Interesting Readings #4
Every week I read about technical leadership, management and personal development and I share my notes and thoughts with you all.
How exciting! #4 means I have already been doing this for a month!
Personal and Well Being
Becoming More assertive
How to speak up for yourself(watch video)
Becoming More Assertive: How to Express Yourself, Give Feedback, and Set Boundaries (Read more)
Last week I referenced another inspirational video about stopping trying to change. The headline was that we should grow instead.
I am introverted and I was bullied all my childhood. Because of that, I don’t think I am an assertive person and probably I will never be.
What does being assertive mean?
Assertiveness is the ability to express ourselves (thoughts, opinions, needs, emotions, etc.) without violating the rights of others.
Based on this definition, this is something that everyone could practice and improve.
Adam Galinsky, in “How to Speak Up for Yourself”, made me reflect on the psychology behind being assertive. He introduces a concept of “Range of acceptable behaviour”.
The idea is that anything else outside that range is not accepted.
The interesting thing about this range is that it is not fixed.
It depends on how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us.
To expand that range we can:
(genuinely) gain allies by advocating for others
ask for advice
display expertise.
Those whose embrace their roles and work to improve their performances grow, change and expand themselves. ( learn more and watch video )
The other article is more practical and based on Kyle Ingham's 7 tips for becoming more assertive:
Get in touch with your own needs and values.
Be confident if your ask is reasonable, and prepare arguments WHY you need it.
See the other person’s point of view.
Signal flexibility by providing options that work for you.
Keep your delivery calm and firm.
Make yourself the scapegoat.
Use the broken record technique.
A few words on taking notes (Read more)
Why do we take notes? This newsletter is a good example. This is the way I learn more. Reading/Listening is not enough. I need that extra step: I summarise my learnings using my own words.
Wener Vogels shares a method that has been proven to increase the benefits associated with notes. Cornell method's main point is to have a defined structure.
Along with notes and a title, adding the keywords and a summary will help with revision.
I have used it today for taking notes from a book and found it useful.
There is broad agreement that taking notes, in any form with any input, helps with encoding, retention, and recall.
“[…] one of the worst feelings I can think of, [is] to have had a wonderful moment or insight or vision or phrase, to know you had it, then lose it.” (quote: Anne Lamott) My advice: take notes, lots of them.
Here is the Google Doc template I have used to take notes in the Difficult Conversations mini-series this week.
People and teams
A User Guide to Working with You (Read more)
How can you overcome a lack of trust? How do we improve the way we collaborate with others?
If you are looking for activities to enhance relationships in your team this is for you.
We did this activity in my leadership of the group last week.
I gave people a few sections to complete on a Miro board in their own time.
It is amazing the amount of things you can learn about your colleagues. It enables you to understand people's preferences and things they are sensitive to. You will discover what strengths they bring to the table so that you can work with them better.
Think about how useful it could be also for new people joining the team. They could learn how to work with you, in no time!
It creates clarity on how you work—what you value, how you look at problems, what your blind spots or areas of growth are, and how to build trust with you.
It’s something you can give to your manager, the folks you work the closest with, or—if you are a manager—every new report who joins your team. (more)
Reference: Miro Template we used
Use these tips to improve your executive presence (Read more)
Communication is not my best strength.
Yes, English is my second language! But enough excuses!
I am not concise and my writing needs often re-work to be effective.
This is an area where I have to keep learning and improving.
Articles like this one, are a great way to start improving bit by bit.
I have been using Hemingway for a while now. It is great to be able to double-check how easy your writing is to understand before sharing.
I thank my manager for sharing it with me some time ago.
After reading this article, Hemingway's tool makes even more sense.
The golden rule for me is less is more. Whenever I write something I try to revisit and make it shorter. The shorter it is, the easier it will be for another person to understand.
The article is spot on but couldn’t quote every single word. I chose some highlights:
The way to be a better writer isn’t just to write more frequently. It’s also to edit better. You can practice your executive presence by editing your writing. This forces you to think about how you communicate
I find it easier to copy other people than critique myself. I take an inventory of the skills of the people I work with. Who is good at what? Then you can observe how they do what they’re good at.
You can ask a management peer, or your manager, to help you improve your executive presence skills. When I was working on this, I would ask my peers for feedback. I also asked my manager to observe me during meetings and give me feedback and suggestions. (more)
Book mini-series: Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (read the book)
This book has been instrumental in my career. Difficult conversations are at the heart of our role as managers. We have them on a daily basis and if we avoid them, we build up frustrations, harming relationships.
This was an attempt to use the Cornell method for taking notes. Do you find reading this diagram useful?
Technology and Delivery
Navigating Extra Work in Programming Teams (Read more)
How do you balance improving your system while still delivering value (on time)?
This is a very common problem and there is no right or wrong answer.
I enjoyed reading this analysis and the original article by Ben Northrop.
I do agree that engineers need to have the time to make things better (Boy Scout rule). Yet, there is a fine line between that and delivering what we promise. We need to own that and understand when it makes sense to do the extra. It should not be a default, but an important option to keep.
The article references also estimation techniques.
Funny enough, I had never heard before about fruit salad estimation. So that was a funny discovery.
By investing time and effort into improving processes and finding solutions, you show your dedication to the company’s success and growth. This can lead to further opportunities for personal and professional development, as well as recognition from your colleagues and superiors.
It’s essential to strike a balance between regular and additional work. This helps ensure that you complete your work within the given time frame without affecting its quality. (more)
Premortem (Read more)
Pre-mortem sounds very like risk management. I never had the chance to see them in action, but it sounds like a very promising approach. Everyone should feel safer talking about potential failures as the project has not started yet!
Using this method normalised the team's ability to talk about potential failure scenarios and think about what they can do better before actually doing it
The main point to keep in mind is to get creative with your team. Come up with as many ideas for failure as possible. Finding faults for the greater good is a liberating exercise, especially when initiated at the beginning of a project. The aim is to bubble up the most robust design alternatives. It is key not to sweat on the solutions yet, just the problems. Brainstorming solutions can come later as a team
Pre-mortem encourages everyone on the team to see the big picture, and it breaks down silos and relies on the team's collective intelligence and imagination. Also, it creates an environment of psychological safety where the team normalises talking about failures. (more)
Great read Nicola, the article on assertiveness made me think and reflect on myself and those I work with. I like the note taking template also. Thanks for putting together.
I've never used the Hemingway app but I'll give it a go next time I have to send a lengthy text message! Great idea.