Steve
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At the top of the technical track?
When you’re a principle, staff, fellow, or whatever kind of engineer or architect your company labels the top of the non-technical career ladder, you may wonder where you go from there? How can you grow your career when your ladder has no more rungs? Do you have to become a manager if you don’t want…
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The Danger of Being The Smartest on the Team
There are at least two major reasons that promoting the best engineer to manager may not be the best approach. One is fairly well known; one is not as obvious. If you are one of those leaders who earned a management role because of your superior technical skill, you’ll have a couple of hurdles to…
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A Problem to Solve or a Tension to Manage?
Early in my leadership career, I often pushed for solutions to issues that weren’t really problems. To me, they sure felt like problems, because they had a negative impact on me and my team. But what I didn’t learn to recognize until later was that some issues were problems to be solved, while others were…
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Should I talk about family in one-on-ones?
In a professional environment, people are often hesitant to talk about personal or family situations with their peers or their bosses. Is it really appropriate to cross the work/home boundary during conversations in the workplace? I think it can be, with some caveats. Why? ✅ Allows your colleagues to connect with you as a whole…
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To lead others well, you must first lead yourself
As you began your journey into formal leadership roles, you probably learned pretty quickly that you needed to develop skills in things like prioritization, scheduling, and managing your time and energy. You noticed that to lead a team that was capable of making and meeting commitments, you needed to discipline yourself to make and keep…
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Ambition has many faces
At some point, many growth-minded leaders are surprised to discover that the vision that once compelled them forward no longer attracts them like it once did. 💡 Maybe you really love the work you’re doing and you don’t want to give it up. 💡 Maybe you learned something about the role or position you once…
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Even non-managers need people skills.
“You can keep the drama and the politics; just let me do my work.” That kind of focus on technical expertise often works well … for a while. Eventually, though, if you work in an organization or provide services to other human beings, you will find your success driven in part by how well you…
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What’s more important than getting better at your skill?
As you move up in leadership in a technology organization, yes, you will certainly need some technical skill. But you’ll quickly reach a point where improving your technical skill is no longer your best investment. If it’s not true already, it will soon be true that the most important skill for you to improve is…
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What kind of legacy are you leaving?
Before you try to answer the question about the legacy you’re leaving, first consider which legacy you want to answer for. You are, in fact, leaving more than one legacy. 1️⃣ There’s the legacy we often think about. What do you want people to say about you at your funeral. That’s definitely worth considering, but…
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You are more than an influencer of technology
Yet another wave of layoffs rolls over the software engineering world. If you’ve been affected, you can feel like your entire world has crumbled. This is especially true if your identity or your sense of value has been wrapped up in what you do at your job, or how you earn income. But as valuable…
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“Failure is an event, not a person.” —Zig Ziglar
I was responsible for a product whose failure halted the delivery of electronic lab results to over 12,000 physician offices across the United States for almost three days. I was responsible for a failed startup software company, forcing clients to find new vendors to serve them. I have made poor ethical choices that caused pain…
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“Cultural fit” is a two-edged sword
Depending on who you talk to, hiring for “cultural fit” can be one of the most crucial factors or one of the most egregious mistakes. In the same way, when you are mentoring someone or giving them feedback about their own cultural fit, the responsibility on your shoulder can be heavy with conflict. Not conflict…