liz

I long ago committed to nailing work-life balance, until I realized that work is a massive part of life, and there are so many other big parts of life to balance as well. So really what I aim for is how to achieve a balanced life overall. But in an effort not to [...]

I was able to talk with the great folks at Brakeing Down Security podcast about my Five Pillars of Well-Rounded Software Engineering Teams. Give it a listen!

When employees trust that they are valued, less management intervention is required for them to achieve significant results. The team will be more likely to stay focused, self-direct, and work together to overcome challenges. While methods of how to take care of a team will vary, here are a few factors: clear expectations, [...]

Calendars suck. Oh my goodness it is much easier to let the meetings come in as they may and do just-in-time shuffling than to try to wrestle and wrangle them. But that doesn't get me what I want to achieve anytime soon, so I have been doing experiments to get more intentional with [...]

There are days ... and then there are weeks ...... I previously shared my emergency toolkit which I use to get through troubling situations without spiraling out of control into despair. Sometimes, I still spiral out of control into despair. And when that happens, I've made myself a runbook. When one of these alerts fire on [...]

I use this communication tip a lot myself, and am so glad I came to learn it in the last few years! I also share it often since it has helped me so much, and continue to hone it all the time. When you really need to get a point across and make [...]

Do you know what a good decision is? Is it something you decide after you see the results of the choice you made? "Oh look at that, everything worked out fabulously. Great decision." Is it determined based upon some amount of information to factor into it? "The research shows me this is the [...]

Am I the only one who makes to do lists that are really lists of things I am putting off doing? Clean up my work calendarFigure out summer school/recreation for kidsWrite that paperSchedule my annual checkupWorkout And what do I often do when I see this list? Slack. Email. Browse on my phone or tidying [...]

There are days … Mine look like extreme frustration. I’m hiding in my office from the world. My brain is busy finding all sorts of evidence why I’m not good at anything. I’m trying to figure out how to make myself feel better in a hurry. Find someone to vent to? Work until [...]