Having the right meetings

How do I know which meetings my team needs? Fueled by the advice to have less meetings, let's discuss which meetings are the right ones.

People are complex, irrational, adaptive systems

Good engineers aren't always likeable. Read how Hal Taylor turned a developer from almost being fired to a successful team lead.

There’s negotiation in almost every human interaction

Inspiring developers to care about the end users isn't easy. Read this episode of Tech Leadership Stories to find out how Nanda Sandhu deals with it.

Engineering is the easier part of my job

Fostering good engineering practices takes a lot of work. In this episode of Tech Leadership Stories, Markus Thurner shares two sides of his job.

Leading is mostly about helping people out

Sometimes you learn from mistakes of bad leaders. Check out this episode of Tech Leadership Stories where Łukasz Krzyżański reflects on his past.

I care about outcomes, not political visibility

Politics isn't always a bad thing. Or is it? In this episode of Tech Leadership Stories, Warren Parad explores what it means for him.

Managing your work in progress

We’ve all experienced periods in our work life where it feels like the juggling between different tasks becomes too much. There are certain strategies that can help you move through your to-do list more gracefully, if not faster.

Going beyond the Eisenhower Matrix

Learn about a very useful tool for prioritizing your work and getting more accomplished.

Leadership in technology: the four pillars of growth

What does it mean to be a technology leader in today's world? As a technical leader, how do you balance the technology with the leadership part of your job? In this article, I share what has worked for me. What works for you?

Overcoming a burnout: here's what you can do

Experiencing burnout is not uncommon in the tech world. Learn how to recognize that you're in the midst of it and how to recover.

Manage your energy like a pro

We all have moments where we feel low energy and like we can’t seem to be able to get back on track. These often come when they just ‘shouldn’t’ happen and when we need to stay on top of things. In this week’s article, I’m listing advice on how to identify your energizers and drainers, and why becoming better at managing your energy is exactly like working out at the gym.

Leadership 101: building trust

Lack of trust is the main reason teams fail. Read on why it's worth assessing and increasing trust within your team, and how to do it.

5 ingredients for effective team collaboration

Do you know the feeling when you start working with a new group of people? You dive in with huge expectations, and all things seem to be falling into place. Except sometimes they don't. In today’s post, I’ll go through the steps your team should take to make sure you all collaborate effectively.

When should I NOT call a meeting?

Knowing when to call a meeting is only one step towards making your meetings effective. Want to know the other part? Read about when and how to stop yourself from having a meeting.

When should I REALLY call a meeting?

Meetings are tricky. Some folks love them, because they consider them a break time from work. Others hate them, because they consider them a waste of precious work time. The question is: when should you REALLY call a meeting?

Ultimate Agile Mythbusting Guide

Have you ever met those suit & tie guys saying "Yeah, at our company we do Agile!" and then describe their ultra-waterfall process to your confusion? Or maybe you are the new guy in the game who is afraid of asking questions about agile? No worries anymore. Our Ultimate Mythbusting Guide is aimed to resolve doubts about what agile is and correct the mistakes in implementing it.

Visibility of your work

Even when you work hard and deliver awesome quality, it's of no use when no one can see the fruit of your labor. Read on why it's important to keep your work visible, not just to your boss, but also your teammates.

Behind every great team are great leaders

Leaders aren't appointed, they are cultivated. Read about how to encourage leadership qualities among your team members, and how to build an environment where great leaders can emerge.

Build things right or build the right things?

Strong teams support the growth of their members. Read on how to avoid being a code monkey and what to do to become a strong developer.

Heads or Tails?

Deciding on something in a group can be a complicated process. Read about different methods for group decision making, and why it's important to pick one.

Team diversity

Diversity is a measure of the variety of what something is made up of. Diversity isn’t normally a measure of outcome. But more and more, studies are telling us just that, the diversity of a team can predict its success.

Trust

Trust can feel like something nebulous, but it’s ingrained into our very nature. Read on why and how to build trust within your team.

Your performance will be challenged

Performance evaluations are a special kind of feedback. Read on how to deal with being under the evaluation, and how to use the process to your advantage.

Evaluating performance

Performance evaluations are necessary to keep your team productive. To be effective, you need to tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Read on how to do it without everyone hating the process (or each other).

Giving helpful feedback

Feedback is a two-way street. Knowing how and why to give feedback is beneficial to the giver and the whole team. Read on how to make the most of it.

Receiving productive feedback

Feedback is a good thing. Read why you should stop thinking of feedback as criticism, but instead see it as an opportunity to grow and learn.

No one is an island

A team isn’t just a bunch of people working on the same thing. Read about how to turn a group of people into a well performing team.

Feedback

Feedback means reacting to the actions or behaviors of someone. Read why effective feedback, both positive and negative, is a gift that we should all want, daily and from everyone.

Carrots and sticks are so last millennium

Motivating people isn’t always easy. Read about the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and why the modern equivalents of carrots and sticks aren't a good way to keep your team productive.