Articles and Posts

I look at my growth as a business leader as part of a journey towards self actualization. I’m not so much adapting to the role as learning who I truly am in service to other people in this role.

Can we sing the praises of engineers for a moment. The audacity and genius of entrepreneurs and scientists is awesome but what about the skill, ingenuity, and practiced discipline to craft a solution that actually works and that doesn’t fall apart when you turn your back on it.🙌

At our town hall I showed how our exec team’s use of data created blind spots that delayed our response to a decline in revenue. Thanks to our sales, marketing, and consulting teams we have course corrected (woot) - though we still won’t achieve our plan. I showed a side by side comparison of our old key indicator and our new one to demonstrate why the latter provides better information. I updated our company wide dashboard and invited everyone to use it to hold me accountable so it doesn’t happen again.

I’m totally okay working to earn the trust of people who see the world differently from me. It’s with them that I’ll achieve anything truly interesting.

First session of annual planning was modeling key activities that create value: assumptions, inputs, process steps. Agreeing on leading and lagging measures for quality and growth. Then confirming where that data exists and deciding how to make it available to everyone.

Each day we root ourselves in the reality of today’s choices while walking towards the future we want to build (as best as we can see it). It’s an iterative act of self-assertion. And not without drama. We re-tell each other the saga of our journey even as we walk it together.

One piece of advice I’d give anyone in a leader role is learn how to model in numbers the value your team creates. I learned how over years as a mid level engineering manager and it’s a transferable skill now that I’m diving into the forecast models for my business.

Authenticity is not just saying what we think and feeling what we feel. We owe a duty of care. How we embody that care for others is also an expression of who we really are.

Thanks again Mark Rickmeier for creating Kermit Collective. I’ve never known a community so effective at fostering mentorship, business deals, and genuine friendship.

Obvious but humbling reminder to myself for the day. Don’t rely on a “leading indicator” that only anticipates issues after the time it really takes to remedy to them. 90 day projection. 90+ day cycle to effect the outcome. Not a leading indicator.

Feeling the “COOPERATITION” love at kermitcollective.com. Thank you, Claudia Richman, Mark Rickmeier, Michael Marsiglia, Doug Alcorn, Marian Phelan and everyone else I learned from and inspired me last night. It’s the most intense and focused opportunity I get to learn how better to operate my mission informed, end to end software product development shop. We can compete for work and still believe our greatest opportunity is to create more room for small, boutique shops that are responsible and transparent. Committed to quality, collaboration, and valuable outcomes. And have the talent, values, and focus to do it.

My leadership team and I are holding sessions walking Striders through our business results for the year. Each groups achievements, OKR confidence, financial forecast, and learnings. Learned this from a COO who delivered a slimmed down version of the corporate board every year.