Blog

When it comes to negotiating, there's an easy and instant way, where you just go for it and see what happens. In another sense, really, the easiest thing to do is nothing, and rely solely on outside forces and chance.   Or, you can take additional steps that will increase the likelihood of your desired outcome. With enough practice, these steps can also seem easy and instant. These four steps can help [...]

I'm often working with executives to come up with timelines and priorities, and I'm often working with older children to help them understand what I need to know in order to help them make a decision or complete something, and--I promise I'm not making a correlation between executives and children here--through this I've learned how valuable it is to understand and communicate the impact something will have. Often it is challenging [...]

I have a canned response I have used for years when someone talks to me about a challenge they're having, and I'm in some sort of "position of power" relative to them in terms of some role I have (boss at work, director, organization president, mother, etc). "Are you venting, looking for advice, or hoping for some intervention?" This framing helps me understand if they have any specific but as of yet [...]

It's promotion and review season where I work, and going through this cycle I was reminded of a theme I frequently see come up: Focused effort vs broad involvement Sometimes we create situations for ourselves and our own growth when we are doing many things at once. Sometimes we feel like we have to, or things will fall apart and reflect badly on us. At the same time, those who focus and drive [...]

Once upon a time, there was a book. I didn’t realize I’d had it, or had taken a look. I’m not sure who wrote it, some was surely by me. And more parts I’d copied from others’ beliefs. Its pages were full of rules and expectations. I’d come to rely on it in many situations. Until I started to notice a worrying bit, that my own joy and happiness were affected by [...]

I was a guest on the Engineering Enablement podcast's inaugural episode, talking about how we have been transforming GitHub's Developer Experience (DX). Have a listen or catch the transcript there.