SWLW #492: Why success is often elusive at the Highest Echelons, Having career conversations, and more

Heya,

As always, below you can read my best findings for the week. If you want to support my work or join SWLW community in Slack - scroll down to the bottom of the email to see how.
 

This Week's Favorite

​​Some Things I’ve Learned Over the Years as a Systems (Over)Thinker
4 minutes read.

There are so many great gems in this short doc by John Cutler: "Do your deepest thinking with co-conspirators (not the people you’re trying to influence)," "Make sure to celebrate your wins. They will be few and far between, so savor the moment," "You’ll need a support network. And not just a venting network. Real support." were some of my favorites.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
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Culture

Startup Founders Need to Get Their Priorities in Order
1 minute read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face, even in this difficult time.

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Why Success Is Often Elusive at the Highest Echelons
6 minutes read.

"Innovation, especially when it comes to innovation that makes the organization more productive, is impossible without context into the organization’s history and culture. It’s one of the reasons why building or adopting tooling that’s successful at other companies doesn’t necessarily solve all the problems faced by one’s organization, because a finished product doesn’t tell the story behind how the tech evolved, what overarching problems it aimed to solve, what implicit assumptions were baked into the product, and more." -- Cindy Sridharan with an important post to read when you consider joining a new company and moving the needle. Be curious first. Earn credits and build trust.

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That Time We Unplugged a Data Center to Test Our Disaster Readiness
12 minutes read.

I love the way Dropbox decided to practice their Disaster Recovery scenarios: "However, this day was anything but usual. At 5:00 pm PT, a group of Dropboxers were huddled on a Zoom call when the command was given to physically unplug our San Jose data center from the rest of the Dropbox network." -- It's worth reading the changes Dropbox did to prepare under the "Fundamental improvements in our tooling aside, we also implemented other changes to help us reduce risk and place our customers first" section.

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Engineering Levels: A Case Study From Three Perspectives
5 minutes read.

Shy Alter's story is an excellent example of how tools like Career Ladder can help us have deeper conversations and better organizational planning. It helps to set expectations and guide both individual contributors and managers on the path forward.

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Peopleware

Prioritization as a Superpower
3 minutes read.

"There are many things to do, with limited time and resources to do them. Figuring out what to say yes to, what to say no to, the timing and sequencing of jobs to be done, and then actually doing them, can be the difference-maker between ultimately building a good company vs. a great company vs. an exceptional company." -- Nikhil Basu Trivedi's post might look trivial, but knowing how to prioritize and make hard decisions is far from trivial. This is true for founders but also for executives in a larger company. How do you practice it? How do you know you're getting better at it?

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
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Having Career Conversations
6 minutes read.

Fantastic post by Joe Lynch, both for Managers and for Individual Contributors who want to push their careers forward. Read "Some concrete suggestions to consider" multiple times and put it in your notes for your next 1:1s (and Feedback/Performance Reviews). This insight is spot on: "Try to tease out desires for influence and desires for authority. They are not always mutually exclusive. Some combinations can be rooted in a desire for impact. Other combinations can be rooted in a desire for control."

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Taking Control of Your Professional Growth: A Personal Experience
4 minutes read.

Jasmine Shany's journey can be a great inspiration for many to own their path. Check out her "Some simple ground rules that helped me," as it covers a healthy growth mindset.

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@shreyas: There are huge skill differences between A) understanding customer pain, and B) deciding if your product should even solve that pain, and if Yes, C) how to solve it in a way that creates differentiation. A is easiest of the 3 B should often be No C is where fortunes are made.

@YGoncho: Setting expectations is one of the most important things anyone can do. The sooner, the better. It helps the people around us to be at their best even with lack of guidance. Building the right culture is the most important job of the CEO.



p.s. if you're interested in joining SWLW's Slack channel, simply reply to this email and let me know.

If you're leading a team, consider writing your Manager README (it's free) or getting my e-book and interviews Leading Snowflakes: The New Engineering Manager's Handbook. You can also support me by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️




Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.