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July 24 · Issue #154 · View online
Level Up delivers a curated newsletter for leaders in tech. A project by https://patkua.com. Ideal for busy people such as Tech Leads, Engineering Managers, VPs of Engineering, CTOs and more.
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Do you want to be right or be effective? Ever worked with a tech person who needed to have the last word, just to prove they are right? Yeah. You probably have one in your team, or you likely have several of these in your company. You might notice them because they like to be the person with the last word, play the “devil’s advocate” or talk the most. I’ve worked with (and coached) many people as they transition into leadership roles and often need to ask the question, “Do you want to be right, or be effective?” Technical folk often seem puzzled because in their eyes, being “right” is the same as being “effective.” It’s not until we explore through some coaching questions do they realise their “pushing” their ideas, opinions or thoughts on others also tends to create invisible barriers… which they don’t realise they are creating. These invisible barriers might start with eye-rolling, silence (which they often interpret as agreement), and a poor reputation that lead to discussions they are not invited to. Ultimately, them continuing to push lead to others pushing back (escalation) or people being pushed away… neither very effective. One common approach, for those looking at being more effective, is to start with questions. As the saying goes (Stevey Covey?), “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Enjoy this week’s newsletter, and please pass it on to a friend or colleague who might benefit.
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Seek first to understand, then to be understood. This requires good listening skills.
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The open source platform for your product data PostHog’s product data platform has everything product teams need. Analytics, Heatmaps, Recordings, Funnels, Feature Flags, Experimentation and more — all seamlessly integrated. You can self-host, so user data never leaves your infrastructure.
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spf13 Google -->
Reading time: 8mins A great part of learning from others is understanding their leadership journeys. Product and Tech Advocacy Leader, Steve Francia (@spf13), has spent 6 years expanding the Go language and it’s certainly grown (with many other people’s help of course)! Read his post to reflect on some of his own memories and consider writing and sharing some of yours too. It’s a great way to reflect and celebrate!
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How to Communicate with Intent as a Leader
Reading time: 9mins (Medium paywall) Anthony Boyd points out that if you can’t communicate, you can’t lead. Fortunately, he offers 5 tips to help you improve your communication skills.
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10 CIOs share advice on career development
Reading time: 10mins
Carla Rudder (@carlarudder) shares tips from 10 CIOs that are relevant to career development for all levels - if you’re just starting out in the industry, all the way up to those who want to join them in the C-suite.
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Join an online cohort-based workshop and level up your technical leadership skills
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How we automated FAQ responses at Grab
Reading time: 8mins Preeti Karkera from Grab shows how the simple application of tech can help improve organisational productivity. A nice short overview of how they approached this from defining what problem they were trying to solve, and how they picked the tech for it.
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UK heat wave causes Google and Oracle cloud outages
Reading time: 5mins
Lawrence Abrams (@LawrenceAbrams) reports on what happens when climate change meets tech 💥 Given the global trend and lack of action, this is probably going to become even more frequent 🫣
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How Rust manages memory using ownership and borrowing
Reading time: 17mins Although I’ve never written any production Rust, I love reading about how programming languages optimise for different characteristics and how their implementation differs. Ukeje Chukwuemeriwo Goodness gives us a great deep dive into how Rust manages memory.
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Looking for more ways to level up your communication skills. Try this self-paced course and click on the banner
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A Checklist Manifetsy
Reading time: 7 mins A good reminder from Theresa Eades about how checklists can help us in technology. She also offers a nice short checklist of questions in different parts of work areas to consider.
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How to Set KPIs for Your Data Team
Reading time: 10mins Engineering leaders are still reflecting on measurements, metrics and KPIs for software teams but there are many articles on this topic. I’m including this article from Barr Moses (@BM_DataDowntime) because I don’t read much from tech leaders responsible for data teams.
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How to Resolve These Five Problems of Struggling Software Engineers
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A good reminder 👇 #SystemsThinking
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"It is not necessary to change a person in order to change their behavior.
Just change their environment."
–@
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2012: Java people advocating for server side rendering and minimize usage of JS on client 2022: JavaScript people advocating for server side rendering and minimize usage of JS on client
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If you enjoyed this newsletter, send me feedback and share it with others!
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Patrick Kua, Postfach 58 04 40, 10314, Berlin, Germany
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