December 19, 2007 – 11:41 pm
I wasn’t going to write about this, but it was such a juicy tidbit, I just had to pass it along. So I looked at all of my colleagues, who begged me to keep it quiet, I looked them straight in the eye and told them, frankly, to buzz off. This is an exceedingly valuable [...]
December 31, 2006 – 3:15 am
“Once upon a time, there was a quiet, little village in the French countryside whose people believed in tranquilite. If you lived in this village, you understood what was expected of you. You knew your place in the scheme of things. And if you happened to forget, someone would help remind you. In this village, [...]
October 19, 2006 – 8:39 pm
Monday, the school nurse called about my daughter. If you’re a parent, I don’t know whether you’ve ever felt what that’s like, the thoughts that race through your mind, the tightness in your chest, the conscious effort to breathe normally.
Both of my daughters needed to come home from school. One of them had an infestation [...]
October 12, 2006 – 12:44 am
These are not necessarily my all-time favorites in all categories. I don’t even know whether I could narrow the list down that far. But these are ten really good books from my library, all of which I heartily recommend.
In fact, I continue to be amazed at how many people have not read even the most [...]
Matt Inglot wrote recently about Developing a Detailed Vision and Having it Become Reality.
The forces of the universe must be aligning for me. Because this sounds awful similar to what Maxine Clark, the founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop, talked about in her book The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart:
I challenge you to [...]
As part of Steve Pavlina’s Million Dollar Experiment, participants claim to have manifested over 1.5 million dollars, just by wishing for it. Are they just fooling themselves? Or is there something different they’re doing? Is there something different that successful people do that the rest avoid? I think there is, and I knew what it [...]
This is a story about my first software management success. It’s also a story about my first software management failure. It was a success, because the work got completed, and without any nasty surprises. It was a failure, because I could have made the team more efficient, and I didn’t. Both of these are good [...]
Many people think leadership is about being in charge and making a legacy and doing great things and everyone loving you because you changed their lives. But it’s not. Mostly, it’s about moving chairs and other little victories that no one notices.
Leadership is like Ronny Cammareri’s love, from Moonstruck:
It’s so important to be able to fail. Not just allowing yourself to fail, but allowing others to fail. This is the leadership side of professionalism. Neither blame nor punish those who fail. This will only discourage creativity and initiative. Leaders never assign blame.
In a recent post, Jared Spool talks about how important it is [...]
(This is the first in a series I call “Tales of a Wanna-Be Software Manager.” In this category, I’ll post personal stories and lessons I learn on my journey to better leadership.)
I never thought I’d want to be a manager. In fact, I don’t want to be a “manager.” I don’t want to spend all [...]