You press “New” in your email editor and are faced with an empty message. You are drafting a request. Maybe you are asking a colleague to pick up a task. Maybe you’re petitioning your leadership to change a policy. Or perhaps you need something more personal, like a favor from a family member or help […]
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On Sponsorship
Over on Twitter, Dare Obasanjo made an excellent point about the difference between mentoring and sponsorship: One thing I see tech companies get wrong is that they think POC need mentors when what they actually need is sponsorship. A mentor is a coach whereas a sponsor advocates for their protégés to get them bigger projects […]
When a Team Does Not Want to Do the Work that Needs to Be Done
Continuing on the theme of motivation… Sometimes the work that most needs to be done is not the work a team wants to do. Let’s eavesdrop on a conversation between two leaders in an organization that ships enterprise software for an example of one such situation: “Have you seen the number of support cases coming […]
Momentum > Urgency
Let’s talk about motivation. More specifically let’s talk about what leadership can do to help motivate a team. Once upon a time, a director of product management and I were butting heads. Let’s call him J (not his real name, or even his real initial). J was unhappy with the pace at which the developers […]
Welcome to my Happy Place
When I tell friends about my new obsession with my Oculus Quest, the first thing they usually ask is what apps I use. It’s a little hard to explain that one of my favorite apps is the home screen. Seriously. Let me explain. When you enter the Oculus Quest you find yourself in a geodesic […]