Have you ever been told to be more “innovative” with your code? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Rich Mironov, discuss the all too common disconnect between developers and those on the marketing side of organizations. According to Rich, this is the result of two very different work cultures existing in the same organ…

In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Kim Crayton, discuss how organizations are shaped by core values, and why values are integral for establishing true diversity and inclusion. Kim dives into some very uncomfortable truths in this episode, pointing out how most organizations are not actually ready for inclusion and dive…

How can we train teams to consistently produce quality code without negatively impacting productivity? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, M. David Green, discuss Agile Dojos and how they can make teams more effective. Dojos provide a six-week training ground where teams focus on recognizing and replicating value by pai…

Engineers love to experiment, but is experimenting with your career a good idea? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus talks with salary negotiation expert Josh Doody about how this counterintuitive decision can benefit you over the long term. According to Doody, the key is to stop thinking in binary terms of “good” and “bad” outcomes a…

How do organizations actually work with Agile? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Allen Holub, discuss what organizations get wrong about Agile. Allen has been an Agile transformation consultant for nearly 40 years and has seen the best and worst it has to offer. Luckily, he says the worst can be avoided. The challenge…

How do we leverage remote work in our businesses and on our teams? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus talks with Rachel Farrer, CEO and founder of Distributing Consulting, about the challenges facing remote workers and their managers. Despite being around for decades, there are still many managers pushing back against remote work. Ac…

Is your team running so smoothly that it hums? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Ron Lichty, discuss what makes high-performance teams versus what makes low-performance teams. Most teams already know which category they fall into, but the solution to a low-performing team isn’t always clear. Drawing on 20 years of Agi…

Episode 40 What does it look like to be your own leader in times of professional transition? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus talks with Han Yuan, friend and former Senior Vice President of Engineering at Upwork, about transitioning into entrepreneurship from a traditional job and vice versa. How do you know it’s time to make a tra…

What if we could create a trade culture that allowed for change rather than relying on mechanical thinking? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, GeePaw Hill, discuss how the doubling rate in the software industry has resulted in a complete lack of trade discipline. Drawing on his 40 years in the software industry, GeePaw…

How do we improve in the area of product management? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest Ellen Gottesdiener, President of EBG Consulting, discuss ways companies can better oversee the development and lifecycle of a product in its entirety. Marcus and Ellen also discuss her Agile Product Planning method, best practices in…

What can nature teach us about how to get the most from our organizations? In this episode, Marcus welcomes Dr. Kathleen Allen to discuss changing our perspectives of assigning roles within teams and organizations to what she calls leading a “living systems”. Dr. Allen is the president of her consulting firm, Allen and Associates, and has written m…

How can you build trust as a leader? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Michael Lopp discuss the small practices that make a good leader. Listen to learn about building trust, respect, and relationships in a leadership role. Show Notes Leadership practices are small things done repetitively over time. @2:29 Leadership …

On this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Amitai Schleier, discuss a new project Amitai is working on regarding reviving an old, but useful, open-source program called qmail. Strategy and collaboration on this project as well as how to manage a project of this nature are discussed. Show Notes The ‘old’ project is called notqm…

To be a modern manager, you must manage yourself first. In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Johanna Rothman discuss how you must learn to manage yourself to be effective at managing other people. They will discuss some common mistakes managers make and some important values to instill in yourself that will make you a be…

Are you a resilient manager? Do you want to become one? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Lara Hogan discuss what it means to be a resilient manager. She will discuss some effective management skills and thought processes. She will also introduce us to the idea of the manager Voltron. Show Notes New manager care packa…

​Are you compassionate? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, April Wensel discuss compassion in technology and how it affects people. April shares how to become more compassionate as individuals and how we can bring more compassion into our organizations. Dive in to learn about a more compassionate future. Show Notes Com…

​In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Camille Fournier discuss some points from her book, The Manager's Path. They discuss the importance of time management and how to effectively manage employee turnover in a leadership role. Show Notes A day in the life of a manager varies, but it is a lot of meetings. @3:58​ As a mana…

Have you ever wondered why am I doing this? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus discusses his vision for the future and how we can work together to change it. Are you with me? Show Notes Consider your why and get on board with mine. @4:02​ I want to create a future that's more productive and more valuable. @5:09 This future will have …

Episode Description ​Is conflict always a bad thing? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, Jennifer Jones-Patulli, discuss how people tend to think about conflict and how they handle it. Jennifer provides insight and tools to use as leaders to help handle conflict situations within an organization and among staff. Conflic…

​Turnover is a huge problem in our industry. There are many reasons people choose to leave their jobs and in this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus dissects the top reasons software professional decide to seek other employment and ways to prevent future turnover from occurring. Show Notes Technology and software have the highest turnover ra…

In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest Esther Derby discuss change. They discuss her book, Seven Rules for Positive Productive Change, and how change is viewed and implemented by individuals and organizations. Show Notes Change is a core aspect of leaders' and managers' jobs Change is viewed differently from different peopl…

​In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest Jason Wong discuss how one size does not fit all in leadership. They dive into how the traditional leadership model isn't working well and how it could be changed to become more effective. The two also enlighten listeners on a new followership model, and why followership can be just a…

Change is hard, unpredictable, and downright complex. Getting people or systems to change is not easy and certainly not done in a vacuum. In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest Don Gray enlighten listeners regarding the world of software development, the reasons for implementing software changes and why it's not as easy as …

On today's episode of Programming Leadership, we dive into what is needed to establish safety in your own organization. Trust is just one of the key pieces that make up the structure of safety in a work environment, along with actual physical measures, active communication, and regular feedback. The people who make up your organization are an integ…

Training, done properly, is a specialized type of learning that companies can use as an investment in their personnel or as a box that gets ticked off each year as mandatory practice. What are some of the best practices for training? How can employees prepare to learn? Show Notes I think that good training and good learning go hand in hand Nowadays…

When you as the manager treat your peers, other managers in the organizations as your first team, it changes your stance. It changes the way you work. It creates intentionally a set of allies you can problem-solve, people problem-solve with, people you can collaborate with. This is a little bit different idea than my first team of the people that w…

Does project work feel like a guessing game? What happens when projects go off track, and how can this affect customer relationships? Better yet, how can we navigate uncertainty when we estimate and plan -- but things still go wrong? Standing in uncertainty, learning to handle it, and living in inquiry are topics of discussion in this episode. Show…

At Stripe, guest Will Larson received his first official management training by an employer. It taught him about different management styles, problem solving, and more. But most employees don’t get management training, which can cause problems down the road. Marcus and Will discuss this, plus what it takes to handle leadership roles. Show Notes Mos…

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

By Marcus Blankenship

This week Marcus asks the question; "Are we screwing our business by being a nice guy/gal?". We also look at hiring... Is it possible to take on a new team member without messing up, and in my case, without playing the "manager"? All this and more on this week's episode of The Creative Business Podcast.…

This week Marcus and I talk about the power of airline companies, how taking a break from it all can leave you ready to come back fighting and the ups and downs of remote working. Is it all it's cracked up to be?By Nathan Powell - Former agency owner, consultant and entrepreneur.