Strategies for Working with Others in Tech

(Photo credit @johnschno)

1. Knowing how to coach peers is an important skill. The article below had some great tips on how to transition from giving unsolicited advice to co-workers to helping provide peer coaching instead. 

   • The art of giving good workplace advice

2. Consider employing the ‘radical candor’ approach as a manager

   • I enjoyed Kim Scott’s book Radical Candor and the framework she employs to help explain how great managers can give guidance to their team members. 

   • When the managers I worked for and with employed this approach, it generated challenging conversations that offered huge growth opportunities.

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How productive do you really need to be?

(Photo credit @cathrynlavery)

1. Another thing I’ve admitted to myself in pandemic times: it’s ok to admit that you’re only about 40-50% as productive as normal. Here’s some advice on how to recover: 

   • The Guilt-Free Guide to Getting Back on Track After a Completely Unproductive Day

2. Still struggling to get motivated? It happens to all of us!

   • One approach is to remind yourself why you were a great hire in the first place (also a super helpful strategy when you are trying to make a job pivot): 

     1. How to Find Your Job Search Value Proposition

   • Another is to re-define what it means to be productive right now:

     1. Redefining Lack of Productivity During COVID-19 -Kushaan Shah (love the Pixar Story Spine game!)

3. If you’re working with or managing others, you should be thinking about ways to help support your team right now.

   • Fostering employee productivity and morale through COVID-19 

   • How to Spot When an Employee Is Secretly Struggling

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Supporting Diversity in the Workplace

(Photo credit @healing_photographer)

1. Listen.

2. Learn.

   • Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources

   • The Anti-Racist Reading List

3. Be an employee or manager who is aware of how external events impact your team members, and what strategies/initiatives you can initiate or promote to help support those team members. Recognize the trauma around you. Start a conversation. You’ll make mistakes but you have to try. 

   • Black Professionals Are Going Through A Lot

   • How Managers Can (and Should) Address Race and Violence in The News

4. As an employee, when do you have to consider your complicity in some of the actions (or lack of action) done by your company? No company is ever perfect in their approach to diversity, but when does inaction or wholly inappropriate action fall onto an employee’s shoulders, as a member of the organization? When is resignation an action that is a sign of privilege or a sign of sacrifice, or both? 

   • Tech companies say they support racial justice. Their actions raise questions.

   • Facebook software engineer resigns with scathing criticism of the network's refusal to act on 'weaponized hatred' 

   • How to speak up when you see bias at work 

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Want a Career in Tech but aren’t sure where to start? Take a look at MY COURSE, ‘TECH SEARCH COMPASS’ FOR STEP-BY-STEP SUPPORT