Work | hi, it's mike

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How to Listen to People

Once you make the shift from being a fixer who has all the answers to a leader who listens like they don’t know the answer, you can build trust with the people you want to help.

Notes on Fostering Equitable and Inclusive Behavior

At the core of whatever we want to call this period of distributed work – hybrid-remote, distributed, new normal, post-lockdown – is a deep and essential need for more equitable and inclusive behavior in how we work and managers need to drive it.

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Notes on Technical Leadership Groups

Remembering some principles up front will help build a healthy and inclusive culture that not only gets things done, but keeps its eye on the needs of the technical organization by raising up new talent and creating a sense of belonging for everyone.

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So You Want to Write an RFC

Hybrid-remote work requires more tools for asynchronous cooperation. RFCs provide a way to let people contribute without adding another meeting to a calendar, and they can help you become more clear about decisions.

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Supporting an Open Door Culture by Listening

Leaders often help best when they accept that they don’t know all the answers.

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Thinking About Priorities

Prioritization is hard, and it’s often at the root of team dysfunction and morale problems. You’ve got to grow beyond ‘just give me more heads to get all this stuff done!

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Using the DACI Framework

As organizations scale, roles and responsibilities shift and often become less clear. While DACI and similar frameworks can be a little intimidating, you can keep it simple and bring clarity to your team.