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Performing Under Pressure

Formula 1 is a great example of performing under pressure. With millions of people watching and the clock ticking, every tenth counts. When drivers pit, the pressure is on for their crew to get them back on the track as quickly as possible. The entire team must work together to deliver performance under extreme pressure. 

The actors who perform on stage or the athletes who participate in competitive sports also need to perform in high-pressure situations. How are they able to deal with the pressure of performing in front of thousands of people who might judge them? 

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Goal Setting: Get a Clear Fix on Where You Want to Go

Everyone likes to achieve success at work, but very few take the time to define what "success" means to them. Does it involve an increase in salary or acquiring a new skill? Is it receiving rewards and recognition for your work or getting an opportunity to work on the big bet? Do you feel successful when mentoring others or when you are able to solve a tough problem on your own?

To be successful, you need to define it first — something that drives all your actions. Something that gives you guidelines and boundaries to keep you on track. Something that helps you plan your progress. Something that gives you direction when you feel lost. And what is that something? A top-level goal. A consciously adopted goal is not only important, it's the only way to act with intention instead of reacting to whatever life throws your way.

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How to Be an Engineering Leader: A letter to my past self

Everyone has their own definition of true leadership. What I didn't understand at the start of my leadership journey was that each of us is a leader. Regardless of intent, we influence and impact our communities, industries, workplaces, and relationships. Yet, often we don't understand the importance or impact of simply being present. So I wanted to write a message to anyone looking to grow into engineering leadership. This was the letter the younger version of myself needed and I hope that it will highlight the importance of self-empowerment in your journey.

To Whom it may concern,

Anyone remember by history has taken it upon themselves to venture down their own path. In some instances, these individuals stood their ground and continued forward in the face of violence, war, political and economic systems, beliefs, and stereotypes never before challenged. And so they changed the perspectives and consequently the lives of individuals around them. These individuals didn't stand out by being just like everyone else. Instead, they took up the metaphorical shovel and paved their path by taking actions in alignment with what they believed and desired.

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Abandon Overconfidence And Engage In The Rethinking Cycle

An argument with a coworker — conflict of opinion. Working on a project that doesn't energize you — conflict of interest. Didn't get the promotion — conflict of growth. Working super hard with no time for personal life — internal conflict. Saying yes to work that doesn't align with your goals — conflict of priorities. Committed a mistake, but can't come to terms with accepting responsibility — conflict of values. We don't realize it, but most interactions at work lead to a major or minor conflict.

When it's a minor conflict, we feel a sense of discomfort in our body but can't pinpoint the exact source of the discomfort. Most of the time we ignore this conflict while it sits within our subconscious as we go on with our daily life. A major conflict, though, looks and feels very different. Even though there's no real danger, our mind perceives the conflict as a threat.

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Strategies for Learning From Mistakes

Introduction

We are programmed at an early age to think that mistakes are bad. Make a mistake and you won’t get good grades. Choose the right career because there’s no going back. Make up your mind, there won’t be a second chance. You will regret this decision later. What were you really thinking? All this well-meaning advice rings loud and clear in our heads, conveying a simple message—stay away from mistakes. 

Living in a mistake-phobic culture that links mistakes with stupidity and incompetence, it isn’t easy to admit a mistake. While most of the decisions we make aren’t about life and death and the consequences are rather trivial, we find it extremely hard to say, “I made a mistake.” We avoid taking responsibility for our actions and use blame, lies, and other fanciful stories to avoid looking like an idiot. 

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What Matters In Goals?

In most organizations, big-picture thinking comes off as a seasonal flavor often appearing every few months. Mental gymnastics that goes with determining the “why” — meaning or purpose of goals, the promise of a better future, and the excitement of doing something new definitely gets the creative juices flowing. Though not for all, most people in the organization find this phase highly energizing and exhilarating. But does this motivation last long? 

The big picture thinking soon goes out of the picture, being replaced by its nitty-gritty sister who’s only concerned with the “what” — the actual mechanics of getting from point A to point B, steps in the process. With the hostile takeover of the nitty-gritty thinking that’s only concerned with the “what”, the memory of big picture thinking with its “why” soon fades away. What happens then?

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How to Use Criticism to Fuel Your Growth

Doling out advice, hurling negative comments, passing mean remarks – we have all done it. Given an opportunity, it’s easy to assume the role of an expert and tell others how wrong they are, why their product isn’t good enough, why their idea will never work, how they should behave, what they should do. Why seek permission when we feel right in our criticism?

Now let’s turn this around. Are your critics telling you the blunt facts you need to hear? Think for a moment about how you feel when you are on the receiving end of this criticism – angry, defensive, resentful, frustrated, sad, maybe even a little bit devastated.

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5 Emotionally Intelligent Habits For Handling Frustration At Work


That sudden rush of anger when a coworker blames you, a feeling of disappointment when your idea is rejected, resentment towards an egocentric boss, and the stress of meeting other people's expectations can be a constant source of frustration at work.

Just like a rubber band you feel stretched to your limits, ready to break at any moment. One tiny push in the wrong direction can wreak havoc in your mind, break your world apart and distract you from being productive in your work.

Every single day there's so much to dislike about work. A boss who doesn't care, coworkers who are mean, clients who nitpick, a support team that doesn't care to respond, meetings that suck away into your time and energy, and emails and messages that live in a world of their own with no sense of time.

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Why Development Teams Should Play Roleplaying Games

A while ago, I saw a presentation by Karthik Nagarajan at ThoughtWorks, where he compared a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaign to working with product teams. Many years later, I thought it was time we had a chat about the topic, and many months after that, I finally got around to writing it up. A long-running campaign indeed!

Listen to the full interview where we cover much more than this summary including handling alpha gamers, and much more.

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Don’t Be Quick to Judge Your Team Members

Judging others infographic.

Think of the countless times you labeled someone at work as "lazy, boring, incompetent, stupid, irritating, biased, reckless, rude, etc."

The lens with which you see others makes all the difference; are you quick to judge or adopt an attitude to understand?

How your co-worker reacts to a situation is shaped by their own temperament, past experiences, and current circumstances. Their behavior in one area does not reflect who they are as a person, what they value, and even how they would be in another aspect of their work.

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Stop Being Micromanaged: How to Deal With a Micromanager the Right Way

Organizations spend a huge amount of time and resources to hire smart, talented, and self-motivated individuals who show a strong passion and commitment toward their own growth and the success of the organization.

With the desire to contribute, these people want to challenge the status quo, devise creative solutions to problems, and be a part of the success story of the organization. They all start with a big dream.

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Hanlon’s Razor: How to Be Less Judgmental and Build Better Relationships

We, humans, crave a perfectly ordered world though the chances of something going as intended are fairly rare. When there's more than one human being involved in the equation, the predictability goes for a further toss.

What do we do when things do not turn out as intended? Instead of being curious and trying to learn from the situation, our mind assumes the worst possibility. Depending on how we see the event unfold, we derive an interpretation and create stories in our minds that conform to our beliefs.

As a species, we are also very unique in associating two completely disconnected stories and finding patterns in events that do not exist. Our tendency to interpret every event as it relates to us creates a distorted version of reality. It makes us assume negative intent when things do not work out even though the outcome may be completely unrelated to us.

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5 Strategies to Stop Overthinking and Start Acting

I thought I was pretty good and smart at making decisions from routine tasks with a little cognitive load like what to eat for lunch, what dress to wear to the office, how to avoid traffic on the way to work to the more mentally demanding activities like putting together a hiring plan, defining org structure and thinking about the future strategy of my organization.

Yet, there were days when I was occupied with overthinking and being stuck in analysis paralysis without being productive. The moments when unwanted thoughts would pop into my mind without my own knowledge and drift me away from the task at hand. These little voices in my head would circle in a loop like a preset playlist often draining me of my mental resources.

I was completely unaware of them at first and would often wonder where the time went by. Later as I started consciously noticing them, I realized that most of these thoughts were related to over-analyzing my past actions and decisions or worrying too much about how the future will unfold - Why did I say that in the discussion, how will others think about how I acted the other day, did the meeting go well, what if my decision didn't turn out as expected?

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14 Simple Ways to Be More Productive Every Day

Early in my career, I placed a lot of focus on doing more in less time. I thought I was being productive. The reality was I was simply scrambling from one task to the next without clarity on whether my work was effective or how I could do better. I focused on the end goal, the result I wanted to achieve without really caring about the process to get there.

Without being deliberate in my choices to do effective work and developing a process to do it efficiently, I achieved some short term goals. But, I struggled to find meaningful patterns that could advance me to achieve long term productivity.

With time, patience, and lots of learning along the way, I realized that doing more is actually doing less by focusing on things that matter and having a solid control over the process to achieve desired outcomes.

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How to Deal With Difficult People on Your Teams

Humans are social creatures who seek personal validation based on how others interact with them. We feel good and important when others share our belief system and dejected when there's a conflict of opinions.

It's then natural to want to work with people who are just like us, our clones.

So, every once in a while when we come across people who do not value our inputs, crush our ideas, ignore what we have to say, act as a know-it-all, seem to find pleasure in criticism, satisfaction in creating chaos and look for the negative side of things, it upsets us.

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Living in a World Without Neil Peart

On January 7, 2020, the world of music suffered the loss of an extremely talented musician and lyricist. Neil Peart, the drummer of the progressive rock band named "Rush", died at the age of 67, ending a long battle with brain cancer (glioblastoma).

Suddenly, You Were Gone

Because Neil was private in nature, legions of fans were shocked to hear the news of his death.  I know I was surprised. In fact, a long-time friend (Jeff from "When the Dream Disappears From Your Dream Job") did not initially believe my words when I sent him a text shortly after I saw an article from Rolling Stone magazine.