Words On Wednesday

I lead software engineering teams with a philosophy built on trust, autonomy, and intentional structure. My core belief is that talented people do their best work when they are equipped, empowered, and protected from unnecessary friction — not monitored, micromanaged, or buried in low-value urgencies. I keep teams small by design, act as a buffer between developers and business stakeholders, and treat blocker removal as my highest-priority function. I hire deliberately and collaboratively, prioritizing cultural fit and intellectual curiosity over narrow technical experience, because adaptable people outperform specialists over the long run. I create space for my team to take risks and occasionally fail, calibrating conditions so that failure is recoverable and instructive rather than catastrophic. Knowledge sharing and documentation are non-negotiable expectations — not nice-to-haves — because a team where information lives in one person's head is a fragile one. I communicate openl...

As I was considering what book to cover for February's Book Report , I received the news that my position was being dissolved and I was being terminated from the company. It felt fitting, then, to read the book written by the co-founders of Lima One Capital. I'll wax poetic about my time at Lima later, but reading 'Lead Like a Marine' was a cathartic exploration into that shared experience. I never met John (Warren) in person, but I met Top (Thompson) several times and worked closely with several of the first few employees mentioned in the book. Chris Wilhoit participated in my team's daily standup for months. This book wasn't just recounting the history of some people at some random company; it was my job for several years, with people that I knew personally. The general pattern of the book is a military anecdote from John and Top (typically from Ramadi, Iraq), followed by the principles they learned from that experience, and then how they applied that to their...

I've been going through manager training at work and for our next training session, we were asked to read 1 book from a list of options prepare three takeaways. I ended up reading "The First 90 Days," and it seemed like the best way to really internalize the content would be to write a book report about it. The list was standard fare management topics from well-known authors. Any one would have been adequate, and I could probably even have suggested " The Five Dysfunctions of a Team " or " Extreme Ownership " if I didn't want to read a new book, but I figured it would be more true to the spirit of the assignment to read something unfamiliar to me and try to gain new skills and understanding. From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership – Kevin Eikenberry The First Time Manager – Jim McCormick Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say and What You Don’t – L. David Marquet Primed to Perform: How to Buil...