Perspective of the Other Side

Common Leadership Challenges

While working with leaders, I often encounter a recurring issue—they want someone else to change their behavior. For example:

Have a Clear Vision, Stick to the Intention and Adjust the Implementation

No matter if you are a tech lead, Scrum Master, Product Owner, or a member of the team, if you want to make your idea a reality, here is a very simple (and of course very difficult to implement) advice:

Technical Leadership Book is Available

Exciting Announcement: Technical Leadership Book Release

It is a great pleasure for me to share the information that today is the premiere of my book “Technical Leadership”.

Conferences Time

Autumn is usually a busy time full of conferences, and this year is no different. After a few interesting events like Devoxx Poland in Cracow, Codepot and Agile by Example in Warsaw, it’s now time for new experiences.

Time for Non-Violent Rebel

The Deficit of Humanity in Agile Practice

Agile thinking has been with us for several years. There is a lot of humanity behind Agile thinking, and this is what is great about it. But Agile, like every idea, is just that—an idea. It is not easily applicable in life and often distorted to be convenient, though not necessarily useful. People focus on practices and lose the spirit of the idea. Agile is just an example. All in all, the problem is the deficit of humanity in the business context.

Task-doing vs. Responsibility Taking - A Subtle Distinction

The Subtle Distinction Between Task-doing and Responsibility Taking

I have been reading a book on parenthood recently (yes, tech guys also read such books :-)) and there has been a discussion about responsibility. Even when fathers devote their time to spending time with children and doing some tasks related to children and family, they may still not take responsibility for it. So you can take your children to the doctor when they are sick, bring them to school or kindergarten every day, go with them to a playground… and still not take responsibility.

If You Were to Do One Thing, It Should Be...

Avoid Starting Unnecessary Projects

I have had an interesting conversation with my friend who is also a manager in one of the Polish companies. At a certain moment, he said:

Technical Leader Worries: I Have Too Many Things to Do

Those wonderful days when the only thing you did was writing code are gone. Now you are a leader. You are doing everything: attending or conducting meetings, removing impediments, mediating between team members and the rest of the organization, reading or writing some kind of reports (and you deceive yourself that spending two hours in Excel counts as programming because of some smartly used formulas) and so on. You are in a hurry all the time, and it never ends.

Technical Leader Worries: My Organization Is a Mess, and Nobody Cares

Some time ago, I coined a funny equation like this:

Technical Leader Worries: I Am Not a Born Leader

Have you ever heard about Alexander the Great, Napoleon, J. F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King? I bet you have. These are great historical leaders. These names often come to mind when we think about leadership. When coupled with Hollywood movie characters, we imagine leaders as heroes with strong charisma and exceptional talent for public speaking. This stereotype is hard to shake. But wait a minute… Is this what we should adhere to when talking about technical leaders?

Technical Leader Worries: I Want to Build Trust in My Team but I Don't Want Them to Do What They Want

Understanding Trust in Leadership

Trust is a very big word and very often misused. Many leaders, in an attempt to build trust, feel obliged to allow people to do anything they want. However, they also wish to have some impact on how a task is completed.

Technical Leader Worries: To Be a Tech Expert or Not to Be

The majority of IT leaders are promoted IT specialists. Many times, this happens surprisingly, and we are usually not well prepared for this change. We love our tech job—programming—and suddenly someone wants to take it from us. Of course, we are free people and can say “NO,” but it doesn’t happen too often. Becoming a leader may be the next real step in our career, a new opportunity to learn something completely different.

Technical Leader Worries: Team Members Are Whining

Understanding Team Complaints

It’s very annoying when you hear whining from your team. They complain about boring work, stupid company security policy, wrong management decisions, customers not knowing what they want and changing their minds, and project managers crowding them. Doesn’t it sound familiar?

Building Knowledge in Teams: Main Mistakes and Strategies

The topic of knowledge management in teams is largely overlooked by IT leaders. There is a silent assumption that it happens automatically. To some extent, it does, as programmers are accustomed to constantly learning to stay ahead. However, this is not sufficient. It’s not enough for everyone (or realistically, half) to learn individually. If the team is to be effective, cohesive and up-to-date knowledge is needed. Knowledge of new technologies or solutions holds limited value compared to this.

The Six Deadly Sins of Technical Leaders

Introduction

I probably would not have written this post if Michał hadn’t encouraged me. Over the past few months, I’ve slowly come to terms with a realization that I was hesitant to accept, yet it is quite understandable.

The Charisma of a Leader

The Essence of the Charismatic Leader

Recently, I’ve been working more with leaders of development teams, and I’ve become quite intrigued by the topic of dynamism and the charisma that often accompanies it.

Young Manager/Team Leader! Get a Grip!

History tends to repeat itself, and this is a common tale among young managers and team leaders. A recurring, tragic mistake is the commitment to unrealistic deadlines.