Articles for category: Leadership

3 days ago

Greg Thomas

Trench Leadership

If you’re using AI to help run your team, you’re missing out on the best part of working with a team: being in the trenches with them. I’ve never been able to lead a team and not do coding with them; I can’t do it. This doesn’t mean I’m in there coding 24/7, but if I can take a few bugs off the team’s plate or figure out what some investigation issues, I will gladly do that work. Sometimes it comes in peaks and valleys, but not being in the trenches with the team, it just doesn’t feel like leading.

Coaching vs Leadership

Coaches provide direction, suggestions, mentoring, and guidance on how a problem can be solved. Leaders are the first to accept the words of the coach and work with the team, side by side, to implement what needs to be done. Sometimes one and the same, generally two, one sees things from outside of the team, one sees things from inside of the team. Both need each other to be successful. As soon as the coach and the leader understand that relationship, they are unstoppable.

Team Emergence

You’re now a team until someone else jumps in. There are no teams of one, because it’s just you. When two people start doing things together, you have a start. When three people start talking through problems, you have a base. And when four people start moving in the same direction, you have an emergence. That’s a team.

Shackleton’s Journey

One of the first leadership books I ever read was “Leading at the Edge” which centered around Shackleton’s journey to the Antarctic under horrific conditions while keeping his team together and alive. The copy I have is older than this one, but here it is if you haven’t read it. I stumbled across it, found it on a shelf at work one late night, and brought it home to read – one of the best leadership books I’ve ever read. So it was pretty cool to see this expedition to find his shipwreck here, after all those years, where his

But what do you Own?

I had to buy a software product last week that cost $65 – not bad – I know it’s a great product, I’ve used it in the past for many years, and I’m happy to pay for the upgrade and get a new version. I read the initial purchase agreement wrong and signed up for a monthly subscription for $20/month – so $240/year for a product I use a smattering of times because I’ll get some new content. Immediately, I cancelled and then dug through their website to find the license and the thing I actually wanted. Found it bought,