Not What, But Who

I've been moving from project to project for quite some time now. What I've realized is that for most professional gigs, it's not what you're doing that's important as much as who you're doing it with.

I recall a time when my teammates called me Bobby Tables for an entire 2-week iteration. Bobby Tables is developer humor.

Like many of the teams I have been fortunate to work with, everyone was productive but more importantly, our days were humor-filled.

So whenever I piss and moan about this technology stack or that technology stack <cough>Silverlight</cough>, I have to remind myself...

It's the people, dummy

Management & Leadership Psychobabble

I'm weary of management & leadership psychobabble (e.g., The manager does this, while the leader does that).

While not bullet-proof, two tenets that hold true more often than not in my day-to-day life as a knowledge worker:

1. Command and Control Management is almost always unnecessary and irrelevant. 
2. Leadership is often over-rated (see Dancing Guy video in Leaders Yes, Managers No).

Where's my management & leadership psychobabble?

The Manager asks for the report, but The Leader gets his own damn report.