A slightly silly history of leading programmers

Long, long ago in a place far, far away the Managers told people what to do. This seemed perfectly natural because the Managers were smarter and knew more than the Workers. Few Workers contested this, having been trained since infants by the…

Four interview mistakes (and what to do instead)

I’ve been helping a client hire Engineering Managers the past few months, so interviewing (on both sides of the table) is on my mind.

Here are four mistakes to avoid when interviewing for a job.

Four books that helped me see leadership differently

I’m reading a few books right now which all running around in my brain, impacting my ideas on technical leadership, systems, software, and people. I thought I’d share them with you, in case you had a lull in your summer reading list.

Who’s your Bob?

At my last job, Bob was the DBA, SysAdmin and SAN Manager. Bob had been there forever, mostly kept to himself, and knew how most everything worked. He’d worked for many different bosses, outlasting them all.

Where do software engineers want to work?

What if we set out to create a place that software engineers want to work?

Where might we begin?

We might begin with constructing the most beautiful building and providing unlimited, top of the line…

The painful truth I need to admit to you

Most people feel the leader’s #1 job is to get people to follow them.

After all, they might think, a leader without followers is… just a dude (or dudette) standing out in a field, all alone.

A new meeting goal

Back in the day, when I gathered my team for a meeting, it was because I had something to tell them.

A new project, direction, technology, or idea I’d conceived behind closed doors that I wanted to announce.