management on Indelible Impressions

A leader's greatest return

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Here are some thoughts and notes from a book on leadership development that I am reading. Mindset Leadership is hard work. There are no two consecutive easy days in the life of leaders. If today is easy, you know how tomorrow will probably go. But everything worthwhile is uphill. If the purpose of life was ease and comfort, no sensible person would ever take on the demands of leadership. Results Our understanding of leadership does not come to us all at once.

Some thoughts about hiring

Sat, 11 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Since I joined Blend a year ago, I have had the opportunity and responsibility to think deeply about hiring. Hiring, like many other management problems, is hard. The idea that we can assess future performance and compatibility based on a few hours of conversation is fraught with flaws. As we don’t have the luxury of unlimited time and resources, we have to do our best to come up with a process that we think will give us and the candidate the best possible signal to make a decision.

A beginner’s mindset

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I have been an engineer in the valley for more than 10 years. In this time, I have reported to quite a few managers, both good and bad. When I transitioned to an engineering manager role, I assumed that my engineering and mentoring experience would help me. In reality, I have found this assumption to be a far cry from the truth. In this story, I shed some light on the differences and what I am doing to close the gap.

Manager Readme

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A manager readme is an operating manual on your management style and philosophy. There has been a lot written about the usefulness of such a document. There are three reasons why I am publishing mine. It helps me reflect on who I am and who I want to be as a person and a leader. There are a ton of ideas floating in my head around management and leadership best practices.

Multipliers vs Diminishers

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

These are some notes and thoughts from a workshop I attended a few days ago at work. The workshop was loosely based on the ideas from Liz Wiseman’s book on multipliers. Who is a multiplier? Multipliers make people around them smarter. My intelligence and potential go up when I report to or am around multipliers. Who is a diminisher? A diminisher is the polar opposite of a multiplier. People who are otherwise exceptional perform poorly under diminishers.

Some fictional moments

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There are some tricky management situations and possible responses. Characters Andy: Extremely talented and smart. Not very social. Very arrogant and has the tendency to put people down unintentionally. Senior Engineer. Brian: Having trouble finding his place in the team. Has communication problems, and seems to be hiding from the team. Looks for ways to get out of meetings. Senior Engineer. Ram: Very talented but does not spend enough time working on his skills.