Leadership

Type: Concepts (20) · Dualities (28) · Principles (22) · Advice (38) · Tools (7)

Concepts

3 Speeds of Communication — Communication happens at three different speeds. Choosing the right speed matters.
Asynchronous Communication — Communication where participants don't need to be present at the same time.
Authoritarian Antiauthoritarians — The paradox of people who reject authority but become authoritarian themselves.
Coaching as a Leadership Style — Leading by developing people rather than directing them.
Conways Law — "Any organisation that designs a system will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organisation's communication structure." - Melvin Conway, 1967
Focusing Illusion — Nothing is as important as you think it is while you're thinking about it.
Framing — How you present information shapes how people respond to it.
Fundamental Attribution Bias — You judge others by their character and yourself by your circumstances.
Group Mind — A team is a tool until it isn't. At some point it becomes a mind of its own — and once it starts thinking back, you can't unthink it.
Holacracy — A system of self-organisation where authority is distributed through roles, not job titles.
Holistic Leadership — Leading the whole system, not just the parts you're directly responsible for.
Just For Fun — Linus Torvalds' three stages of motivation: survival, social order, entertainment. The goal is to reach the third.
Law of Triviality — People spend disproportionate time on trivial issues while neglecting important ones.
Mirror Neuron System — People mirror the behaviour they see, especially from leaders.
Push and Pull Methods of Aligning Team — Two ways to get a team moving in the same direction.
Servant Leadership — The leader's job is to serve the team, not the other way around.
Tetris Effect — What you practise seeing, you start seeing everywhere.
The Flow State — Peak performance happens when challenge meets skill with zero distraction.
Writing Driven Communications — Using written documents as the primary tool for thinking, alignment, and decisions.
Zero-Based Budgeting — Every budget cycle starts from zero. Nothing is carried forward automatically.

Dualities

Assets vs Resources — Are your employees assets that appreciate over time, or resources that get consumed?
Compensating Effort vs Outcome — Pay for what changed in the world, not for how hard someone tried.
Context Over Control — Give people the why and let them figure out the how.
Creating a Movement vs a Company — A company sells a product. A movement sells a purpose.
Divergent and Convergent Thinking — Two modes of thinking. Both are essential. They must not happen at the same time.
Governance Over Control and Command — Replace top-down control with systems that guide behaviour.
Governance vs Operations — Two distinct functions that leaders must keep separate.
Guilt vs Shame — Guilt says "I did something bad." Shame says "I am bad." One drives change, the other drives hiding.
High-Context and Low-Context Cultures — How much is said explicitly vs how much is implied.
If You Want It You Will Ask How — A simple test to gauge someone's real motivation.
Inside vs Outside the Box — Working in the system vs working on the system.
Justice vs Vengeance — When something goes wrong, leaders can pursue justice — a fair outcome — or vengeance dressed up as justice.
Knowledge in Time vs Accumulated Knowledge — Knowing things changes less than knowing how to find and apply them.
Local Speed and Global Speed — Optimising for speed in one place can slow down the whole system.
Maker Schedule vs Manager Schedule — From Paul Graham. Two fundamentally different ways of structuring a day.
Outcome Driven vs Output Driven — Measure what changed, not what was produced.
Problem-Solvers and Theory-Builders — Two types of thinkers. Both are valuable in different situations.
Problems to Solve vs Problems to Manage — Not every problem has a solution. Some need ongoing management.
Productive vs Looking Productive — Real output matters more than visible busyness.
Prophets vs Clergy — Two types of leaders that organisations need at different stages.
Roots vs Fruits — You can focus on what produces results or on the results themselves.
Stakeholders vs Stockholders — Who does the company serve?
Strategy vs Tactics — Strategy is what and why. Tactics are how.
Strategy vs Vision — Vision is the destination. Strategy is the route.
Telescope and Microscope — Working on the right level of abstraction.
Trust Over Control — Trust is the foundation. Control is the crutch.
Urgent vs Important — From Eisenhower. Most urgent things are not important, and most important things are not urgent.
You Can Lead More Than You Can Manage — Leadership scales. Management doesn't.

Principles

Alignment Is Strategy Structure Systems Skills — For an organisation to be aligned, four things must work together.
Be Honest and Confident at the Same Time — Honesty without confidence sounds like doubt. Confidence without honesty sounds like arrogance.
Big Projects Grow Great Professionals — People grow when they're stretched, not when they're comfortable.
Brainstorming Doesnt Work — Traditional group brainstorming produces fewer and worse ideas than individuals working alone.
Clarity of Purpose — If people don't know why they're doing something, they'll do the wrong thing.
Clear Communication Is Hard Work — Clarity doesn't come naturally. It requires effort.
Clear Writing Means Clear Thinking — If you can't write it clearly, you haven't thought it through.
Company Culture Is Organic — Culture isn't what you write on the wall. It's what people actually do.
Depth When Consuming Information Matters — Skimming everything teaches you nothing. Depth is where understanding lives.
Excessive Positivity Leads to Self-Exploitation — Relentless optimism can become a tool for ignoring your own limits.
Focus Is Saying No — Focus is not deciding what to work on — it's deciding what to abandon.
Irrational Becomes Rational with Context — Behaviour that looks irrational usually makes perfect sense once you understand the constraints.
Listening Is a Skill — Most people listen to respond. Leaders must listen to understand.
Masterplans Are Inflexible — Grand plans look great on paper but fail in reality.
Mastery Over Success — You either strive for success or mastery.
Multitasking Is a Regression — Doing two things at once means doing neither well.
Rest Is a Skill — If you don't know how to rest, you don't know how to sustain performance.
Seeking Explanations — Don't stop at knowing what happened. Ask why until you understand the mechanism.
Take What You Need Policy — Trust people to take what they need and give what they can.
Targets Corrupt Their Metrics — The moment a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure.
The Less You Know The Surer You Feel — Confidence is loudest where competence is thinnest.
You Cannot Outsource Understanding — You can hand off the work of thinking. You cannot hand off the work of understanding.

Advice

Accept What Is Outside Your Control — Spend your energy on what you can change. Let go of what you can't.
Aim to Do Nothing by Yourself — Your job as a leader is to make yourself unnecessary.
Amplify Good Patterns — Notice what's working and make more of it.
As a Leader Your Commitment Influences Others — People watch what you do more than what you say.
Balance Consult-and-Decide and Build-Consensus — Two decision-making approaches. Use both, but know when to use which.
Balancing Engineering Values — Engineering teams often hold values in tension. The leader's job is to balance them.
Be the Agent of Change — Don't wait for someone else to fix things. That's your job.
Bias for Action — When in doubt, do something. Inaction is a choice too, and usually the worse one.
Company Becomes People It Hires — Every hire shapes the company's future culture, capability, and direction.
Constantly Review Incentive Structures — People optimise for what's measured and rewarded. Make sure you're rewarding the right things.
Eliminate Organisational Debt — Just like technical debt, organisations accumulate structural problems that slow everything down.
Enjoy Running the Company — The day-to-day work of leadership is the job. Not just the vision.
Explaining Anything Helps to Understand It Better — Teaching is the most underrated learning strategy.
Focus on Things Only You Can Do — Delegate everything that someone else can do. Spend your time on what only you can do.
Governance by Coding — Embed governance into the systems themselves, not into documents or meetings.
Growth Must Be Sustainable — Fast growth that breaks things isn't growth. It's a time bomb.
Have Only One High-Level Strategy — If you have three strategies, you have none.
Hire Slow Fire Fast — Take your time hiring. Don't delay when it's not working.
Hire Those Who Know Better Than You — Your job is to build a team that's collectively smarter than you.
In Order to Get You Need to Give — Reciprocity is the foundation of relationships and influence.
Keep Questioning What You Believe — Certainty is a stopping point. Treat every belief as a draft you can still improve.
Loyalty Can Be Won But Not Bought — Money retains people. Loyalty is what makes them stay when things get hard.
Make People Responsible for Results — Ownership drives quality. Shared responsibility means no responsibility.
People Product Profit — In that order.
Profit Cannot Be the Purpose — Profit is oxygen, not the reason to breathe.
Radical Transparency — Share more than feels comfortable. It's almost always better than the alternative.
Recruit Leaders Not Followers — Hire people who will lead, not just execute.
Remote-First Is About Not Simulating Office Work — Remote work done right is a different way of working, not office work over video.
Remove All Unnecessary Meetings — Most meetings shouldn't exist. Cut them, and protect what's left.
Reward Well Those Who Serve Well — Recognise and compensate the people who deliver. Don't take reliability for granted.
Seek Advice from Those Who Disagree — The most valuable feedback comes from people who will tell you you're wrong.
Set Clear Goals — Unclear goals produce unclear results.
Start the Battle After Creating Victory Conditions — Preparation is what separates success from luck.
Teach Through Assigning Actual Tasks — People learn by doing, not by watching presentations.
Team as Sports Team Not Family — A sports team is a better metaphor than a family for how engineering teams should work.
Trust Is at the Core of Leadership — Without trust, nothing else works.
Underpromise and Overdeliver — Promise less, deliver more. That's how trust compounds.
Visualisation Makes the Group Smarter — Making things visible helps teams think together.

Tools

Capability Mapping — A way to visualise what your team (or organisation) can actually do.
Disagree and Commit — Voice your disagreement, then fully commit to the decision.
Gene Pool Engineering — Deliberately shaping the team's composition to get the mix you need.
Keeper Test — "If this person told me they were leaving, would I fight hard to keep them?"
STARS Model — A framework for understanding what situation your organisation (or team) is in.
Transparency Test — A simple test for whether you're being transparent enough.
Using Wrong Answers Instead of Questions — People are more willing to correct a wrong answer than to answer a question.

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