For the past few weeks, I’ve been going through an internal workshop at Zapier called “Coaching For Performance.” I have many takeaways that I’m trying to implement in my own work. By far the most difficult strategy though involves “taming the advice monster.” I imagine you’re familiar with this concept…
It feels like a gross understatement to say that the pandemic has changed the future of work. Unemployment, remote work, shifting industries…you get it. I’m not saying anything you haven’t heard about many times over already. I do want to drill down on a particular aspect of leading remote teams…
Recently, I came across Patrick McKenzie’s blog post about working at Stripe. He breaks down why he feels like Stripe has been able to move faster than most other companies of the same size. There are obviously many factors at play here including organizational policies, team structure, communication norms, hiring…the…
I recently finished reading Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix. Hat tip to my former colleague Kelly for the recommendation! The Netflix culture has drawn quite a bit of attention since their Culture deck was made public. In many…
I found this post about awkward 1:1s valuable and hope to begin incorporating some of the suggestions in 1:1s. Very often, people waste most of the 1:1s potential. You might make a little agenda, and then give some updates, some light feedback, and share some complaints. It’s helpful and valuable and…
I came across this article from Boz discussing “value add disease” as it pertains to leadership, and it struck a chord. It’s certainly something I’m trying to keep top of mind as I step into a different leadership role at Zapier. Defining “value add disease”: Whether it be a manager…
I recently finished reading The Splendid and the Vile, a fantastic novel depicting Winston Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. While reading, I was struck by the gravity of the situation Churchill faced immediately upon stepping into office. Hitler had begun his conquest across Europe conquering…
I just finished re-reading Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life. I read slowly—managing maybe 10 pages per day. Speed wasn’t the goal. I wanted to digest as much as I could. I probably underlined and highlighted passages on half of the pages. I found something valuable in each rule,…
Or, as an alternative, wordy title: The Theoretical Pyramid of Professional Development. Today, I want to chat about career skills, but if you’ll spare me a moment for a quick digression, I’d like to wax on about a completely separate topic: CrossFit. We’ll tie this all together here momentarily. One…
If you’re like me, your mind has been overloaded by information recently. As a result, I’ve been trying to use this pandemic to build better mental models and become a better thinker overall. You can think of mental models as simply a way to understand what’s going on in the…