• Burnout risk during this pandemic

    Burnout risk during this pandemic

    I miss my commute to work. That’s something I never thought I would say! Working from home continually seemed like a dream at the start, an extra lie in each morning followed by the first catch up online in my dressing gown. But over the months I realised that work…

  • Meetup talk: Building a Tech Culture at Medidata

    Meetup talk: Building a Tech Culture at Medidata

    As part of the TechHeads meetup on 30th July I gave talk titled – Building a Tech Culture at Medidata. It was followed by a YouTube Live Q&A. A tech culture can be hard to define and even harder to build. My talk covers some of the approaches used to…

  • Video: Leadership – Remote Team Socialising

    Video: Leadership – Remote Team Socialising

    With the current coronavirus pandemic the majority of us are working from home. As leaders, it’s important that we maintain relationships with the people in our teams during this period so that no one is feeling isolated or lonely. This can be difficult though, in the video below I share…

  • Video: Leadership – First Team Mindset

    Video: Leadership – First Team Mindset

    Having a First Team mindset is important for the success of an organisation. This mindset is a change in thinking and can go against the natural instinct to focus on the teams you lead. But, once understood, it’s easy to see the benefits this provides to the organisation and individual…

  • The results will take care of themselves

    The results will take care of themselves

    TL;DR – Bill Walsh, an ex-NFL coach, had a leadership approach that transformed the success of the San Francisco 49ers. His ‘Standard of Performance’ covers a wide range of leadership traits that apply across industries. Each point offers learning relevant to leading tech teams today. There’s no hiding from the…

  • Organize your new hire onboarding tasks

    Organize your new hire onboarding tasks

    Setting a good impression for new hires is important, we also want to show that we’re organized and prepared as a new person starts their journey with us. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, with our busy days it’s not easy to pass on information in a structured way. At…

  • You don’t mistakenly become great

    You don’t mistakenly become great

    I don’t follow the NBA much but came across this short video from an interview with Draymond Green from Golden State Warriors that impressed me… To quote one part: You don’t just mistakenly become great at something. You probably at one time believed that you can be great at that…

  • Welcome problems with open arms

    Welcome problems with open arms

    It’s Monday morning on your way into work, the weekend now over as you look at the day and week head. Do you hope that everything goes smoothly? No production incidents. Deployments run smoothly. Teams working well together steadily delivering features. We like an easy life, but does it really…

  • Write a blog as though you were presenting at a conference

    Write a blog as though you were presenting at a conference

    Does writing come naturally for you?  For me it doesn’t, I keep at it because I find it’s a good way to develop ideas and share information. One thing that has helped me is the mindset I take while writing, that is pretending I’m presenting this blog to a room…