SSC Editorial: The Counter Offer – Part 1/Part 2

Counter offers (and the related discussions) are an emotional topic. The comments on two of my editorials for SQLServerCentral (The Counter Offer – Part 1 and The Counter Offer – Part 2) show that. The takeaway for me is that we are still torn about being loyal employees and expecting that loyalty back and the workplace […]

SSC Editorial: Would You Pay to Wear Jeans at Work?

Would You Pay to Wear Jeans at Work turned out to be popular piece when posted a couple weeks back. The premise is that some companies allow a relaxed dress code in return for a donation to a specified charity. I’ve opted in at times and not at others to this kind of offer based on […]

Quarterly Goals

Over time I’ve settled on quarterly goals as the best way to focus on the stuff I most want to get done. I still think about my long term goals and I still have to do short term planning, but quarterly goals work out to be the most useful measure when explaining my goals to […]

Meetings In Glass Houses

If you’ve followed my writing for a while you’ll know I’m a fan of translucency (transparency) in most things business. Right now I’m working next to a meeting room that has glass walls – talk about transparency! It seems like a good idea, it lets in a lot of light and makes it feel more […]

Review: Tell Me How I’m Doing

I found Tell Me How I’m Doing by Richard L. Williams at the local library. It’s a book about giving feedback, told as a story. To condense a lot, the technique they teach is to think of everyone having a ‘feedback bucket’ that has holes in the bottom. If a manager doesn’t put enough feedback […]

Review: The Abilene Paradox

The Abilene Paradox by Jerry Harvey is not a new book, written in 1988. It’s part of some reading I’m doing for a project. The book is about management and is a series of stories/essays. It’s not a book I’d recommend to a first time or first level manager, but for all that it had […]

PASS Summit 2013 Report #14

More quick notes, it was a busy day: I saw down with PASS Board Rick Bolesta after the keynote to discuss his fifteen years of service. I’ll be publishing that interview sometime next week. Lunch today was ok, not as good as yesterday. I had a chance to interview the PASS Officers today at 2 […]

Need Recommendations on Being a Better Listener

This past weekend I’ve been reading The Zen of Listening by Rebecca Shafir, part of my ongoing efforts to be better at many things and also part of research for an upcoming project. The book was a good starting point for me, with some ideas on the different types of listening and how mindfulness and […]

Interview Candidates for Skills, Aptitude, Maybe Both

Over the years I’ve been primary a skills interviewer. In theory I know what skills are needed and in theory I want to hire someone that can do a hundred percent of those on day one. The other technique is aptitude hiring – asking questions that can reveal the interest and ability to learn new […]

Review: The Phoenix Project

Back in April Steve Jones mentioned reading a review of The Phoenix Project by mutual friend Thomas LaRock. It’s a book about IT written as a story that covers the trials and mishaps that all of us will identify with – corrupted data, SAN failure, too many projects, unrealistic demands, etc. The goal is to […]

SQLAndy

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