Unreasonably Sunny
Between binging "The Bear" and listening to an audiobook of Will Guidara's "Unreasonable Hospitality," I've been in an extended fine dining is software engineering metaphor space for a while now.
"The Bear" is melodrama foremost, but I can still see the echoes there to most of my career in software engineering - mostly in the project management of hectic kitchens, and the encroaching mess that ensues.
Will's book, though, while reflecting details also found in "The Bear" - cut tape makes an appearance, as does sticking folks on lowly tasks first - resonates much more deeply with a lot of thoughts and techniques I stumbled into over two decades of managing software engineers and living in software engineering cultures.
I find myself nodding along when he writes about how different people resonate with different feedback approaches, or how new employees need agency and authority from the jump.
Mostly, what resonated with me was a mindset of how you work can make others feel.
I tried to manage that way, just as I try to parent that way, and as I build this business, I'm starting to think about how I want to make clients and readers and those I interact with feel.
I had coffee last week with a new acquaintance, and at the end they told me I'd been "a bright spot in their day."
"That's great to hear. It's a secret goal of mine to be a bright spot in people's days," I replied.
Since, while listening to "Unreasonable Hospitality," I found myself wondering why this is a secret goal at all.
Why not make it the main thing?
I'm here, and my company is here, to be a bright spot in people's day. To lighten the load, to be the light.
Scary, but I'll give it a try.
And, I can highly recommend "Unreasonable Hospitality," no affiliate link required. It might change the way you think about the work of managing people - from servers to software engineers.
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This week on the blog, I wrote about being busy, and how an engineer perceiving you as busy means you're missing out on valuable information.
One wrinkle I left out of that is the conflict between this know-everything be-always-on and what we talked about a while back about logging off for vacation and how the absence of a leader forces leaders to grow in the void of that absence.
Will's book brings up another way to accomplish this that I've also had great success with - letting engineers run standup, or retros, or any other meeting that you usually manage.
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I have some unexpected availability in October and am launching a few new offerings in the coming weeks:
First, I just launched Deep Dive, three hour blocks of time where I can meet with you - onsite if you’re fairly local to Indianapolis - to dig into what your company has going on in technology, product and team to help debug, diagnose, or just bring a senior, outside eye to what you have going on. Sometimes, an outside perspective like mine can spot problems or opportunities you might be missing in the course of building a high growth startup. I’ve delivered these before and clients have found tremendous value in this compact, high-impact offering, and I’m excited to package it up and make it available to more companies.
Next week, I intend to launch Strategic Offsite for One (still workshopping that name). Engineering and product leaders are about to enter the annual and quarterly planning season, including teamwide offsites. But we don't often get a chance to step away from the business to concentrate on our own corner of it - a chance to think strategically about the direction of the product, department or even our own careers ahead of those meetings. This is a three-hour chunk dedicated to that pursuit alongside somebody who's been in it before (me, it's me), including a meal at your favorite place - hell, order the lobster. After we dine, we break out the notebooks and get down to business - the business of you.
Finally, in the last week of October, I’ll release a different ebook than the first I started writing. “An Axiomatic Guide to Outsourcing” will cover how to find, select and manage outside software developers, including tips on contract types, communication expectations, and which red flags to watch for. Each book comes with a 30-minute consultation session to cover your specific outsourcing situation in detail. It’s smaller than the opus on engineering management and leadership I’m still working on, but felt valuable enough to stand on its own. Keep watching this newsletter for the link to purchase when it is available.
If any of the above are of interest to you, or someone you know, just reply to this email, and we can talk further, or in the case of Deep Dives, it’s available to book and purchase right now.
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As we close, how are you doing?
What excites you right now?
Anything you need help with?
Has anybody told you that you've made their day?
You've made mine just by being here and reading this far.
Thank you, and enjoy the rest of your day.
And if you don't, that's ok; I bet tomorrow will be amazing.