The Leadership Garden Newsletter – #42

Each morning, we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.

Hello friend, I’m Csaba from Leadership Garden, and this is a weekly list of interesting articles that I come across that help me grow my thinking.

I hope you find something new to think about and share it with your friends.

And, if you forgot, this is in your inbox because you asked me to send it to you. You can always unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of this email.

Fixing “Too much WIP”

Jason Yip shares why teams tend to pick up too many parallel tasks and tips to cope with it.

Note to future self: Beware of fake urgency

“Fake urgency effectively delivers results – the team is likely to gather and complete it, as good teams tend to do. The downside is that fake urgency erodes trust, a fundamental trait of a healthy culture.” — The thing is, in the past 20+ years of my career, I very rarely saw real urgency.

The Paradox of Goals

Good article on the pitfalls of goal-setting.  It's somewhat obvious that failing in your pursuit of a goal leads to disappointment, but the disappointment from achieving a goal is sneaky and dangerous.

How to find your blind spots

“Reaching the next level” in a skill usually means adding one or two new mini-games to your arsenal, while making only modest improvements in mini-games that you’re already aware of.” Charles discusses how to elevate your engineering skills with shorter feedback cycles.

Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired? (Hacker News Thread)

Some companies are reporting that while they are actively hiring, recently laid-off workers weren't interested in working for them. The layoffs have affected people of various levels differently, and not only lower performers were let go. There are many replies from job searchers who are having a rough time trying to find a new position.

Against Overwhelm

How to spend your time with intent. Paulo André discusses a set of lenses through which you can take a critical look at how you spend your time, and constructive advice to make changes if you'd like.

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