Mackenzie Hughes’ Post

I’ve seen 3 approaches when it comes to organizational decision-making: 1. Decision-making is an inclusive team sport where everyone is involved in all planning and retrospecting 2. Teams are provided with a blueprint to democratize decision-making. They are given a guide on what info to use to make decisions, what factors to consider, and context that might impact decisions is constantly shared 3. All decisions are made by 1-3 people who try to be everywhere, all the time I’ve mostly seen companies using a blend of these, and many that over index on 1 or 3 depending on stage/culture. What are yall seeing out there? Any preferences?

“They just don’t have the skills to do it” - said every leader leading from an ivory tower. Let your team surprise you. I bet they do have the skills to do whatever IT is, and if they don’t, you can now see their skills gaps more clearly and address them better.

There is magic in the leadership teams that are able to disagree and commit anyway. Make fast decisions and present as a united front - that’s half the battle.

I am hopeful about tech. I've felt pretty negative about the tech industry for a while, and I know many of my peers feel the same. We're disillusioned with the way things are, while waxing poetic about the better times. Every week, I meet with women who are finally opening up about their struggles in the tech industry. For years, many of us have been fighting a silent battle, but we've reached our limit. Now, we're listening to our inner voices and realizing how powerful and smart we truly are. What gives me hope is seeing these women turn their pain into purpose. They're speaking up in their organizations, leaving corporate to start their own businesses, and forming their own communities. This feels like the beginning of something wonderful and new for tech.

For. Real. You need to find leaders who will meet the team where they are at > leaders who come in with a playbook. Every team has their own unique needs.

I’ve never been at a company that had a lay off and then reevaluated priorities based on their new, reduced capacity. Make it make sense.

After 30 years in education, my mom is retiring. She spent 15 years as a social studies teacher and another 15 years as a dean at Farmingdale High School. My mom was the kind of dean that would text her students to make sure they got up for school in the morning, who always provided a safe space for kids in her office to just talk and listen to music, and who received countless messages from parents thanking her for making sure their kids graduated. This week my mom gave her final speech at graduation. She talked about the importance of sitting in discomfort, being vulnerable, and her favorite: “playing nice in the sandbox.” Through her years at Farmingdale, my mom built her sandbox - a community of people - students, parents, and teachers - who were able to lean on and learn from each other. We should all dream to have a career like this, a life like this, where we are remembered for our kindness, compassion, thoughtfulness, and the impact we made on our community above anything else. It’s really all that matters. I’m really proud of my mom. Cheers to an unbelievable career and a beautiful life.

Product and Engineering people - if your performance is not being measured by a clear metric/set of metrics - make it happen TODAY. Don’t let your performance be based on one leader’s opinion of you.