Adaptability: One of humanity’s incredible blessings. Adaptability has saved us and helped us for thousands of years. This NYU publication explains how early humans survived and spread from Africa to Eurasia because of their adaptability. This adaptability allowed them to change and diversify, ultimately enabling them to thrive. These findings suggest that the ability to adapt was a...
(This story came to me during a conversation with a family member. As we talked, I noticed that this person tended to focus on what they hadn’t yet achieved rather than recognizing their successes. It inspired me to create a story about the importance of appreciating the journey, celebrating current accomplishments, embracing challenges and discomfort, and living in the present moment. I...
Let me clarify the title of this post: This guide is not the "ultimate guide" to building a working out habit because it's the best, but because it's as good as any. Do you find yourself reading many “ultimate guides” to habit formation, but still waiting for that magic moment to start working out? Time to stop spending time researching and watching videos on how to build habits. The...
Do you really need courage to lead? Is bravery the most under-appreciated quality in leadership? When discussing leading teams, we often focus on skills like communication, leading meetings, check-ins, and technical expertise. However, the backbone of effective leadership is more primal and potent: courage. Let’s start with my favorite book and one of the most compelling stories of courage...
As Software Engineering Managers Through Leadership, our full-time job at a high level is learning about and understanding every single member of our team: their strength, weaknesses, and personality. And then coach them to improve their weaknesses, help them leverage their strengths, and shield them from the unnecessary stress from upstream politics. This approach will pave the way for each...
More than a decade ago, I faced digestive system problems and IBS issues, running to the ER at 3am kind of issues. Traditional medical approaches didn’t seem to work for me. Even when I asked my GI doctor if I should make any dietary changes, I was told it wasn’t necessary. Unfortunately, the antibiotics didn’t solve my problems, either. They actually made them worse...
This post is part of Principle 5: Grow your foundation. While Management Through Leadership emphasizes caring for others, prioritizing self-care is equally important. This category encompasses various topics related to personal development, including but not limited to health, fitness, parenting, finances, education, career growth, stress management, and relationships. Picture this: it’s...
A few days ago, I was listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast with CEO Coach Matt Mochary. A couple of things caught my attention: Matt’s smooth approach to communication and his intense and genuine interest in Tim’s story. I believe his listening skill was a significant factor in being able to help coach Tim through his situation. Tim was discussing his five-year relationship that had just ended. His...
Building a safe, collaborative, thoughtful, stimulating, productive, innovative, and effective team requires a safe, collaborative, thoughtful, stimulating, productive, innovative, and effective culture. The Google Aristotle project revealed this insight: “For a team to be effective, members need to work really well together.” For that to occur, you need a safe team culture for team...
“Empower don’t micromanage, but also be productive and result oriented. Deliver on time, and under budget, while building happy and fulfilled teams. Grow your career but also grow your team members’ careers.” – Seems like a bunch of oxymorons. But these are some of the responsibilities of a manager. As you can see, there are managerial tasks intertwined with leadership concepts...