š Guest Editor! Work Lulls, 4-day Work Weeks, Repeating Yourself, Mentoring, Slacking Off: TMW #239 by CTO Craft
Hi everyone,
In a change from your usual programming, Iām Will Stockdale and Iām one of the co-founders of Kommon, a SaaS company which offers tools and advice to help people become better managers. Ā Iām a big fan of the CTO Craft community and the teamās work. When Andy asked if me and our CTO Gareth James would like to guest edit an issue of TMW based on what weāre seeing at Kommon, he didnāt have to ask twice.
Over the past 18 months, most organisations have had to define a whole new way of working. Ā And when we say "organisations", we really mean "managers". Ā Weāre often the ones closest to our teams with the most opportunity to influence their lived experience at work. Ā Is that an empowering and exciting challenge? Absolutely. Ā Do we get enough help with it? Definitely not. Itās why resources like CTO Craft (and the upcoming CTO Craft Con) are so important for everyone from first-time managers to the CTO, and what weāre also focussed on helping with at Kommon. Ā If youād like to hear more of our thoughts, yes we do have a newsletter too, and please reach out (on the CTO Craft Slack or elsewhere) with any questions on what weāre building.
Will @ Kommon
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Culture & People
How Colab Build Company Culture
Will says: "Adam and Jeremyās platform for engineering teams to collaborate is a great success story out of Newfoundland, Canada. Ā Their four steps for building company culture are practical and effective."
Getting out of a Lull
Will says: "The past 18 months has left some teams exhausted. You can tell things arenāt right when wins arenāt celebrated with the usual enthusiasm or losses interrogated with the typical concern. HBR has some tips for breaking out of a slump."
What we learned when we tried a 4-day workweek
Will says: "Even if youāre not thinking about a 4 day workweek, Atlassianās recent post is a great example of how to run and measure any workplace experiment. If you are looking at 4 day weeks, well youāll get all the more out of it."
Want to hire and retain tech workers? Give them salary calculators.
Will says: "The move towards salary transparency is gathering steam, and itās interesting to see GitLab, Coda and others make their tools public. Even if youāre not prepared to go that far, youāre likely to have to answer more questions about it from prospective hires."
Leadership & Self-management
How to Actually Build a Better Boss
Will says: "Anne Helen Petersen, Johnathan Nightingale and Melissa Nightingale are three of the sharpest thinkers on what it means to be a modern manager. Ā Unsurprisingly, them sitting down together to chat is packed with insights."
How being a Mentor benefits you too
Will says: "If youāre sitting on the fence about being someoneās mentor, or want to encourage more mentoring within your organisation, Jo Franchettiās latest gives you four great reasons to get started."
How to Nail Your First 1:1 Meeting as a New Manager
Will says: "Whilst thereās lots of advice out there about 1:1 meetings, most of it assumes youāre already having them. Thereās not much out there for first-time managers running one for the first time. Well, until now."
Why You Should Repeat Yourself, A Lot
Will says: "As managers, to a certain degree we should be sick of our own voices. It typically takes a lot of repetition to get certain ideas across. Seven times to be precise, as Tomasz Tunguz explains."
Agile, Engineering & Product
The case for slacking off at work
Will says: "An idea lots of us could get on board with. Jacob Singh argues why itās crucial for agility and provides a framework for building it into your processes."
How do you manage your platform engineering team?
Will says: "Platform and product engineering teams face different challenges, have different priorities and different customers."
How Much Unit Test Coverage Do You Need? - The Testivus Answer
Will says: "A short parable from Alberto Savoia on that most philosophical of topics: unit test coverage."
Appleās Long Journey to the M1 Pro Chip
Will says: "MSFT alum and A16z partner Steven Sinofsky collects his tweet thread on how Appleās chips got to where they are today."
Thatās it!
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Have an amazing week!
Andy