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> The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. These are essentially the first sentences in the first book on leadership I ever read: Leadership is an Art [https://amzn.to/2FSz1p3] by Max Depree, probably about 8 years ago. “Define
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> “Praise in public, criticize in private.” Take any feedback training, read any management book (this one excluded), and this is the advice you’ll find: praise in public, criticize in private. It’s so wide-spread that it’s just considered fact. This how things ought to be done. Period.
Some months ago I watched Inside Bill’s Brain [https://www.netflix.com/title/80184771?s=i&trkid=255824129] — the Netflix (yes, Netflix again) documentary about — shocker — Bill Gates’ brain. The premise of the documentary as I remember is the following: Bill Gates is an extremely intelligent inventor that
Feedback
I wanted to to tell you this last week as a reaction to your last piece, but it sounded like feedback, so I dropped it. It appears the result of my public musing on toxicity of feedback has resulted in feedback deprivation: a few people have admitted they would have
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> I am very disappointed in all of you. Just a few years ago, when Joe had a baby, the whole company would chip in. We were able to buy a great present. And now, just 17 people out of 120!? What happened to you, why don’t you care?
In the Netflix documentary “I’m not your guru” [https://www.netflix.com/title/80102204?s=i&trkid=14170286] motivational speaker Tony Robbins [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Robbins] is followed during one of his annual events during which a “small audience” of just 2,500 people (he
All hands meeting around the globe have taken a turn for the worse since the COVID crisis hit, as people have been forced to start working from home. I thought it was just in my company, but talking to some friends working elsewhere, it seems to be a pattern. Q&
“I don’t often do this,” my boss said, “but I’d almost insist on you watching The Last Dance [https://www.netflix.com/title/80203144?s=i&trkid=0]. Let’s talk about it afterwards.” My boss used to be a pretty serious basketball player. He often makes
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Some years ago I had an important feature to develop. I assigned Martin, an engineering with ten years of experience to develop the feature. While the feature seemed relatively straight forward, it took Martin three months to fully deliver it. When the feature finally was ready to ship, the team’
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I have a core belief. One that even when I mention it to people makes myself think: “Oh, that’s so cute Zef, I hope nobody will ever burst that cutesy little bubble of yours!” Ready? Here goes. People are decent. I know, right? So cute! Now I know, there
I only heard the term “GoLD stack” a few weeks ago. As far as I’ve been able to trace it back, it was coined in a tweet [https://twitter.com/smartinezqu/status/1269764595813683200?s=21] (of course) by Santiago Martinez Q. It stuck with me for two reasons: 1.
Feedback
In April I wrote about the No More Feedback [https://zef.plus/musing/no-more-feedback/] book. Ever since it’s been in the back of my mind, and I’ve played with and researched some ideas on this topic. Let me share some of my musings and insights. A brief recap