tl;dr:Frameworks are "frames of reference that help people concentrate on what truly matters." Without discipline, the best frameworks are useless. This is the essence of leadership, and Paulo provides examples of how to develop such frameworks.
tl;dr:"While this targets primarily VPs of Engineering, the principles and practices are entirely applicable at all levels of the org. They will help you develop solid working relationships with any non-technical stakeholders." Paulo breaks this post into: (1) Importance of starting with the end in mind. (2) Your role as a leader. (3) The mindset of an effective VP of Engineering. (4) Learn, adapt and improve.
tl;dr:Ask yourself why you need documentation e.g. making better decisions across the org, helping people get the right information, making onboarding more self-service. "If we’re deciding whether to write something, we should ask whether writing it will help us with one of those objectives." Paulo suggests pointing your team towards the "why" and also provides tips for maintaining the practice.
tl;dr:"You start realizing that everything comes back to a relatively small number of principles, universally applicable." Paulo's 20 principles include: (1) Don’t fool yourself. Self-awareness is the foundation without which nothing else works. (2) Lead yourself first. Manage emotions, don’t suppress them. (3) Focus on what you can control. Attempting to control the uncontrollable is a waste of time and energy. And more.
tl;dr:As a company grows and "we don't give up control at the top," we sacrifice two things: (1) quality, as decisions are made further away from the truth. (2) Speed, as decisions are blocked by what's happening elsewhere. Creating clarity is essential to scaling an org.