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Flattery Can Get You (and Everyone Else) Everywhere The difference between flattery and a compliment seems to be a matter of motives. A compliment represents a genuine acknowledgement of another person, while flattery, by contrast, is driven by the desire to gain some advantage. This is important to keep in mind when you’re on the receiving end. |
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Overcoming Resistance to Change in Agile Teams For agile software developers, acknowledging that change is inevitable is a core principle in how we work. Yet we often resist change—for a variety of reasons. By understanding human nature and being systematic about how we evaluate decisions, we can give ourselves a way of identifying changes that add value. |
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The Difference between Plans and Planning As former president Dwight Eisenhower said, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." The fact that plans may have to change does not mean planning is a waste of time. In projects, it's always valuable to consider budgeting, resources, and timelines. |
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Are You Doing the Important Work, or Do You Just Think You Are? “Playing work” is when we do activities that look like work—they may even feel like work—but deep down, we know we aren’t being productive. These diversions are dangerous because they don't actually generate value and distract you from real work. Have you fallen victim to any of these deceptive time-wasters? |
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Give Yourself a Boost with Laughter—whether Real or Not So Much Laughter has health benefits similar to a workout, including increased heart rate, stretched muscles, improved blood flow, and enhanced respiration. What’s really interesting, though, is that faking laughter can cause your body to respond as though the laughter is real, thereby gaining similar benefits. |
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How to Become a CEO If you aspire to become a CEO, you need, at minimum, a heavy dose of personal drive and ambition. Communication skills (both speaking and listening) are top priority, and so is being able to get along with others. What other characteristics and experience do you need if you want that top title? Read on. |
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Shorten Your Feedback Loops to Build Better Software, Faster When we have short feedback loops, we are still in the moment for that feature. We still have the context. The longer the feedback loop, the less likely we are to still have all the context for the feature because we are on to the next piece of work. How long are your feedback loops? Can you shorten them? |
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Why Chemistry and Character Are Often Afterthoughts When Building Software Teams One aspect of the interviewing process you can’t forget is chemistry. We so often look at someone’s skills and competence in certain areas of the job and completely forget that if that person can’t work well with your current team, development won’t go smoothly. |