Professional Philosophy#
My experience across large and small organizations (and old and young people!) has shaped the following principles for how I approach IT leadership.
💬 Foster constructive dialogue#
- Venting has its place, but sustainable teams channel frustrations into outcomes. Ask: “what would a good solution actually look like?”
- Assume every message you send could be read by a wider audience than intended. Be thoughtful, not fearful.
🚌 Build resilient teams#
- If a team can’t function when you’re on vacation or out sick, that’s a leadership gap worth closing. Bus factor is a real risk, not a badge of honor or job security.
⏲️ Respect people’s time#
- Optional calendar invites are a contradiction. If someone doesn’t need to be there, an async summary is usually enough.
- If you can’t find a time that works for everyone on the invite, that’s often a sign the invite list is too long.
🚽 Bikeshedding#
- If you’re spending more time planning than the plan is worth, it’s time to start making informed mistakes.
- Learning from a scoped failure is often faster than perfecting a plan. (Indeed, a failure will probably change even the most mature plan.)
⛳ Invest in recovery#
- Giving engineers dedicated time for exploration and self-directed work pays dividends in creativity, retention, and morale.
- In layman’s terms, “Being sick of working every friday” can be truncated to “Being sick” and therefore you should stay home.
🛠️ Deliver incrementally#
- Being blocked by a pending project decision is a part of life, but you can often get a head start building what you think you’ll need once planning is done.
- If you accidentally make something useful that you don’t need, put it in the toolbox! You never know when it might come up.
💰 Channel ambition productively#
- Engineers will naturally gravitate toward novel technology. Instead of setting that valuable engergy aside as professional development, redirect it toward intentional spikes and low-stakes exploratory tickets rather than letting it quietly inflate your production codebase.
🤹 Question your own presence in meetings#
- “Sorry, I was multitasking, can you repeat the question?”
- If a meeting doesn’t require your engagement, it probably doesn’t require your attendance.
- I’m actually kind of surprised how often one can get away with declining meetings.
🚨 When everything is a P0, nothing is#
- Meaningful prioritization requires the courage to say some things can wait.
- Sometimes another team’s P0 is your P1, which is unfortunate because you’re blocking them. Sometimes advocating for another team is best for the greater good. But sometimes it isn’t.