I write about my journey from a technical person to the position where I can serve as a leader. That time also coincided with the fact that I become a father. I try to answer the question:
Maybe there is a better way? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the difference between setting habits and making resolutions. I used to be all about the resolutions at the start of the year, but I’ve realised that setting habits is a much better approach.
Read More »Are you making New Year’s resolutions?
It was a long time ago. I was working for a cable TV company. Internet was booming in Poland. I started to learn Linux and wanted to change my job. The opportunity came as my company bought the Sun Microsystems server. I called my director, and full of enthusiasm, I explained why I was a good candidate.
In response, he bluntly asked me: do you know how expensive this computer was?
It was not long after I became a manager for the first time. We had a big project ahead of us, so we organised a kick-off meeting.
It was a good meeting. We quickly went over the schedule; the decisions have been made. The project manager asked all questions, which were answered mainly by me. We took notes. Action points were ready and distributed. I was pleased with myself. Everything seemed to be smooth and going in the right direction. However, things were about to change dramatically.
Read More »Hippo effect and dichotomy of leadership
Someone asked me this question two weeks ago. It completely blew my mind and derailed me.
It is one of the questions that it’s worth pondering. I’m going to give you a short mental exercise that will help you think big.
Hiring is hard. There are many frameworks that you can apply to find the right candidate. On one side, it all depends on the organisation, the role you hire for, and the team culture you cultivate. On the other side, we have human beings with complicated psychology, the baggage of good and bad experiences, knowledge and dominating character traits. How do you find a suitable method to apply to the hiring process? What to do to find the right candidate who can demonstrate strong points from experience and adapt and do the new job? How to mark an individual as having high potential?
Read More »How to mark an individual as having high potential?
Do you remember when you made the transition from technical leader to technical people leader? Do you remember your challenges and the “identity crisis”?
Read More »The career shift from technical roles to leadership
I try to read (listen) one book per month. It’s been mainly self-development books. And to be honest I got a bit tired. However, recently I talked to a friend and a colleague who recommended me a fiction book with a unicorn in the title… I read the full title and immediately started to listen. I could not stop, I emerged completely. Today I would like to share three main lessons I learnt from The Unicorn Project book. Let’s go!
Read More »3 lessons from The Unicorn Project
We start the new team. We gathered a group of talented individuals and we want to grapple with the new challenge. How can we accelerate the team forming, storming and norming phase? We should start with team agreements. Once done, this exercise will boost team productivity. It will also help to create and maintain the team identity. It shouldn’t be the detailed documentation of the team proceedings in the wiki-style procedure. Instead, we should agree on things that are important for our team. Let’s take a look.
Read More »Why high-performance teams need team agreements
What do you think when you hear the word “responsibility”? The place where I come from (Poland) it usually has negative connotations, and it means you are in trouble. You broke the glass, you are responsible, and you need to pay for it. It comes hand in hand with the fact that our education systems teach us to avoid failures. All of that combined makes us think that responsibility is a bad thing, and we should avoid being responsible for things in our lives. Is this the full picture? What if we look at this from a different angle? If I am responsible, it means I am response-able – able to respond, able to think logically and move, fix and correct things around me. Let’s take a look at the Responsibility Process.
Read More »Are you able to respond? Responsibility process in action.
It was a long time ago. At that time, I was not too fond of trekking. Yet, I was there, exhausted, but happy. I was at the top of the mountain. I was with my friend who convinced me to go for this journey with him. To our surprise, there was a place where we could buy hot food. My friend asked me did I want anything. I said something like “yes probably, just bring me something”. He disappeared, and a moment later, he was back with a juicy, beautifully smelling burger. He brought me … nothing. I was furious. I was blaming him. It was years after when I realised that it was me who was wrong, and there is the right way to hold people accountable.
Read More »The right way to hold people accountable