AI vibe coders all have the same thing to say. If you want good results, you need to have a good definition of what you want. -Vibe coders everywhere What I find ground breaking is what this points to as a blind spot. Getting good results has always been about knowing what you want to be building. If you don’t know what you should build, stop. Really, stop right now and figure it out. This is even more important when dealing with people than AI. If you think giving a vague outline to people...
6 months ago • 2 min read
It’s intern season again. They are joining your company and team hoping to gain knowledge on the path to employment. You are hoping they can deliver on a valuable but not critical task. Not every internship works out though. Most people might tell you that the top problem with interns is not having the skills needed to do the job. That’s not my experience. My experience is that the top issue is interns fail at is asking for help. You’ve probably experienced it yourself. You give them a task...
6 months ago • 1 min read
The Leadership Shadow You Cast: Impact of Leadership Behavior on Teams A long leadership shadow Background Research Leadership behavior has a profound influence on team dynamics, performance, and organizational culture. Research consistently shows that how leaders act creates ripple effects that extend throughout an organization, often in ways that are invisible to the leaders themselves. The Concept of Leadership Shadow The leadership shadow refers to the influence—both positive and...
7 months ago • 6 min read
Why Your Company’s Fear of Bad Ideas Is Killing Your Growth What if the secret to breakthrough innovation isn’t better ideas, but worse ones? In a glass-walled conference room at a Fortune 500 company, eight executives sit around a table staring at a presentation deck that hasn’t been updated in three months. The project timeline on slide four shows they should be halfway through implementation. Instead, they’re still “refining the approach.” Down the street at their fastest-growing...
7 months ago • 3 min read
Hiring bias represents one of the most persistent challenges in building diverse, innovative teams. Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) revealed that résumés with White-sounding names received 50% more callbacks than identical résumés with Black-sounding names, highlighting significant racial bias in hiring practices1. When managers rely on shortcuts—hiring people with similar backgrounds, personalities, or demographics—they limit the organization’s potential. This article will help you identify...
7 months ago • 5 min read
As a middle manager, you’ve likely experienced this scenario: You leave an executive meeting with strategic directives, only to face blank stares when relaying the same information to your team. Or perhaps you’ve watched senior leaders glaze over as you share detailed technical insights your front-line staff finds invaluable. This communication disconnect is the daily challenge of middle management—translating between different layers of an organization. As a middle manager, you sit between...
7 months ago • 3 min read
I have a mental image of the organization that I run. I see it like a difference engine in the style of Charles Babbage crossed with Dr Frankenstein’s lab. A castle spanning Victorian monstrosity with brass gears, and levers, and a henchman or two. When the machine is running, I can stand in the middle of it, and hear the racket of everything moving. As the organization changes the noise it makes changes, but it always makes some kind of noise. And that’s how I know when something goes wrong....
8 months ago • 7 min read
Effective 1:1 Meetings: Tailoring Your Approach Based on Team Member Experience We’ve all experienced it: “This week I worked on updating the…” The dreaded status-update 1:1 meeting. Too often these sessions devolve into long lists of tasks completed without any meaningful discussion. What gets said is lost, action items are forgotten, and both parties leave feeling their time was wasted. This doesn’t have to be the case. When properly structured, 1:1 meetings can be powerful tools for...
8 months ago • 4 min read
It's the end of Forte season at Amazon right now. Forte is one part of the yearly review process where you get (and provide) feedback for peers, supervisors, and customers. My Forte identified areas I'm confident about, while also revealing blind spots I hadn't recognized. This dual perspective is key: well-rounded feedback helps you get a truer snapshot of reality. There are two key pieces of text required for any Forte feedback: Super Powers and Areas for Growth. Feedback is short,...
8 months ago • 1 min read