. It feeds my type A, planner personality. And, when it comes to planning something like a gathering, there are so many details, logistics, and to dos to keep track of. Here’s my attempt to provide you with a checklist of things to think about related to…
In February, I had the privilege of completing Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership’s Facilitation Certification course. It was an amazing experience and one that a lot of folks have asked me to summarize or they asked what I learned as a result. To start off, a bit about why I chose this program. I’ve been designing and facilitating meetings and gathering for over 20…
Let's face it. The market isn't what it once was. Investors are looking for something different. The bottom line is paramount in every conversation and you have a fully remote and distributed team... there's no way you're going to get approval for an offsite and a virtual offsite just sounds a bit like a punishment. Right? WRONG!!! I'm here to tell you that a virtual offsite, while challenging,…
A few months ago, I conducted a relatively informal survey in an attempt to discover the current state of play around team gatherings. I was curious to learn if companies were focusing on getting teams and people together again, if there was clear budgeting for these items, and, finally, if companies had any way of evaluating their success. What I found was: About half of companies are taking the…
Do you remember the last time you went on a field trip? Or maybe you can think of your favorite field trip you had as a kid. If you have kids, maybe you've chaperoned a field trip recently. What is the goal of a field trip? The goal of a field trip is to allow people to immerse themselves into learning in a different way than they can in their day-to-day work (or school). Field trips usually…
We spend many hours every day at our desks, and people have very impressive desk setups. We've all seen them - multiple monitors, an extensive ergonomic setup, stream decks, lights, microphones, and more. While all of this creates a productive work environment that is beneficial for you and your health, sometimes, it just doesn't work. This post is all about finding your creative spaces. One of…
As managers and leaders, one-on-ones are some of the most important meetings we have. They accomplish a huge variety of goals. For your direct reports, 1:1s give them a space to ask questions, to talk about what's bothering them or on their mind (both positive and negative), provide valuable feedback to you, and give people a place to vent or celebrate. They also provide a space for individuals to…
In the well-laid out career website benefits section, nestled between health insurance and flexible work hours, you’ll often find 'regular company offsites' listed as a perk. It's time we address this misconception head-on: Offsites are not a perk. They're not a fringe benefit. Framing them as such does a disservice to their true value in today's business landscape. This isn't about offering a…
Think of the last offsite you attended or planned... what are the words that come up for you? In what ways did that gathering go as planned and in what ways did it fall short? When we think of offsites (offsites/onsites/team or department get togethers... for the sake of simplicity, i'll refer to all of them as offsites here) - those pivotal events for groups that are meant to foster team building…
In this time of immense trauma and pain, I know many leaders are struggling with what to say and how to say it, for a variety of reasons. Some don't know what to say, some think most (if not all) of their employees are unaffected so there's no need to say anything, and others don't want to wade into the political aspects of the conversations. These are all valid fears and concerns but this is a…
As leaders, we think through solutions to problems every day. We are always working towards tackling the next thing, figuring out how to make our people and our businesses successful. But sometimes you get stuck, or sometimes in a rut, and need someone to brainstorm with, get advice from, or just need an outside perspective from an expert. Enter Focus Advising sessions. Check out these three…
Are you thinking about planning your next offsite? Do you have one coming up for this fall that you haven't quite started planning? Or maybe you have started planning it but you're not thrilled with the direction it's going in? Worried your team won't walk away from it with what they need to? Then this workshop is for you! Register Today This workshop will be capped at 20 participants I'm offering…
People usually think about December/January as a time of reflection and new beginnings. It's the new year, new you, new goals, new things going on. The START of the year. And while January, to me, means starting new things, it frequently doesn't come with the same period of self-reflection outside of a trite "What new thing should I be doing now?" September is what always gets me into a…
Let's chat about offsites for a minute. Offsites are called by a variety of different names at companies... team week, hangout week, coworking week, onsite, offsite, summit, team/department/company gathering, but no matter what you call it, the overarching goal is the same. You want to get people together. As layoffs continue to deeply affect the tech industry, and companies look at every dollar…
Reorganizations can be painful, disruptive, and difficult for leaders and engineers. They can also be necessary in the short term and turn out to be extremely helpful in the long-term. I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by Suzan Bond about my experience leading through reorgs. Check out our fun, and hopefully insightful, interview. Need help leading your team to the next level? Book…
With businesses increasingly going remote or hybrid, the power of in-person gatherings to forge and fortify connections within teams is vital. Offsites can range from meticulously planned marathons of back-to-back sessions to free-flowing encounters, which on the surface seem laissez-faire but are often assumed to be catalysts for serendipitous collaboration and 'watercooler' brainstorming. They…
Here in the Northern hemisphere, summertime is just starting. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, it's beautiful. But it also signals something else... for many, it signals a change in routine. For those with school-aged kids, the rhythm of life shifts dramatically from the school year schedule, and everyone seems to have vacation on their minds. If you're an engineering leader, this…
Picture this... a young woman, with piles of paper all around her. Each sheet containing a photograph and a "short sheet", a quick glance of key information about an individual. The goal, take these hundreds of pieces of paper and organize them into 5 piles. Four piles of 40, the number of individuals that can fit on a tour bus. And 1 pile of the rest, to touch base with for a future tour. Once…
As a surprise to probably no one, I was very excited when Netflix premiered Jewish Matchmaking a couple of weeks ago. The show has lots of fantastic moments, explanations, and interpretations but my favorite part was when the matchmaker did, what I consider, a great retrospective with one of the participants. What is a retrospective? A retrospective, usually known colloquially as a "retro", is an…
When parents of young kids ask for advice on traveling, my one go-to suggestion is to take painters tape. They’ll get plenty of advice and opinions from others… things like best times to travel, equipment to bring (or not to bring), timezone adjustments, etc. but painters tape... that's often a new one for folks. Why painters tape you might ask? Because painters tape is small but incredibly…
Over the past few months, there has been much hubbub over new and improved AI tools like ChatGPT, Dalle, Midjourney, and more. Are these tools replacing work? Will software engineers still be necessary in a few years? How are folks using these tools in their day-to-day lives? And where is the line? What ways of using these tools are useful vs. what ways are potentially thought to be unethical? I…
Meetings. Saying that word often evokes a very specific emotion or reaction. Do you have too many meetings? Too few? Do the meetings you attend lack purpose? How about the ones that you run? I feel like my life philosophy is "everything in moderation" and I feel the same about meetings. Meetings for the sake of meetings is awful. But no meetings can also be awful. They can be used for a variety of…
Like many other parents, the pandemic has felt absolutely crushing. Even today, while many are moving into a post-pandemic mindset, saying statements like "now that the pandemic is past us", those of us with children under 5 feel left behind. We can't transition in to that mindset yet, we can't let ourselves think about when the pandemic will feel more over for us because this group feels largely…
Let's face it... no one is going to conferences any time soon. And I miss it!! I miss traveling. I miss seeing friends. I miss interacting with audiences. Virtual conferences can be scary... maybe even scarier than speaking in person. While there's plenty of stuff that can go wrong in person, there's other stuff that is challenging virtually. Mainly, it's difficult to figure out how the audience…
I've been giving a new talk, based on an old one - planning for personal sparkles: A COVID-19 plan. My former talk was about maximizing your work day but in today's world, I've re-done the talk to focus on how to take advantage of the bits and bursts of focus you may get in a day. There's a lot going on in the world and hopefully this talk helps. To get practice and follow along, download this…
Over the last month, I've watched my son's preschool class and preschool teachers transition from in person to online. Sometimes it seems like having 12 4-5 year olds on a call is working well and other times, I don't understand how they make it through the 30 minutes. But listening in and getting emails from them about the activities they are doing has given me an interesting and different…
I haven't blogged about anything COVID-19 related yet because, first off, who the fuck with a full time job and little kids has the time to blog anymore, but also because I've just been focusing on the next immediate step. But now we're weeks in to this, we're days and nights and many weekends in to this new "normal". I've had some moments of reflection, frustrating, appreciation... high highs and…
Parent Driven Development is 2 years in! I can hardly believe it. Here are some milestones: We've recorded over 40 episodes covering a whole variety of topics, issues, ideas, geniuses, and failures. We've said goodbye to some panelists and welcome new ones We have listeners in almost 10 countries We've had episodes that have hit almost 800 listens. We've hired an incredible assistant who's helped…
A bulleted list of the ways in which being a parent makes me a better manager Empathizing with anothers perspective Being ok with someone being unable to see my logic or thought process Responding to other's emotions with kindness and patience Recognizing that anothers understanding may be completely different than mine Knowing that even when I think im being clear, I'm probably not Adjusting my…
At the end of June, I attended a leadership workshop in Jerusalem, Israel, called the ROI Summit. The ROI Summit was started by the Schusterman Family Foundation 13 years ago. It was created to bring together leaders and changemakers all over the world. The conference is about 140 people and the organizers aim to make it 1/3 US, 1/3 Israeli, and 1/3 from the rest of the world. I had heard great…
