Some Leadership Principles

 1/ Disagree and commit

“Disagree and commit” is critical for a well functioning team. Consensus is often too expensive to achieve and so is the lack of commitment. There are countless pages dedicated to this concept, so it is not worth diving deep into here. 

However, please note that “disagree and commit” starts with “disagree”. Blind commitment by suspending judgement is equally toxic. So, speak your mind, argue your point, then when a decision is made, stick to it regardless of whether you agree or disagree. Respectful and open disagreement is foundational to a healthy team culture. 

2/ “He/she said” is not an argument, regardless of who he/she is

A corollary of the previous point. If you don’t understand a decision, ask. Clarify. Ensure your voice is heard. Suspending your judgement just to follow consensus or please a leader (e.g. higher level, TL,  manager) is unprofessional. You must understand the rationale and the implications of what you do and the leader must take the time to articulate why. And you must show curiosity, provide alternatives, perform analysis, and due diligence. 

3/ Fast, focused, deep

Another corollary of the first point - fast and focused execution, with depth of understanding. 

It’s impossible to expect people to have all the answers or ask all the potential questions, but proof of intellectual curiosity is a must. If you don’t understand what you do, don’t do it until it is clear. Ask. When you don’t have an answer to a question asked by someone else, take it as an opportunity to learn and figure out the answer. Depth of understanding, reasoning from first principles and adaptable mental models are fundamental to knowledge work and are the hallmark of professional integrity.

4/ Measure learning and process

Nobody is born knowledgeable. Every outcome has a random, uncontrollable part. Under our control is how we make decisions, how we choose to follow a process and how we learn from the outcomes. Successes and failures alone don’t teach us much. Looking under the hood honestly and assessing what we could have done differently given the information we had at the decision point is what we have under our control. Be kind to yourself in case of failure, take yourself with a grain of salt in case of success and look in the mirror to ruthlessly assess your learning and thinking processes regardless.

Heaven’s Hung in Black at Pride

I don't know where to publish a poem I wrote after yesterday walking through the Pride celebrations in Munich while listening to WASP - Heaven's Hung in Black. So I am putting it here. 

ChatGPT says it's good. Anthropic says the same. I like them both, they seem to agree with everything I say. However, they seem to disagree on which version is better. One of them is more emotional and raw, the other a notch more cerebral. Both of them represent different nuances of myself so I am not making a choice. Here we go:

Heaven’s Hung in Black at Pride - v2. 

Cut!
Rainbow flags flutter, dark metal floods your ears.
Ray-Bans. 
And W.A.S.P. mourning in stereo.
AirPods Max—fashionable isolation.
A private soundtrack to a public celebration.

Confetti falls. The picture is frozen. 
A personal film score, a different tempo.

Is this profound resistance to the crowd?
Loneliness masked as free will? 
Or just the heavy sound, 
guitars hitting the brain?

Distance - 
The space between who you were and who you're becoming. 
The void between the vaguely known and the unknown.
The familiarity of her ironing a shirt and the open possibilities of a future love.
I wish the distances were smaller,
then I wouldn’t have to choose. 

Sunglasses on. 
Audio insulated.
Brisk pace. Back straight.
Sovereign. At least trying. 

Not here against anyone.
Not with them either.
Turned inside, honoring the complexity of being alive
and awake
and present
and a little bit ridiculous
in my own accidental cinematic moment.

Heaven’s hung in black and the camera drifts back. 
I’m moving away now -  
through pride and compromise,
through depth and display, 
through the theater of self importance,
and self indulgence too.
Heaven’s hung in black
amid the raw joy of rainbow colors.

Playful resignation  - 
you’re both the protagonist
and the only one watching the show.
Is it a bit too much? 

It probably is. 

Heaven’s Hung in Black at Pride - v1. 

Walking through rainbow flags with heavy metal in your ears.
Ray-Bans, while W.A.S.P. mourns in stereo.
AirPods Max—
expensive isolation, branded introspection.
A private soundtrack to a public celebration.

Choosing gravitas while confetti falls,
philosophical distance,
To a personal film score

Is this profound resistance to the crowd?
Sacred refusal of shallow noise?
Self isolation and an enjoyable sense of being different? 
Or just the pleasant drums sound
hitting the skull at the right frequency?

The contrast. 
The space between who you were and who you're becoming. 
The desert between the vaguely known and the unknown.
The familiarity of her ironing a shirt and the open possibilities of a future love.
Do I choose her again?

Sunglasses on.
Noise filtered.
Not lost.
Present.
Sovereign. Rehearsing at least. 

Not here against anyone.
Not with them either.
Inside, honoring the complexity of being alive
and awake
and a little bit ridiculous
in this self projected cinematic moment.

Heaven’s hung in black,
but still walking forward,
through pride and compromise,
through depth and display,
through the beautiful theater
of taking myself seriously
while knowing it’s performance too.

Playful resignation  - 
you’re both the protagonist
and the only person watching the show.
Is it a bit too much?

It probably is.