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🐄 Pirates and Comanches, Tidy Leadership, Micromanagement, Underperformers, Mob Programming, Rice Farming with AI, Burnout: TMW #389

New Campus Course details, lots of links...

Hello, hello, hello! It's Monday

We have two Mixer events happening this week, in Amsterdam and in Manchester. If you're in the area and would like to hang out with the community, check out the links below - we'd love to see you.

This week sees the launch of our next course for engineering leaders, Emotional Intelligence for CTOs, exclusively for Campus members. Led by psychologist and technology leadership coach Carol Palombini, the course goes deep into recognising the edge that better emotional awareness can give you in leading engineers, building relationships, setting expectations, creating strategies and growing your confidence as a CTO. If you're new to leadership roles, you don't want to miss it!

Emotional Intelligence for CTOs | CTO Craft Campus
As a technology leader, you steer the engineering vision of your company. But can you navigate the emotional complexities of leading a team and collaborating with stakeholders? This course will equip you with the tools you need to build and monitor the emotional intelligence (EI) needed to thrive in one of the most demanding roles in tech.
CTO Craft Campus

Campus is absolutely jam-packed with courses, guides, videos, assessments, conversations and more - if you're looking to build your skills as a technology leader fast, there's no better place to be.

That's it! See you next week

Andy @ CTO Craft

CTO Craft Events

CTO Craft Con: Berlin | 24th - 25th September 2024
CTO Craft Con will bring together Chief Technology Officers and other senior technology leaders from the most exciting start-ups, scale-ups, unicorns, and big tech companies to elevate their engineering culture.
CTO Craft Con: Berlin 2024
CTO Craft Roundtables: London
Welcome to the launch of our newest event: CTO Craft Roundtables! Join us for a half-day of engaging discussions and networking opportunities designed specifically for CTOs and engineering leaders
CTO Craft Con London 2024pipctocraft
CTO Craft Mixer: Amsterdam 2024
Join our community of CTOs and senior tech leaders for an informal meet-up in Amsterdam
CTO Craft
CTO Craft Mixer: Manchester 2024
Join our community of CTOs and senior tech leaders for an informal meet-up in Manchester.
CTO Craft

Check out all of our upcoming Mixer events - is there one happening in your city?

Reads of the Week

The Business of Marauding: Lessons from Pirates and Comanches (Arrrgghhhh!) - Organizational Physics by Lex Sisney
I’ve been reading two books this summer, one on Comanche Indians and the other on Pirates! Talk about fun summer reading-what’s more captivating in history than the true stories about the dashing pirate and the fierce Comanche warrior? Interestingly enough, both came to prominence around the same time – the 17th and 18th centuries. Both groups wielded enough power to shake the foundations of empires. What’s truly fascinating, though, is their strikingly similar organizational structures—structures that offer surprising lessons for modern business strategy. Why Pirates and Comanches Have Similar Management Tactics Both groups, pirates and Comanches, were built for plundering targets and then escaping into the vastness
 the sea or the southwest plains. By necessity and pragmatism, both developed very meritocratic and egalitarian societies. This wasn’t due to some altruistic motivation.. It just happens to be the best culture to support their similar strategies. For example, the leadership composition and compensation strategies for a pirate ship were incredibly flat. Pirate ships made decisions by consensus and every full-fledged member of the crew received no less than one full share of the booty. And no one received more than two shares, which was the highest paid role of war captain. Specialist roles like the carpenter, cook, and ship’s doctor, received slightly more than regular crew members of 1.25 to 1.5 shares total. That’s incredibly flat! Why is this? Well, it ensures that when battle comes, all pirates are in it to win it. Afterall, if you were a regular pirate, why would you jump into the enemy ship and engage in close quarters combat if the captain was going to pull 10X or 100X of your share? You wouldn’t. The same spirit held true for the Comanche. Not even the war chief could order a Comanche into battle or even dictate [
]
Organizational Physics by Lex SisneyLex Sisney
The Rise and Fall of the Blue-Collar Developers
The AI Boom revolutionized the software industry by automating repetitive tasks and enhancing skilled developers’ efficiency. However, it also led to layoffs for less efficient developers. Rather than viewing this as the end, consider it a fresh start. Adaptability and resilience are crucial in this new era of software development.
The 2nd Worst Dev on Planet Earth

New Content on Campus

NEW COURSE: Emotional Intelligence for CTOs

As a technology leader, you steer the engineering vision of your company. But can you navigate the emotional complexities of leading a team and collaborating with stakeholders? Campus now hosts this exclusive course to equip you with the tools you need to build and monitor the emotional intelligence needed to thrive in one of the most demanding roles in tech.

Check out this and all other courses and content in Campus

A huge thanks to all our sponsors and partners, who make Tech Manager Weekly and the CTO Craft community possible:

AWS, Albany Partners, Code Climate, Coherence, HeadChannel, Google Cloud, Jellyfish, Polly, Skiller Whale, Softwire, Sema, Unblocked, Uplevel, Vention, YLD, 101 Ways

If you're interested in sponsoring TMW or any of our events, drop us a line at partners@ctocraft.com.

Leadership, Strategy & Business

Jade Rubick - Organizational work and the second job
Organizational work is how to make an organization get better over time, instead of the opposite.
LazywillEngineering Leadership Weekly
All I Need to Know About Engineering Leadership I Learned From Leave No Trace - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Sumana challenged me to apply the principles of Leave No Trace to engineering leadership, so here we go.
Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Micromanagement - The Absolute Worst? - Yaniv Preiss
What is micromanagement? Is it really so common?
Yaniv PreissYaniv Preiss
The Hagakure #84: Are You Successful?
It’s a long story but I recently started a CTO role and it made me reflect again on what is success for me in a role like this. Sitting on a plane a few thousand feet above the ground it occurred to me that success in an executive role is largely a compound of 3 things:
The HagakurePaulo André

Culture, People & Teams

How to Reclaim Team Flow Fast by Relieving Your Dependency on Experts
Heroes don’t actually help you get things done faster.
Management MattersTodd Lankford
TBM 299: Underperformer
There is a huge difference between labeling people as “underperformers” and labeling their “performance” as not meeting expectations. “Lia is a __________” vs. “Lia’s performance here at Acme is __________”. “Lia’s potential is __________” vs. “Lia’s potential here at Acme is __________”.
The Beautiful MessJohn Cutler
When a Team Member Speaks Up — and It Doesn’t Go Well
Speaking up — and being heard — in organizations is critical, but failed attempts to speak up happen often at work and can lead people to silence themselves and others in the long run. Instead, leaders and team members should frame such situations as opportunities to learn. But this isn’t easy; it can be difficult to recognize such moments as learning opportunities; it can be difficult to move beyond counterproductive emotions like shame and blame,;and we tend to be too busy and focused on the short term to learn. The authors’ research and experience have shown that the antidote starts with all team members, including the leader, explicitly framing such interactions as experiments from which everyone expects to learn; preparing for them; paying attention to them; implementing certain process tools; and thinking more long-term about learning.
Harvard Business ReviewMegan Reitz
Creative Peer Recognition: How to Get Better at Team Celebration
Great teams take time to celebrate one another and their wins. Creative ways to help encourage peer recognition on your team.
Let's Grow LeadersKarin Hurt and David Dye

Technology, Operations & Delivery

Interview with Woody Zuill - Software Teaming (Mob Programming) - addressing complexity with genuine collaboration. - Crisp’s Blog
We are excited to have Woody Zuill teach a Master Class in this fall’s leading complexity program. The topic is Software Teaming (Mob Programming)—addressing complexity with genuine collaboration.
Crisp's BlogLeading Complexity
Rice Farming Gets an AI Upgrade | Hakai Magazine
Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta, cutting down the amount of pesticides and fertilizers that wash into the ocean in the process.
Hakai MagazineHakai Magazine
Lessons learned in 35 years of making software
It’s more about soft skills than technical skills
Jim GreyView Archive →
How data are reshaping society: “Datafication” and socioeconomic transformations - Stack Overflow
Stack OverflowCristina Alaimo

Stress, Wellbeing & Growth

Council Post: Are We Done Talking About Burnout Yet? Sadly, No
Millions everywhere are still struggling. And their struggle is hurting teams and bottom lines.
ForbesErin Stafford
Playing defense: How to control the narrative if your work is being questioned
No matter how well you frame your ideas upfront, there will be times when you’ll need to address skepticism and defend your work. These are moments when you can shine. Here’s how.
Wes Kao's NewsletterWes Kao
Progress can be slow
We can spend a lifetime working on the same things, and that’s ok
Tech and TeaJean Hsu
Research: New Hires’ Psychological Safety Erodes Quickly
Across industries, from manufacturing to health care, the luxury of waiting years to benefit from new talent is long gone. Thriving in today’s dynamic economy means bringing new hires up the learning curve faster than ever. Yet, the authors’ latest research suggests one catalyst for learning is often lacking when it’s needed most: psychological safety. They show why newcomers are vulnerable to this loss and present strategies to help preserve their early willingness to speak up.
Harvard Business ReviewDerrick P. Bransby,

That’s it!

If you’d like to be considered for the free CTO Craft Community, fill in your details here, and we’ll be in touch!

https://ctocraft.com/community

Please do remember to share this link if you know of anyone who’d like to receive TMW:

https://techmanagerweekly.com

Have an amazing week!

Andy

Published by:

Andy Skipper