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🦐 First Principle, Leadership vs Management, Writing Culture, Too-Positive Teams, Cost of Breaches, Time Management for Mummies: TMW #487

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Reads of the Week

The First Principle
Why every art form, and every act of leadership, comes back to a story
Fish Food for ThoughtMike Fisher
Revised rules of engineering leadership.
From early 2014 through late 2020, I was working in hypergrowth environments, which are challenging, but also educational. The most valuable feature of hypergrowth is that your mistakes reveal themselves next month rather than next year, because things go wrong very loudly when you’re moving fast. I’ve been thinking a lot about hypergrowth recently, because Imprint’s business is growing quickly and we did a large batch of hiring last year, but also because the AI-tooling shift has changed the pace at which it’s possible to work.
Irrational Exuberance

Leadership, Strategy & Business

Effectiveness Comes from Developing Both Leadership and Management Skills
Effective engineering leaders are both managers and leaders and know how to move fluidly between both.
Effective Software LeadsJames Samuel
Here’s The Rub: We Don’t Believe You
Welcome, new leader. We’re glad that you are here. Your arrival fills a critical vacancy in our team, and we can’t wait to see what you can do at this company.
Rands in Repose7 hours ago at 11:03 am
Writing is culture
Why the best organisations write to decide, not just to document.
The Engineering ManagerJames Stanier
How Does Defining Judgment System Improve Leadership Decision-Making?- Barry O’Reilly
Learn why defining judgment system practices helps leaders make better decisions, reduce context overload, and improve decision quality.
Barry O'ReillyTrisha Famor

Culture, People & Teams

How to Make Progress Without Consensus: Guiding People Through Misalignment
One of the biggest leadership traps is believing that progress requires consensus.
BootcampJackie Colburn
‘No Debbie Downers’ and the Hidden Cost of a Positive Team
A team where nobody brings bad news should worry you. What “no Debbie Downers” and a too-positive team really cost your people’s willingness to speak up.
Lean BlogMark Graban
Don’t Stack Weaknesses
Org charts with stacked weaknesses end in disrepair.
Stay SaaSyStay SaaSy
Designing Joyful Workplaces | The Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog
Leadership Now is a leading source for leadership development and analysis. We believe that anyone can make a difference by leading from where they are.
The Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog

Technology, Operations & Delivery

AI and the illusion of velocity: fixing the value stream first
AI coding has been at the forefront lately, but everyone keeps missing the elephant in the room: there is a much bigger lever to pull for productivity, that no one seems to want to pull.
The Principal EngineerWille Faler
ADRs in a post-flip world
Cheaper experiments make for firmer decisions
Garry Shutler
The Real Price Tag on Breaches
A look at Verizon’s Data Breach Impact Study And What The Findings Teach Us
Resilient CyberChris Hughes
Nostalgia Debt
Remember the software craftsmanship movement? I used to walk around with those green “Clean Code” wristbands. Those were the days. But trying to hang on to a world that’s no longer there is futile.…
Aviv Ben-Yosef

Stress, Wellbeing & Growth

What It Should Tell You as a Leader When Someone on Your Team Burns Out
and what to do about it
Ambition Without BurnoutChrisi
The Alarm With No Fire • Ness Labs
The Ness Letters are a weekly newsletter by Ness Labs, exploring how we can think better, work smarter, and live happier.
Ness Labs
Time Management for Mummies
I didn’t see it coming.
Roger RossRoger Ross
The ease of expertise
I recently posted a picture of potato latkes I made and got one reaction that I didn’t expect — “I don’t even attempt to try making these”…
MediumAdam Fields

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Published by:

Andy Skipper