Category Archives: Being a Good Leader
New Hires: Gophers vs. My Hair’s On Fire
In which I discuss another spectrum of behaviors, specifically as it pertains to how people approach and solve problems, how they do it wrong, and how good leaders coach them to be better. Continue reading
Fixers vs. Enablers
In which I discuss the difference between “fixers,” who intervene at any sign of trouble, to “enablers,” who encourage and enable their teams to solve the problems themselves. Both extremes are bad, but understanding where you are, and where your boss is, on this spectrum helps manage expectations. Continue reading
A Slightly Wonky Follow-up on Pay, After the “Talent is a Power Curve” Post
Where I compare Amazon’s pay structure against the fact that talent is a power curve. Is it possible that Amazon was trying to model the curve? Or are Amazon’s compensation ranges not adequately reflecting differences in performance? While I don’t have an answer, the question itself has interesting implications. Continue reading
Luck
In which I talk about how I’m very lucky in my life, and because of who I lived with in my sophomore year in college, I am even luckier still. Continue reading
Amazon’s Compensation Targets Exploit the Promotion Process and Pay Below Industry Rates
In which I review Amazon’s new compensation targets. This structure discourages promotion due to forcing newly-promoted people into the range minimum for 1-2 years, while insisting they perform at the next highest level for 2-4 years before they’re promoted. It also potentially places 80% of all employees at or below the midpoint for their level. Continue reading
Talent is a Power Curve, or Why Employee Top Grading is Driven by Bias
In which I discuss how talent distribution follows a power curve rather than a Gaussian “bell” curve, making it difficult to differentiate low performers. It critiques Amazon’s stack ranking policies, which ultimately lead to bias becoming the determining factor for who gets performance management. Continue reading
Amazon’s RTO SNAFU
Where I discuss Amazon’s RTO (return-to-office) mandate, and their inability to communicate any data-driven or evidence-based decision making. Continue reading
Leaving Amazon
The first post I made on LinkedIn was my goodbye post, announcing that I was leaving Amazon, with a few comments as to why. I was surprised when it got nearly 250,000 impressions, over 1,500 reactions, and 150 comments. It’s … Continue reading
Increasing the Scope
As mentioned in the about page, I’m not only an amateur / hobbyist astronomer with a high-tech telescope, I’m also a software professional. I graduated with a computer science degree back in the mid-90’s, and pretty quickly got into management. … Continue reading
