Entries Tagged 'Leadership' ↓

Technical momentum and shifting tides

I wrote some time back about how we all write throw-away code, how applications have life spans and you don’t want to work on the same code for two decades. Recently I was discussing this topic from a slightly different angle, in terms of how a product team’s technical culture has momentum and how important it is to be able to shift that momentum over time. I speak here of the collection of tribal wisdom and best practices that influence the technical decisions of a team over time, the technical values that the primary decision makers rely on when steering the ship.

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The strength of silence

I don’t remember the first time I was told about the power of silence in conversation, but I’m pretty sure it was one of my first management classes. I’ve run into the concept both formally and informally many times since then, and the usual context is somewhat adversarial.

For example, when performing a job interview, if you aren’t that impressed with an answer, wait a few beats. Does the candidate fill the silence? Do they elaborate? And does their answer dig a deeper hole or do they begin to climb out?  You can learn a lot with this technique: someone who immediately realizes the impact of their words and tries to work the conversation back in the right direction is showing a great deal of emotional intelligence.  Someone who manages the same feat but only after being prompted and guided is in a different place (this may not be a bad thing; it depends on what you’re looking for).

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Leadership lessons from Survivor

If you know me, you aren’t surprised by my Survivor addiction.  From its very first episode I’ve been on board, and every new season I dive in and watch as teams of strangers play in this odd mix of competition and cooperation, as social structures evolve and intermingle and new strategies emerge to conflict with the old.

Recently this season (an “all-star” season with returning contestants), I watched as two competitors vying for control of a team gave us an interesting leadership lesson.

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