SWLW #457: Managing career progression for those with no interest in progressing, Grow your best employees or lose them, and more.

Heya,

As always, below you can read my best findings for the week -
 

This Week's Favorite

​​Ask HN: Managing Career Progression for Those With No Interest in Progressing?
7 minutes read.

I enjoyed this thread and the dilemma brought up in this Hacker News thread. Career growth shouldn't be "up or out". We should feel encouraged to make the impact we seek, and work on skills that would contribute to the company and our ambition. It's not trivial, as we often involve compensation in such discussions, so finding a way to set mutual expectations early on is critical.

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Culture

Designers Spotting the One Pixel That Is Off
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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Your Team Is Killing Productivity
8 minutes read.

Steve Bishop offers "Task-Force Driven Development" (TFDD) as a way to formalize just-in-time teams to complete a mission. Leveraging this method on specific missions can be playful and effective. The challenges would be around on-call, capturing knowledge, long-lasting ownership, and how to manage multiple TFDDs running in parallel — all worth exploring and adjusting to fit your organization.

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Logical Fallacies Are Errors in Reasoning That Undermine the Quality of an Argument. 20 Common Logical Fallacies to Learn, Identify, and Avoid (Thread)
5 minutes read.

While knowing these fallacies won't get you to avoid them (well, maybe a little), by sharing and talking about them with others in the team, you might increase your communication and relationships. Sahil Bloom with a helpful thread worth learning. Tip: consider adding them to your Anki notes to practice recall.

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Why Agile Will Continue to Fail
6 minutes read.

Don't follow the playbook. Don't copy because others tell you it's working for them. Assess your situation and apply the type of process you believe will take your team forward. Iterate with your ceremonies. Get people to share their feedback on what works and what needs to be changed.

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Peopleware

The Gatekeeper Shrugged
5 minutes read.

Pavel Brodsky will make you think about your information diet. How, where, and why you consume information can significantly impact your mood and perspective, not only your ability to improve and grow. In a world of abundance, how you curate and judge the content you read is a skill worth your investment.

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Grow Your Best Employees or Lose Them (Thread)
4 minutes read.

Travis McPeak provides a framework you can use to build a personal growth plan for your teammates. I agree that we should help others nurture the career and life they seek, but we should do it in a way where they are in the driver's seat, and choose how much to push themselves. Intrinsic motivation is what we're looking for, and our job is to ask questions, listen, connect them with others, provide ideas, and above all - set the environment for them to succeed.

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How to Break Out of the (email/chat) Thread of Doom
5 minutes read.

Tanya Reilly with a post everyone should read to communicate better. Use these techniques. Don't let things escalate too quickly. Share this post with your teammates and see if you can come up with more ideas.

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@johncutlefish: Your company is optimized to avoid the hardest conversations it needs to have

@ShaneAParrish: One mark of a smart person is the ability to learn from people they don’t like



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 and my work by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️




Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.