You have so much to offer. Experience, insights, perspectives, solutions. When someone brings you a challenge, you want to share everything you know that might help. You want to give them the full benefit of your thinking. So you talk.… Basic Concept #58: Saying Less Can Be More Generous
The Development Lesson That Backfired I learned this lesson the hard way during what should have been a mentoring moment with one of my best developers. Sarah was a senior engineer on my team, known for her technical expertise and… Basic Concept #55: Don’t Coach When People Want Comfort
Most confusion doesn’t come from malice. It comes from assumptions. And assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups. We assume people know what we mean. We assume they’ll understand what we didn’t say. We assume they’ll act on things… Basic Concept #61: Don’t Assume. Ask.
The project presentation went perfectly. Your team delivered something exceptional, and everyone knows it. As the meeting wraps up, you have a choice: step into the spotlight alone, or make sure the right people get recognized for what they actually… Basic Concept #59: Everybody Needs Their Success
I spent most of my early career believing that great teams happened through lucky chemistry—the right mix of technical skills that somehow clicked naturally. This belief nearly destroyed what should have been my breakthrough project as a team lead. I… Basic Concept #48: Create a Great Team
You crushed your goal, closed the deal, solved the problem. Instead of celebrating, your manager looks uncomfortable. Blindsided. What happened? You surprised them. And managers hate surprises, even good ones. The Counterintuitive Truth Sarah had just closed the biggest deal… Basic Concept #60: Managers Hate Surprises -Good or bad
You’re smart. Capable. You’ve solved a lot on your own. So when things get messy, your instinct is: “I’ll handle it.” You wait. Push through. Delay the conversation. Tell yourself you’ll fix it after hours, over the weekend, once you’ve… Basic Concept #44:When You Need Help, Ask
I learned this lesson by watching my first director fail despite having all the right words. When David was promoted to lead our infrastructure team, we were excited. He’d been a solid technical architect, understood our systems deeply, and had… Basic Concept #51: You Can’t Motivate a Team When They Don’t See You
I learned this lesson during a critical system redesign when staying quiet would have been disastrous. My director had decided to migrate our entire platform to a microservices architecture within six months. The decision came down from senior leadership, and… Basic Concept #52: Providing Upward Feedback Can Have Its Benefits