Middle-level and people managers play a crucial role in companies, but they also model many corporate dysfunctions. It’s time for people managers to get back in service of the people they lead.

A common argument against remote work is that coaching and mentoring are harder when you’re all remote. But I believe that if companies are intentional about building modern coaching and mentoring skills, they’ll do much better being remote-first.

Organisations can benefit from volunteerism in the workplace by harnessing their people's spare capacity. But how do you get it right? Allow me to explain.

If you want to grow as a professional or a leader, you must stop doing some work, to take up new work. In this post I explain the concept of “metawork”, why it should be explicit and how it can help you scale yourself.

It’s tempting to extract the last bit of productivity from our work schedules. However, busyness isn’t the same thing as productiivity. Let me explain why cutting yourself some slack, is a better idea.

Constant urgency is the enemy of deep work and an async-first culture. Often this means getting on meetings, and being ok with days full of IM interruptions. With enough of these “urgent” tasks, even the most motivated teams can slip back into their old, synchronous ways of working. In this post, I explain techniques to deal with urgency.

If you learned to be a manager in an office-centric setup, async-first remote work may seem like an opaque way to lead your people. How do you manage without walking around and listening? In this post, I’ll unpack the risks of leading unhappy, disengaged or struggling team members in remote teams and what you as a manager can do to pre-empt these problems.

In an async-first culture, the role of a manager is crucial. If the company is the mother-ship, the manager’s the employee’s bridge to it. They should be the individuals that know the most about their people, their skills, abilities and strengths, their personalities and their aspirations. You need managers who lead with care. In this post, I want to address how you can show that care as a leader and a manager.

As a leader, you’re responsible for much more than the mechanics of work. Depending on the size of your company you’re a custodian of culture, or the one who defines it, or someone in between. In today’s post, I want to share with you how you can foster a culture that supports async agile.

As a manager or a leader in any tech firm today, I imagine you have a DEI agenda. Your people’s ability to work asynchronously can be a powerful tool to not just further that agenda, but also to differentiate you as a progressive leader.

In today’s post, I want to share a few notes about diversity and a few more about inclusion. I expect these perspectives will help you shape your organisation’s culture and eventual competitive advantage, starting of course with the people you influence.

When I speak to managers and leaders about asynchronous work, I receive a variety of responses. If they’re remote work naysayers, then there’s an obvious scepticism. Then there are the remote work believers who listen carefully. There are some who can immediately think of ways this “asynchronous work thing” would work for them and their teams. Many leaders, however, see the value for their people, or maybe “other people”, but claim it won’t work for them.

If you’re one of those leaders or managers, allow me to unpack asynchronous work for you. Who knows, you may find an idea or two to enrich your own work life.