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Author Archives: gvaireth

Leader in the Land of Dilemmas Part Five: Stars vs Dead Wood

24 Mar

Episode 111

In the previous episode of our leadership dilemmas series, we discussed shielding your team from all the proverbial monsters — all the toxicity, difficult news, and noise — and being fully transparent and how those two impact the team’s morale. Today, we will be wondering where it’s best to focus your time and energy as a leader. Namely, on your best people — the stars — or on your worst people — the dead wood.

Stars and Dead Wood

You don’t always control what people you must take care of as a leader. Some companies involve team leaders in the recruitment process, but not all of them. Sometimes the process is more centralized. This might be especially true for companies that do services for other organizations and not their own products. Even if you do have that luxury, it’s really difficult to judge anyone based on a recruitment process, even an elaborate one. Usually, you have to actually work with someone for at least a few weeks to see what they are really capable of.

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Posted by on March 24, 2025 in Leadership, Technology

 

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Leader in the Land of Dilemmas Part Four: Transparency vs Morale

16 Dec

Episode 110

In the previous episode of the series, we discussed our first major dilemma – whether the leader should follow the process or bend the rules. Today, we are travelling through the next land in an attempt to find answers regarding sharing information with our team. The question today is – should the leader be fully transparent with whatever is going on around, or rather shield the team from all the bad news? Beware, here be monsters.

Monsters Behind the Glass

The team may encounter several types of monsters on their quest. The company may be in financial trouble – there may be grim news of layoffs or painful cost cuts. The future roadmap of a product the team is working on may be in doubt. There may be some management turmoil. Perhaps a toxic attitude toward the team from someone high up in the organization. A non-constructive feedback from short-tempered clients.

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Posted by on December 16, 2024 in Leadership, Technology

 

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Leader in the Land of Dilemmas Part Three: Process vs. Flexibility 

29 Jul

Episode 109 

In the previous episode, we discussed several factors that go into leadership decision-making. Today, we are entering the core part of our adventure. We will discuss our dilemmas one by one, starting with Process vs. Flexibility. Should we stick to the rules all the time, or should we bend or even break them whenever we see fit? First, let’s travel four decades back in time. 

Serpukhov-15: Soviet nuclear early warning system control center 

In the chilling darkness of the early morning hours on September 26, 1983, deep within the confines of a Soviet bunker, a drama of potentially apocalyptic proportions began to unfold. The setting was Serpukhov-15, a nerve center of the Soviet military’s early warning system OKO, and the man at the heart of the story was Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces. Suddenly, the calm was broken by an alarm. The system was indicating an incoming missile from the United States. A moment later, four additional missiles were reported, all coming from the same launch site. The standard procedure in such a situation was clear: report the attack to superiors, who would likely order a retaliatory strike. However, Petrov found himself in a quandary. The system was relatively new, and he had reservations about its reliability. 

Moreover, it seemed odd that the U.S. would launch only five missiles in a first strike instead of thousands. With these doubts in mind, Petrov made a risky decision against protocol:

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Posted by on July 29, 2024 in Leadership, Technology

 

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Leader in the Land of Dilemmas Part Two: Context

13 Jun

Episode 108 

In the previous episode, we started a new adventure — a new series: Leader in the Land of Dilemmas. We looked into the mind of a leader wandering in a fog. We climbed together to the peak of the leader’s loneliness. When standing at the crossroads, we had a moment of reflection on what a Dilemma actually is. Ultimately, we reached the Oracle hut and found a mysterious device — the imaginary magic decision-making box.

We must consider what constitutes the input before attempting to produce an output from the device. What are the factors that we have to consider? What is the decision-making context?  

Situation 

First of all, and the core context is, what happened? What’s the origin of our dilemma, and why do we have to decide in the first place? Perhaps a project manager comes and says that our team member screwed up. Perhaps a client is unhappy with a person’s performance on our team. Maybe a person is dissatisfied with the work and wants to quit. One person claims it’s impossible to work with someone else. A conflict in the team. A problem with the production environment. Difficult 1-on-1 talk incoming. Giving someone a second or third chance after being sacked from yet another team.

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Posted by on June 13, 2024 in Leadership

 

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Leader in the Land of Dilemmas Part One: Intro 

09 Apr

Episode 107

Ah, long time no see, adventurer! Let’s start with a summary and some news. In a few previous episodes, we discussed generational differences amongst people in IT, as well as various personality types and how to deal with them consistently meddling with soft skills and leadership topics. There has been a little pause in my writing since then, but I was quite busy compensating for this by talking! After the pandemic hiatus, I returned to conferences, meetups, and webinars in March 2023 with a new energy, produced three talks based on articles published here, and delivered them at 21 events total in 2023.

I did a bit of reorganization on related parts of the blog as well. You can find the list of events and further confirmed plans on the Talks and Tour page. Each talk now has its own page with abstracts, details, slides, and recordings, both in English and Polish, whenever available. If you have watched any of those, please let me know your thoughts – feedback is incredibly important for any public speaker.

A New Adventure

There is also a fourth new talk, that I just finished working on, I delivered on one external event so far, and I’ve been scheduled for two more events. All my previous talks were based on, or intertwined with, an article or multiple articles, so this is what I’m going to do now as well – write a series of articles to back up the newest talk. The name of the talk is, “Leader in the Land of Dilemmas.” We have a lot to discuss! Should we care more about people or the customer? Treat everyone equally or according to needs? Quick decisions or democracy? What factors should be taken into account when making difficult decisions? How do you navigate the meanders of different personalities, organizations, and a changing business environment? How do you balance time, money, and emotions while maintaining internal consistency?

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Posted by on April 9, 2024 in Leadership

 

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Generations of Developers Part Two

26 Feb

Episode 106

In the previous episode, we introduced the idea of generations from the social science perspective. Generations were shaped by certain events and shifts in technology and society. We explored Strauss-Howe theory of repeating cycles through history and dived deeper into characteristics of the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers and the X Generation. We have met some famous people representing those generations that made an impact on the shape of the software industry from the business and science perspectives alike. 

Today we will continue our journey through generations, starting with a closer look at Millennials, followed by Generation Z and Generation Alpha. We will also explore a bit of related anthropology, and talk about reverse mentoring as well as the challenges and opportunities of generational diversity.

The Millennials

Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, which makes them 27 to 42 years old now. Strauss and Howe describe them as members of the Hero or Civic generation – entering childhood during a time of individual pragmatism, self-reliance and laissez-faire and entering adulthood during a crisis. Millennials saw live coverage of the 9/11 attacks that started the war on terror, rising environmental issues and the 2008 financial crisis. But most importantly, they were the first global generation and the Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on February 26, 2023 in History, Leadership, Technology

 

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Generations of Developers Part One

19 Feb

Episode 105

In the previous two episodes, we have been exploring the world of individual differences and types of personality and dived deeper into one of many ways to categorize those types. It’s an interesting and helpful exercise as long as we keep in mind that everyone is different and requires an individual approach. Our personality depends strongly on the genetic lottery and our environment, especially during childhood and youth. Another interesting device we can use to better describe and understand people around us is the notion of the generation or demographic cohort they belong to. Age is just a number as they say, but aren’t developers ultimately the ones dealing with numbers after all? Today we will look at various aspects of several different generations we interact with, check what events and experiences shaped them, explore what might be particularly important to them and look for influential examples in the tech industry.

Generations conflict. Age gap. This is a really old topic. For centuries and millennia, there was a clash between parents and children, old and young, wisdom and experience, order vs curiosity, energy, rebellion and all that stuff. You can find papers on that dating back to antiquity. There is an ample pool of work about differences, but there is also an array of publications saying that it’s all bullshit and hurtful stereotypes. That you can’t look at a person through the lens of age group, put a label and just act according to it. So, how is it in the end? As usual, it’s somewhere in the middle. Generational differences do exist, but they are weak compared to Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on February 19, 2023 in History, Leadership, Technology

 

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Archetypes of Developers Part Two

06 Jan

Episode 104

In the previous episode we started with four personality types dating back to antiquity, today known best under DISC theory, color-coded as Red, Yellow, Green and Blue and RPG-coded as Fighter, Bard, Druid and Wizard.

Today, we are going to take a closer look at the introverted spectrum of our fellowship – Druids and Bards, and look for synergies, different paths to reach a goal and the perfect party.

The Green Druid

Druids are the Stable type. They are on the introverted, calm and passive side but are interested in relations and people. Just not too many people at once and not for too long. They are team players -they care about others, and like to help, support, develop, heal, repair and restore. They hate conflicts so they try to de-escalate the situation or back off if things go too far. They speak much less than Yellows which leaves space for listening and they listen carefully and empathically. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on January 6, 2023 in Leadership, Technology

 

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Archetypes of Developers Part One

11 Dec

Episode 103

Have you ever had this thought that you are surrounded by people who fundamentally don’t understand you? They may seem to be listening but just don’t get it? Or they don’t even try? They do everything wrong, too slow, too rapid, too messy? Are they just weird or over the top? Sometimes you would say that you are surrounded by idiots. Sounds familiar? Excellent, you came to a good place. 

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In this episode, we continue to stray from technicalities into people’s territory. We will talk about four main personality types you can encounter in your fellowship, work, and life: Reds – bold and fierce Fighters who get things done no matter the casualties; Yellows – inspiring and charming Bards with an aura of enthusiasm and loud mouths; Greens – calm and loyal Druids who make sure everyone is okay while resisting all changes and Blues – analytical and distant Wizards who have an eye for details but sometimes just kill all the fun. We will see how to leverage their strengths, how to live with their weaknesses, how to Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on December 11, 2022 in Leadership, Technology

 

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Impostor Syndrome in Software Development

15 Nov

Episode 102

Have you ever had this feeling, that you are not good, skilled, knowledgeable, intelligent, or talented enough to do your job? That everyone around you knows what they are doing, and you are just getting on by sheer luck, favourable circumstances, and deceiving others that you are better than you actually are? That it’s just a matter of time when it will be discovered that in fact, you are a fraud, a phony, and an impostor? Well, my friend, you are not alone. Depending on sources, it’s said that up to around 90% of people in the tech industry had experienced impostor syndrome at some points in their careers and over 50% are dealing with it currently to some extent.

tian-zi-10

Image by tian zi

In this article, we are going to look closer at the psychological pattern known by the names of impostor syndrome, impostor phenomenon, or fraud syndrome. We will explore some backgrounds, try to answer why it’s especially relevant to the software development industry, talk about a mechanism that strengthens it, explain why Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on November 15, 2021 in Technology

 

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