The Curious Leader

When a program doesn’t work and you don’t know why, the first thing you reach for is a debugger. Whether that’s a process-attached tool like GDB, the Dev Tools panel of your browser, or just a series of logger.log("now I'm here (3)"); statements littered through the code (my preferred method), you’ll soon have it figured out. What if there was a way to apply the same deliberate, iterative approach to management challenges? Surprise, there is! Read this episode and subscribe via email right here! Learn more about how coaching can help you reach YOUR full potential.

The pandemic forced a global, unexpected, non-consensual remote work experiment and the results are still being analyzed. But one thing that has become abundantly clear over the past three years is that many leaders don’t believe that remote workers can innovate. I hope you're not one of them! Read and subscribe to the newsletter version! (The post contains a few useful footnotes not cited here)

Your highest calling as a leader is to remember that your company requires employees in order to function, that employees are humans, and that the only thing that differentiates your company from an “immortal paperclip-maximizing artificial intelligence” is how you treat them. Read online and subscribe to the email version: https://blog.aaronbieber.coach/posts/great-leaders-humanize/ See the above web post for footnotes and links to other resources!

A post-mortem, when done correctly, is almost magical in its effectiveness, which is why they have become so common. But when it comes to figuring out what you really want, and what will give you lasting happiness in work and life, well… Waiting until it’s over is too late! Read online or subscribe to the email version: https://blog.aaronbieber.coach/posts/ensure-your-success-with-a-pre-mortem/ Dan Milstein's talk "How to Run a 5 Whys (With Humans, Not Robots)" at Lean Startup Conference 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78qzrXIPn5Q

Let’s say you want your workers to be more productive. As the leader of a large and complex organization, there are numerous levers that you could pull… But which ones will improve the work output? Read on the web or subscribe to an email version: https://blog.aaronbieber.coach/posts/to-improve-productivity-do-nothing/ A short clip from James Burke's "Connections 2" miniseries is played; it is from episode 20, "Flexible Response." https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985792/?ref_=ttep_ep20

Part of your job as a leader is to create the culture by aligning values, incentives, and your own behavior. But when it comes to getting the day-to-day work done, ordinary incentives aren’t always enough. Read or subscribe to a newsletter format: https://blog.aaronbieber.coach/posts/what-s-your-cathedral/ Simon Sinek, "Start With Why": https://amzn.to/3J360F3