tl;dr:James explores the concept of "span of control," which refers to the number of direct reports a manager oversees. He argues that there's no one-size-fits-all answer, but suggests that around 8 direct reports could be a "sweet spot." Factors affecting the optimal number include practical limits, the seniority of the manager, the experience level of the reports, the manager's individual contributions, and the type of work the team does. An organization's span of control needs to be managed carefully, especially during economic downturns, to avoid negative outcomes like layoffs or role changes.
tl;dr:James delves into the frustrations many face due to limited career progression opportunities during economic downturns. "The most important thing to embrace is that there are things you can control, and things you can't." James shares what these are and suggests reshaping the narrative around promotions and focusing on personal impact. By creating a workback plan - which outlines the impact you want to have in the future and the steps that you need to take to get there - one can strategically prepare for future promotions, even in challenging times.
tl;dr:"At every job, you should either learn or earn. Either is fine. Both are best. But if it's neither, quit." The article elaborates on this idea, explaining the symbiotic relationship between learning and earning. Learning increases earning potential by opening doors to bigger roles and opportunities. Earning more money can enable one to take financial risks for further learning, such as accepting a pay cut for a more senior position at a start-up.
tl;dr:“I’ll pitch the takeaway up front, and it’s this: hold yourself accountable for making decisions and progressing discussions as quickly as possible, by whatever means necessary. Be restless while a decision hasn’t been made. Dead time is your enemy. Be creative about ways of shaving minutes, hours and days from a decision point.” James gives several examples of how to approach this.
tl;dr: “When you’re staring a huge, challenging project in the face, don’t align your team around just getting it done. Instead, align your team around continually reducing uncertainty…” James advises us to prioritize the most uncertain parts of the project and focus efforts on getting answers. Answers fall into two broad categories: that it is possible, as proved by code, or that it’s not possible, but yields another avenue to try. You repeat this process until you’re done, or until you think it’s best to stop. “Focussing on reducing uncertainty builds momentum and trust both inside and outside of the team.”
tl;dr:"You reduce uncertainty until the software exists. You reduce uncertainty by doing: prototyping, designing, writing code, and shipping. Each of these actions serve to reduce the uncertainty about what is left to build." James discusses different methods of reducing uncertainty across a project, at various stages.
tl;dr:"In a world of continual context-switching and distraction, if you’re able to make it as easy as possible for others to understand what you want, what the next steps are, and whether or not you have a strong preference, then you’ll find that your interactions are far, far better." James digs into this with examples and the following framework: (1) Make it clear up front what you want. (2) Make the next steps obvious. (3) If you have a recommendation, say it up front.
tl;dr:James advices ICs and Managers to bucket their time: (1) Map out how you’re spending your time into daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly buckets. (2) Identify which of the tasks are repeated and which are one-offs. (3) Are all of your one-offs strategically important or are they busywork? (4) Is there anything that you can delegate to others or automate? (5) Is there anything that you can remove completely?
tl;dr:Monday to Wednesday are high energy, productive days for James, but Thursday is an inflection point where he's tiring. James discusses how he's trying to rectify this: (1) Purposefully trying to work 10% slower. (2) Being stricter with notifications so there's less context switching. (3) Limiting checking messages to within working hours. (4) Deferring non-essential requests and tasks into the following week. (5) Pomodoro technique.
tl;dr:"Hybrid work only works when all employees are treated as remote employees. To do this, companies need to do five things: embrace asynchronous communication, make communication boundaries clear, champion documentation and the production of artifacts, share information widely, and provide the right tools for employees to succeed." Each are discussed in this post.