• Posted on

    Managing Up I

    This is a story about managing up, accepting your manager’s weaknesses and working on your own.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Ethical Office Politics - Introduction

    I want to reclaim office politics. Politics isn’t inherently toxic. Politics is the science of influence. It’s impossible to lead without politics. I believe that through consciously engaging we can do it ethically.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Put them on a PIP

    This is a story about performance management and uncomfortable conversations and difficult decisions.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Disagreeing with my scrum master

    I took on a team that had had frequent manager changes over the previous year, and hadn’t had a manager for a while. Their Scrum Master was the de facto leader, running meetings and doing 1-1s. But her and I quickly discovered that we had a fundamental clash of expectation.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Zombie teams

    This is a little story about a “zombie” team I was given and how I was able to disband it and save the team members.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Are you a disillusioned manager?

    … if you became a manager because of your values; because you care about people; because you believe that a good manager is a multiplier of a teams’ work: don’t give up. You can end up belonging and thriving.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Tech Tests and Certainty

    Tech tests in interviews: When it comes to choosing strategy, there is no obvious winner. Trying to evaluate a candidates’ technical experience in the relatively microscopic space of time you interact with them means you’re necessarily artificially limited.

    Pick your poison.

    read on
  • Posted on

    How I find a therapist

    In my work I sometimes find it useful to talk about my therapy journey, and find folks who want to find a therapist but don’t know how to go about it. This is my standard advice.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Unexamined Theory Y Management

    I had a thought today about the prevailing management theory in my industry—Theory Y—and the conflict that arises in one dimension of that approach.

    read on
  • Posted on

    A thread about adding a new teamie

    A little story that happened a while back, when a woman joined one of my all-male teams. I put it to words because I’ve seen how easy it is to mismanage this important transition. I say the key learning really directly, even though it’s a subtle and challenging one: everyone else can be wrong.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Facilitation II

    Some skills, attitudes and approaches for facilitating meetings.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Thoughts On Hiring 2019

    I have opinions about the hiring process and how we treat candidates. Here are a few of them.

    read on
  • Posted on

    On Remote Working Teams I

    Some writing about how I manage remote teams, and what you do if you’re starting out remote-working or in a beginner team.

    read on
  • Posted on

    Manager README 2018

    Hi, I’m Gavin. I’m a career web-dev. I discovered I’m more into people than tech, so I manage people now. I’m writing this to give you some insights into my approach to work, and working with you. Whether you report to me or not you might find the stuff below applicable.

    read on

subscribe via RSS