One topic I have been hearing a lot lately is career ladders, or professional development frameworks. In my experience, this certainly is a difficult one to get right. Recently, though, I have realized that the “ladder” itself is just the beginning.
The real question seems to be whether our organizations are setup in a way that is conducive for individuals to even show the expected behaviours. This is particularly tough at the more senior levels, such as staff and principal. Folks are often swamped with functional work, and mentoring opportunities are scarce or inexistent.
A couple of days ago, I wrote some brief thoughts, as a prompt, in a short Twitter thread:
Do you agree? What is your experience with this? What have you seen work and not work at mid-sized companies and beyond? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Meanwhile, onwards to this week’s edition… 👇
3 Articles
✍️ Why Great Employees Quit -- Instead Of Admitting They're Unhappy
Some leadership mistakes, no matter how much you read about them from others, you have to make them yourself. Only then will the lessons become truly etched in your mind. That said, I suspect this brutal write-up by Liz Ryan can go a long way against complacency, and us taking our best people for granted. As the saying goes: ignore at your own peril.
✍️ On The Edge of Leadership
Looking back in my career, there are tons of situations where I failed to live up to the lesson in this post by Nick Caldwell. Unsurprisingly, when I did live up to it, that's when my career advanced by leaps and bounds. There's many definitions of leadership, but taking responsibility for what happens next strikes me as one of the very best.
✍️ Where To Work?
They say people quit managers, not companies. In this short post, product management guru Marty Cagan makes the point that the same should apply on the way in as well. Personally, I couldn't agree more. And if you, like me, are driven by the will to continuously learn and improve yourself, Cagan's advice here is probably a good one to heed.
2 Talks
📺 10 ways to have a better conversation
For all the talk about how important communication is at work, we end up doing little to intentionally and consciously improve it. Celeste Headlee believes that we're really not listening to each other, and that a conversation requires both talking and listening — to "set aside oneself". Obvious in theory, far from it in practice. And again, #PublicSpeakingGoals.
📺 How does salary work?
Kevin Goldsmith walks us through what to consider (and, importantly, not to consider) when hiring and reviewing salaries. As Goldsmith himself says, mistakes in compensation can easily have lifelong consequences for those affected. Recommended viewing not just for those setting compensation, but also for the understanding of anyone on the receiving end of those decisions.
1 Book
📚 Becoming a Fearless Leader by Elizabeth Shassere
In some way, I personally see leadership and management as an exercise in building a robust toolbox that allows me to confidently approach any problem with a number of potential solutions. The tools inside that toolbox are frameworks and mental models that help me pattern match and, hopefully, solve the problem at hand.
The core of Becoming a Fearless Leader is one such framework, translating a simple 4-part personal development model into a team development model. Made up of core aspects such as Mission Statement, Values and Goals, Culture, Knowledge & Information, and (Physical) Environment, the point is to break down the big, hairy problem of building a happy and productive team into manageable chunks. And with that helping you, as a leader, better pinpoint what are the areas specific to your team that may be holding it back.
After years of reading leadership and business books, one of the things I most appreciate is conciseness. Few things are more annoying to me than a 400+ page book recycling one (even if good) idea over and over again. This book is not that. Clocking in at 164 pages, true to its subtitle, it is a simple guide to make effective leadership more accessible. And it does that anchored on the author’s 20 years in business, with all its ups and downs.
A quick, easy read, that I felt was a great "bang for my buck", and that I’m looking forward to apply in practice.
🙌🏽 Thank you for reading! Enjoyed this week’s edition? Have feedback on how I can make this more valuable to you? I’d love to hear it — my DMs are open on Twitter or just write a comment below.
✍️ Find some of my own ramblings on tech and org stuff over at The Evolutionary Manager.
👉 You can also follow me on Twitter @prla