Why We’re Here

I was talking with somebody today about why I write these posts on LinkedIn, the essays on Medium, and the occasional viral listicle on…

I was talking with somebody today about why I write these posts on LinkedIn, the essays on Medium, and the occasional viral listicle on Twitter.

When I started writing a few months ago, my first post was about assigning case studies (or “homework assignments”) as part of the job interview process. Don’t bother clicking, I’ll tell you what it says: I don’t like them.

I didn’t say it at the time, but I had just had myself an awful experience with a case study. After 7 hours (!) of behavior interviews, a company gave me a silly, reductive case study assignment to prepare for a presentation to their CPO. I spent hours preparing for it. I created a template, chose fonts, and designed a logo for an imaginary product.

The day of the presentation arrived, but the CPO… did not. I waited with the beta interviewer for about 15 minutes, until he casually shrugged and said “Ok, we’ll just record your presentation so he can watch it later.” I should have noped out of there right then, but I gamely and lamely went along.

The CPO eventually did eventually appear. And then he disappeared, and then he reappeared, as he popped in and out of the meeting to take other calls.

About 3 slides into my presentation he stopped me and drew me into the inevitable performative brainstorming session. I was totally humiliated, but I knuckled my way through it. He ran out the rest of our time with facile “what if ” banter that was profoundly silly and embarrassing to the whole profession.

They never saw my presentation. Maybe I’ll show it to all of you, someday.

I wrote my “Case Studies: Threat or Menace” post from the perspective of a curious employer, even though that all happened to me as a candidate, because that’s the kind of employer I want to be: Thoughtful and sensitive to the needs of employees.

Next I wrote a post about how to deliver jarring news to your team. That was inspired by an experience where I learned about a surprisingly abrupt change in strategy from my manager in a group meeting.

I wrote a post about how to improve your collaboration style, after I stunk up a design review meeting with useless feedback. And one about how managers can center people after thinking about a day where I didn’t feel very centered by my managers.

It took me a lot of years to figure this out: The best way for me to learn what kind of manager I want to be is by thinking about the kind of manager I want to have.

Does it sound easy, or obvious? If so, try this. Ask yourself: What did I do this week, as a leader, that didn’t quite live up to how I want my own manager to be?

That’s what I’m doing, and that’s what I’m writing about. I hope you’ll share your stories with me, too, so we can learn and grow together.