Aug 26Member-onlyBridging the Ask vs Culture Gap at WorkBy creating more shared context, aligning around when to ask for help, and helping guess-culture coworkers get clarity on what they want in their careers — In my previous post, I shared the idea of ask vs guess culture, as well as some quick tips for navigating an ask culture workplace as a guess culture person. If you haven’t already, I recommend reading that post first before continuing with this post that continues the exploration of…Communication9 min readCommunication9 min read
Aug 18Member-onlyAsk vs guess cultureWhen unreasonable requests are followed up with “but you could have just said no!” Exploring the clashes of ask culture and guess culture, at home and at work. — Have you had someone ask you for a favor that seemed unreasonable — a referral you didn’t want to make, a long-term stay at your place, a sizable cash loan? But because they asked, you felt obliged to seriously consider it, to try to meet their request, even if it…Communication8 min readCommunication8 min read
Published inRange·Apr 27, 2021Flexible work is keyHow 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. …Remote Working8 min readRemote Working8 min read
Published inCo Leadership·Sep 11, 2019Member-onlyWhat Does It Take To Be a Successful Tech Lead?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…Leadership8 min readLeadership8 min read
Published inBetter Programming·May 1, 2019Member-onlyWhy aren’t people taking initiative?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. …Leadership6 min readLeadership6 min read
Published inCo Leadership·Jul 23, 2018Finding My Fierce Heart: My Journey in LeadershipThis 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…Leadership6 min readLeadership6 min read
Published inCo Leadership·May 3, 2018How to Get Buy-In for Reducing Technical DebtI 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…Software Development5 min readSoftware Development5 min read
Published inCo Leadership·Apr 9, 2018How to Lead by Noticing and Filling in GapsMany 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…Startup6 min readStartup6 min read
Published inCo Leadership·Apr 9, 2018What I Learned About Investing in Myself After a Year of Coachingoriginally 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. …Coaching5 min readCoaching5 min read
Published inCo Leadership·Mar 19, 2018How to Build Trust Through VulnerabilityI 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. …Leadership6 min readLeadership6 min read
