How to get things done when you’re languishing
Last year was the year that felt like a decade — it was the year of “Blursday,” Zoom fatigue, and working from home in a pandemic. …
Earlier this year, we interviewed a few dozen tech leads and asked them this simple question:
“What does success look like as a tech lead?”
Across small and large companies, infrastructure and product teams, enterprise and customer-facing companies, people shared that being a good tech lead means some version of…
A short story
A few years ago, Company X was a five-person startup. Everyone talked to everyone every day, and it was super clear what needed to get done — if someone saw something not getting done, they went ahead and did it. …
This post was originally published on July 17, 2018 on the Co Leadership blog.
When I left my full-time tech job as an engineering manager a year and a few months ago, I had crafted a lovely narrative on why I was going into coaching.
When people asked, I responded…
I walk past the CEO in the hallway. “Hey Jean, it’s been awhile. What are you working on these days?”
Scenario one: I reply, “Oh I’m working on this big refactoring project. It’s taking a few months, but we had really accumulated a lot of technical debt.”
Scenario two: I…
Many years ago, I worked at a five-person startup.
I brought crackers and cheese and fruit that I had bought with my own groceries over the weekend and put them in the mini-fridge, so that we’d have snacks.
As we started to look for another Android engineer for our team…
originally published on blog.coleadership.com on February 12, 2018
It had taken me two weeks to write the email, even though it was on my mind constantly as something I wanted to do. She replied a few days later, attaching a pdf with details of the coaching engagement and rates. …
I was walking my 4 year-old daughter to preschool last week, and I was noticing some anxiety I had about a workshop later that day. …
2018 New Year’s Liberations
Thanks to Cate Huston for starting us off with her New Year’s Liberations. We need to be explicit about what we say no to, to make time and room and mental energy for what it is we want.
In 2018, I am liberating myself from:
- My…
This is a very simple question, but one I’ve struggled with at work and home. In the early years of my marriage, I would sometimes (ok often) ask my husband Tyler, “Hey do you want to try that restaurant?” …
Jean Hsu
Co-founder of coleadership.com, transforming engineers into leaders. Previously engineering at @Medium, Pulse, and Google.
