Authority Issues

In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Anurag talk about: * Getting left in charge as a career progression mechanism * An "unusual" level of interest in affecting long-term strategy and systems thinking from an economics background * Betting on more candidates by giving them an opportunity outside of their current background * The vagueness of product management and strategy * Instilling a culture of ownership/safety when everyone is working remotely * How sometimes more meetings is...good? At least when onboarding, as a way to develop culture by seeing other people interact. * Onboarding that results in checking in code within 5 days * LOUD NOISES * Admiration for one's leaders, learning by watching them * Authority as responsibility to one's team vs power * Intermission to enjoy Kendall's dog * Safety to make mistakes as a child, wanting that for your team * rachel has Opinions about calling your colleagues your "family" * Loyalty to people vs company * Enjoyment of natural places * Using leadership skills

In this episode, rachel and Kendall talk about: * Coping mechanisms: are some worse than others? Where is the line? * What happens when a planner can't make any plans? * rachel's effusive declarations about indie sewing patterns * Kendall's...disappointing COVID experience * Why does it seem wrong to feel happy when people around the world are suffering? * When it's helpful to compartmentalize * Clarifying what you're actually feeling guilty about * Happiness as self-care * How much authenticity is too much, at work? * The need for a mechanism for feeling hope * Hitting that bucket list * A song that changed the path of a life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXk5dXYw728 * A quick detour for hot tub recommendations and rap lyrics from Kendall * The value of self-understanding, introspection, honesty * Polarization for good and bad reasons * Doing the little things that make you happy (like making a podcast with a good friend

In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Sean talk about: * The genesis of this podcast, and who we have to thank * How taking the traditional path of CS to engineering leadership is the rare case * Getting into guiding and mentoring at a small company named Huge (lol) * Being glad for having done the deathmarch type work when you were younger * Learning many important lessons via a failed startup * Why consulting is often not appealing * Finally getting into bonafide engineering management, with no training * A free podcast idea: Awkward Silences * The blessing and curse of being a problemsolver * The idea that listening is an action * Not being able to let go of puns * Timing complexity when trying to promote internally * How high trust environments must exist across a given company to work well, and how this makes hiring a much higher stakes proposition * Intent to 3D print and make things out of wood You can find Sean at seanoc.com Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, rachel and Kendall talk about: * Dietary constraints for gout sufferers * Non-traditional Thanksgiving fare and excitement about cabbage rolls * Kendall's adventures in escalating vegetarianism * The definition of "assuming positive intent" * How the power dynamic matters * Why it's unreasonable to expect marginalized people to assume positive intent by default * Kendall realizes once again he's playing the game on "easy" mode * When assuming positive intent works well, why it's valuable and to whom * Why this episode has the "explicit" tag :) * A time when Kendall did not assume positive intent * The dangers of making "assume positive intent" a corporate policy * How this relates to injustice in the greater social world * Kendall's unflagging optimism about people * rachel's tactics for navigating a situation where you can't assume positive intent * Why intent is not as important as impact * How to serve a colleague or employee who reports discrimination * Our desire for more topics to discu

In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Marilyn talk about: * Wishing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our guest :) * Growing up in a household that had computers * Working in tech: doing math, but also making money! * Going back to school, getting an internship at Google * The value of just having credentials (why to get a Masters degree) * The Wrong Kind of Management Training * Going back to being an IC....briefly * Getting crappy leadership advice * When not to "lighten the mood" and how the rules are different for men vs women * Enjoying the peer support of being a leader among several instead of being The One Boss * Educating Kendall about K&R, a rare opportunity to gatekeep for rachel :) * Enjoying being involved in decisionmaking vs being The Authority * Enthusiasm for houseplants and reading during the pandemic You can find Marilyn on Twitter as @mmmarilyn :) Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Eli talk about: * The most apt failed startup name ever * A terrible first experience as a manager and being voluntold to try it again * Enjoying the force multiplier of leadership vs individual contribution * Oracle acquisition zingers (nice one, Kendall) * Being Guild-less at Spotify * Going from being told what to build to asking what should be built * Learning that it's important to also care about the business plan * Communicating and marketing business context to [naive|entitled] engineers * How that context helps drive a more collaborative process and empowers engineers * How big is too big? Kendall asking the important questions * The inevitability of acquiring a "superstructure of bullshit" * Outgrowing the "rah rah" aspect of working at a company * Feelings of beard inadequacy and enjoyment of bicycles * The romance of building a sailboat with your life partner You can find Eli on the Rands Leadership Slack and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-dani

In this episode, Kendall and rachel talk about: * Kendall's amazing inflatable hot tub * Having a little bit of guest visit enjoyment, as a treat * The quaint marvel that is rachel's small-town paper's Police Blotter (here's the video i reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mG2RGp-lcw&t=5s ) * Wildlife encounters * Not blaming people who choose safety over working a service industry job * The need for a social safety net * A heartwarming tale of anonymous free fancy dinner * How companies who think "remote first" was just a phase are losing employees to the ones who realize it is the way of the future * The investment in support and infrastructure needed to successfully implement a "remote first" workplace * Ego-driven leadership and the need to survey one's domain * A theory about innovation needing people being in a room together * Whether the ability to multi-task during your Zoom meetings /really/ mean you're more productive? * How not having drive-by interruptions all day definitely helps * The po

In this episode, rachel and Kendall talk about: * More than you wanted to know about grocery store ginger purchases * How some people use the term "a couple" to mean something other than exactly 2 and that they are Wrong * Examples of technologies that suck but people still use * Being caught up in the glories of the past (rachel would like to point out that she used a sharpie to black out Gene Simmons on her KISS shirt) * The downsides of Agile/continuous shipping of things vs Waterfall (warning, heresy inside) * Blaming growing inflexibility as one gets older * Unselfawareness in the face of serial shittiness * Two reasons: arrogance or laziness * How one gets stuck, how to know if you're stuck * Recommendations: * rachel: The Great British Sewing Bee (tv show, if you liked GBBO, you'll probably like this too) * rachel: The Alienist (kinda gruesome, moody period crime drama) * Kendall: fail videos from user mrmrmike on YouTube (great way to learn things NOT to do) Special thanks to Mel

In this episode, Kendall and rachel talk about: * Spending money on Things and our feelings about that * Are we the baddies? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JOpPNra4bw) * The nature of golden handcuffs * What is "enough"? * "Work" as a social outlet * Contentment vs. satisfaction * Kendall's wanderlust and associated twitchiness * Enabling satisfaction for your employees * Impact and the effectiveness of giving money vs. personal involvement and time * Whether it's simpler (NOT easier) to be "poor" * Underlying feelings of guilt/not deserving * The stress of not being able to make working "good" for one's employees * Recommendations for (unrelated) books: * Kendall recommends: James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time * rachel recommends: Gamechanger and Dealbreaker by L.X. Beckett (and Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, Ron McMillan) Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Amy talk about: * The olden dayze of Geocities and people hating on Javascript * The scrum leadership to management pipeline * Kendall's Litany Of Agile Atereotypes * Getting promoted Too Fast * Hypotheses about the ability to succeed using progressive management philosophies * Wanting to leave the tech industry "better than we found it" * Joining early for a greater impact on the culture * Focus on strategy vs process as a signifier of seniority * Twitter as a leadership training ground * Leveraging authority should be uncomfortable * The "ooh, shiny" approach to hobby acquisition * Woodworking nerdery, a macrame + shelf project! You can find Amy on Twitter at @amychanta Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Dee talk about: * Coming from dropping out of school in at 16 years old * The struggles of being a manager in a bar in Singapore as a teenager * Developing "scripts" for the various interactions that kept recurring * Internships as cheap labor rackets * Immediate promotion from intern to being in charge of customer comms * Premonitions about layoffs * The camaraderie of joint suffering * Kendall admits that Marketing runs the universe * Gatekeeping as an indicator of a real discipline * The difficulties of managing people who are significantly older than you, especially in Singaporean culture * Predicting her own future, again * Iterating toward a less blunt approach to management * Preferences for feedback via chat vs in person * Experiencing joy when reports succeed * Self-reflection when reports are failing * Cooking experiments You can find Dee on twitter or instagram as @tomyumsushi :) Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Aye talk about: * Being an Old (Java 1.0 certified!) * Realizing he used to be "hard to work with" * Transitioning away from electrical engineering and into enterprise software * The idea that management is where people who can't build software anymore "go to die" * Starting to understand that there is more to life than writing Java code * Moving to Las Vegas and having his life changed by the Zappos culture * Parades! * Learning how to be a better manager from a good team * How knowing the wrong things to do is not the same as knowing the right things to do * Starting a company...to help managers do a better job (at 1:1s)! * Discovering that marketing and sales is hard and that most places don't invest in management tools :( * Finding a desirable culture and good work-life balance at Slack * Wishing he had a good leadership mentor earlier in his work life * The fact that the immature asshole developer is a pretty common archetype * Enjoyment of kettlebell exercises an

In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Brett talk about: * Realizing you're the facilitator person in your friend group..and in college, and grad school... * The reality of mechanical engineering not living up to the idea of it * Getting that first software engineering job with no software engineering background * The power of networking * The consequences of having no real management experience * How being less outgoing/energetic than Kendall affects one's management style * Leadership based in assembling the Avengers and stepping aside * Modeling team interactions and desired behaviors * Hiring a leadership coach and how it was lifechanging * How authoritarian leadership slows things down * Surprise beekeeping hobby! * Biking as a mental health practice You can find Brett on LinkedIn, on Twitter as @bnekolny, and on the Rands Leadership Slack. Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Miki talk about: * The three eras of Miki so far: technology, self-identity, and relationships * Early failures to thrive -- early admission to college, and the professional world * Navel-contemplation and some key realizations * Getting a job with room to evolve and let off steam * The differences among marketing-driven, engineering-driven, and sales-driven companies * A change of pace: the finance industry :) * The Google-related diaspora of an early household * Flying ever-nearer to the flame of leadership, getting burned, and taking another orbit * Delaying the investment in building relationships until she could fully be herself at work * The requirement for executive support when driving change * Making an incremental transition and beginning to invest in relationships * Engineers and the skewed power dynamic involved in managing them * Scalability in the decisionmaking process * Decoupling personal life from professional life, intent and authenticity * 3D printing

In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Irina talk about: * Moving to LA from Moscow during elementary school * Enjoyment of donuts and data * Getting alignment before doing things (shocking, right? :)) * Shaving yaks in order to work at JPL * Learning how to learn, learning in the trenches * Accommodating the needs of team members * How leadership as a consultant is different * The perils of messy data * How it's never too soon to begin collecting the data you need * Deepening her social network * Dealing with ageism as a university instructor * Dealing with Kendall's assumptions about interest in data :) You can find Irina at https://www.ikukuyeva.com/ Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Kari talk about: * Getting management experience in the nonprofit world * From a young age, wanting to be...a math teacher? :) * Finally getting some management training * Working with a personal leadership coach * Strategic vs tactical planning * Learning and re-learning the value of self-care * The practice of self-promotion * Doing away with a bad hiring practice * Allowing for awkward silences * An unexpected enjoyment of gardening * Leading too much in one's personal life You can find Kari on Twitter at @karianneban Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Matt talk about: * The impact of coming from an entrepreneurial family * The siren call of "freedom" * Needing a team to make a dent in the universe * What's valuable about an MBA program, and how it's like an endless Group Project * Kendall's Epic Disclaimer and differing recollections of their mutual origin story ;) * What having kids teaches you about leadership * The N Dysfunctions of a Serial Startup Exec * How everybody's got a boss * Deep Thoughts courtesy of Star Trek * The concept of anti-hobbies You can find Matt on the internet on Twitter @mattrogish and on mattrogish.com Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Dominique talk about: * Getting into computers so she could communicate with her friends * How crappy Dreamweaver was * Benefiting from IBM programs * Stepping into project management * Leaving IBM for a much smaller company... * Making assumptions about working patterns...with mixed results :) * How hiring quickly is in tension against achieving diversity * Practicing giving feedback via "speedback sessions" * Needing to know the "why" before following the rules * Asking for her promotions * Getting ready to garden and an obsession with whole grains * Painting for 3 weeks * What's hard about children :) You can find Dominique on Twitter @dominiquesr and on Medium under her full name. Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Yaz talk about: * A love of languages, molecular biology, art * The less-than-romantic reality of becoming an architect * How creation is creation--programming is a creative act * A painful introduction to the responsibilities of management * Finally becoming an architect (of software ;) ) * Guilting himself into becoming a people leader * Moving to the US, going back to smaller companies/startups * Kendall's insecurity about title inflation :) * That the relationship you have with your team/manager is often more important than the work * Cultural variances in leadership styles and expectations * The downsides of being pre-emptively trusting * Balancing the responsibilities of leadership with the responsibilities of family * A secret management coaching weapon at home :) * Kendall's atrocious parenting ;), Yaz's difficulties teaching his kid how to play guitar * Being a beekeeper?! So cool! Additional fascinating hobbies * Yet another recommendation for the Crucial Con

In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Lena talk about: * Starting out in finance, the arts, classic cars journalism, and more... * Uses (appropriate or not) for creativity in leadership * Realizing that a potential lifelong career in banking would be...boring * First startup experience as a web copywriter * First formal leadership experience as a bootstrapped startup CEO * Ebola outbreak response...no biggie, right?! * Becoming more intentional as a leader, learning about leadership frameworks * Growing out of the 'relationship' as a cofounder, wanting different things * Big, International, Complicated :) * Becoming a regular old Engineering Manager, and...immediately becoming a VP of Engineering * Twitter as a source of leadership learning, despite the trashfire * Managing in all directions, 360 degree leadership * Acknowledging that leadership successes depend on the quality of the team * Hiring tenets, "value add" vs "culture fit" * Finding the right role at CircleCI * Authority and how to swing it, un