Leadership

Hold people more accountable

Sharpening iron

As iron sharpens iron,
    so one person sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17

Why do I find it hard to hold people more accountable for their performance at work?  Why do I find it hard to challenge my peers to do their best?

This is because I want to be the cool boss -- the one that everyone loves.  I want to be the colleague that everyone likes.

The real reason we are buying branded things

sandara park

Why are we really buying branded things?

Short answer: Weakness and insecurity.

I watch a lot of Korean content -- I watch Kdrama and I also listen to Kpop.  There was an episode of "I Live Alone" where the guest was Sandara Park. 

In the episode, Sandara was known apparently for bringing the weirdest things in her bag.  Someone asked her, Why do you have big earrings in your bag?  (Note that she does not need to bring those where she was going).  Not verbatim, but she said:

Asking for feedback on performance as an IT professional

I have created a form to give out to our client-partners.  This will let me know how me and my staff members are doing.  

The questions on this form are based on https://bryanmanalo.com/how-do-i-evaluate-staff-member.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYjtGop7mXtg0gsTWzHaSc5XH4B0fDP6AdOz-wSDzX-g54-w/viewform

 

How do I evaluate a staff member?

Staff evaluation

As a team leader for software developers, how do I define good performance? 

Feedback is very important to me, I want to know from my manager how I am doing, whether my performance is satisfactory or not.  In the same way, I want it to be clear for the team that I manage, what I look for in a staff member.  I want to make sure that these things are very clear, and that my staff knows them by heart and able to tell me about these from memory.

1. Able to communicate properly.

What are my top things as a manager / supervisor?

Hand wokring on the garden

We have to step back and think about what are our priorities as managers and team leaders.  Otherwise, we will always be in "operation" and always be sucked in by what is urgent and not what is important.

From a book I have read on Project Management, we have two roles to play as leaders: chess master and gardener.  And we have to play both roles.

I am still on a developer mindset

Mindset shift

Over the 4-day holy week break, I can’t help the need to be “productive” — so I thought of learning Vuejs. I spent a few hours in between spending time with family and friends and playing with Cody learning about Vue.

During the drive home, somehow it hit me. My mindset was still a developer and not a people developer. Of all the things I can work on, I was working on being a better developer. I could have listened to a podcast on how to build better teams, and be a better leader.