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A few years ago I started working with a VP of Sales who was convinced his team loved him.

Great energy. Always available. Open door, literally and figuratively. He told me in our first session that 1-on-1s were one of his strengths.

So I asked his team.

The feedback was almost identical across all sev...

The Uncomfortable Truth: Your Best Engineer Is Often Your Worst Manager

Few opinions trigger stronger reactions in modern workplaces than this one:

Technical people often make worse leaders than non-technical people.

For engineers, developers, architects, data scientists, and technical founders, that s...

When I get sick, I take it seriously. I rest. I drink fluids. I pay attention.

When I tweak my back lifting something wrong, I see someone. I do the exercises. I let it heal.

When I eat something that doesn't agree with me, I notice. I probably won't eat it again for a while.

Physical discomfort, I hon...

If you gather a group of school-age children and leave them alone with something as simple as a ball, a game will almost always emerge.

One child will step forward, decide what game to play, and begin organising others into teams. Another may take on a similar role for the opposite side. Occasionally...

My father could have been an entrepreneur, but he never became one.

He had the drive, the talent, and the skills. He was a tool-and-die maker — a craftsman who understood how to turn ideas into something real. He tried many business ideas over the years: custom water glasses, back massagers on ...

Last month, Sarah and I went to a fundraising dinner for Whatcom Dream, a local organization doing meaningful work around financial literacy in our community. Good cause. Good people. And exactly the kind of large, structured social event I tend to brace myself for.

I'm not antisocial. I have close f...

When Teams Move Like Starlings