Filter by Category
Filter by Author
Modern politics tells us to forget diversity and focus exclusively on inclusion, but fixating on inclusion without first addressing underrepresentation actually leads to less inclusive workplaces.
When we needed to demonstrate that our century-old company was still innovating, I quipped that we could just show people by building a product in real time at our customer conference like some technological zoo exhibit. Nobody seemed to realize I was joking.
In the chaos of early adulthood, a friend's wise word—protect your margins—became my secret to finding peace amidst the overwhelm.
In the pursuit of speed, many organizations stumble—not from a lack of effort, but from the pressure to rush.
Returning to my writing roots revealed a truth: the journey of creation starts with a single, imperfect step—daring to make a mark on the blank page.
After decades in tech, exhaustion and escapist fantasies set in—but despite the challenges, my career has always been about one thing: people. As diversity, equity and inclusion come under assault, I continue to fight for people.
Leaders, it’s time for some tough love: accountability, communication, and respect are not just expectations for others, but for you, too.
Effective hiring goes beyond filling positions; it's about building relationships and ensuring a positive experience for every candidate.
Charismatic laborers may save the day, but true leaders build a future. Sustainable progress thrives not on heroics, but on empowering teams and creating lasting systems.
A framework I created to explain how managers still have a huge role to play in coaching Agile teams' performance
Just as a successful garden requires preparation and the right conditions to thrive, true leadership is about cultivating an environment where innovation and growth can flourish.
Cascading communication is like a flawed game of telephone: everybody hears a message, but did they hear the right message?
Great leaders don’t just react to exceptions—they redesign systems to prevent them. Progress comes from refining workflows, not just playing whack-a-mole with disruptions.
Authentic leadership isn’t just about being genuine—it’s about being humane. Leaders must balance their authority with empathy, bridging the gap between their humanity and the power they hold.
Save those encouraging notes and emails in a 'For Bad Days' folder. When imposter syndrome hits, pull it out and let those kind words remind you that you are great at what you do.
How I've learned to protect time for deep thinking and doing
Many leaders view their job as creating thrust behind the organization (read: "sense of urgency"). I don't see it that way.
Every leader should prioritize the power of language in their interactions. Using phrases that convey vulnerability, openness, and empathy can transform a team's culture.
Even in the face of disheartening transformations, the connections forged and the values instilled continue to ripple through time, reminding us that our legacies are built in the space between human beings.
Great leaders know when to embrace uncertainty outside their teams but prioritize creating clear paths and shared goals within, ensuring everyone moves forward together.
Leadership is built on beliefs, lessons, and experiences—big and small—that shape how we guide others. Here’s a collection of truths I hold about leading people, from embracing imperfection to cultivating clarity, empathy, and courage.
People's names matter, and it's worth taking the time to get them right.
Declaring calendar bankruptcy every now and then is a good thing.
Buying our first house was a dream come true, but it quickly turned into a costly lesson about ignoring problems. What we thought was an insurmountable expense turned out to be a simple solution, teaching me the importance of recognizing and challenging limiting beliefs.
When my son gamed our potty-training system to maximize cartoons, I realized something: measuring the wrong thing drives the wrong behavior. The same is true in software development—if we focus solely on output, we risk missing the outcomes that truly matter.
From 9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2025 and Beyond by Emily Rose McRae, Peter Aykens, Kaelyn Lowmaster and Jonah Shepp on Harvard Business Review (HBR):
In 2025, most organizations will shift their investments toward fostering greater inclusion and belonging for all employees, as opposed to focusing primarily on representation and underrepresented talent. Leveraging inclusion and belonging will be seen as offering a competitive edge.
This is only one example of a growing movement responding to the current political backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by suggesting that it’s unethical to focus on diversity as a goal.
Will you permit me a moment upon my tallest soapbox?
I have been a hiring manager for over 15 years, and I have had to fight tooth and nail to be presented diverse candidates. My policy now is that I ask to see every applicant, as I’ve seen too many well-intentioned recruiters “help” by filtering the pool to the “most qualified” candidates who strangely seemed to look, most of the time, a lot like me.
I’ve had recruiters who have whined that it’s just too hard to find diverse candidates backpedal at light speed when I passively sourced dozens of diverse candidates in a single afternoon (even without their fancy recruiter license for LinkedIn).
Focusing on inclusion is great. It’s necessary. But to say that underrepresentation is evidence of the need for stronger inclusion efforts, as the article goes on to say, is laughably wrong.
If the candidates who make it to hiring managers’ desks are homogenous, no amount of inclusion will solve representation problems.
I know the politicized argument will be that DEI programs unfairly privileged some candidates over others. I have not once been presented credible evidence to support that assertion—only variants of “my uncle should have gotten a job that a black person got instead” anecdotes—but I will concede that maybe that did happen somewhere. Even so, dismissing all DEI because in some cases it was done poorly is a textbook hasty generalization fallacy.
I’m not going to argue whether DEI programs have merit. There’s no need given the plethora of research demonstrating that diverse teams yield better business results than homogenous teams. If you want that advantage in your own company, you have to focus on more than inclusion. You must first build programs that ensure you always consider a diverse slate of qualified candidates. Otherwise, inclusion efforts will only serve to build a comfortable but closed culture where your dominant demographic, and only your dominant demographic, feels at home.
