Leading DevOps

 There are many different articles out there and Twitter comments about the Basecamp drama.  I am not going to post any here because it might seem biased depending on the article.  Google them yourself.  In short, Basecamp made a policy to not allow political discussions at work.  Coinbase did this previously too and applauded Basecamp for it.   Apparently, for years there has been a list of funny customer names at floating around Basecamp.  This list or even the knowledge that Basecamp had a list, was disturbing to some employees.  Also, some employees tried to start a Diversity and Inclusion practice.  Despite how much the founders of Basecamp promoted DI, they didn't feel they were being taken serious.  They felt the company was only about the founders and not about employees.    If this isn't enough, the founders debated and even called out employees for their comments regarding the topics, publicly.  This is my s...

 How do you lead without stress?  I am finding that many leaders are under a lot of pressure, not healthy and not sleeping well.  A good leader may have ups and downs but their trust should never be questioned.  Your day to day work will be hard and require a lot but when you know you are making decisions with high integrity and treating your employees right, you should sleep well each night.   Each day is a new day.  You should begin each day with some quiet time, exercise and make a plan.  Then, you do your best that day.  Solve problems, help your team, mentor leaders, architect or remove toil.   Above all, do everything with character and integrity because when things get hectic or when you have to move on, you know you led with trust and integrity.   People will remember the way you lead more than what you did.  If you are weak in an area, hire someone to fill that need or go learn more.  This is part of leadersh...

 Leaders should be setting the vision for the company or team.  When tech teams are always jumping from priority to priority, they will get frustrated.  When you set the vision, show the team you stand behind it.  Get the buy in from your team.  The companies ability to set a vision for a team or project and work towards it, will set long term culture and retention.  Thoughts: 1. Create a long term vision with short term goals. 2. Use OKRs to communicate the actions and measurements of the goals. 3. Post regular messages or videos about the goal progress. 4.  You may never reach the full vision but you worked toward it. 5.  If you don't the vision or goals, ask around.    Lead with a daily passion for the companies vision.