Just People in a Room
6 days ago
- #leadership
- #self-reflection
- #workplace culture
- The author recounts working at a startup acquired by Autodesk, where their team clashed with the management team from another acquisition, leading to secret development of a competing product.
- A department-wide layoff dissolved all animosity, leaving the author to reflect on the futility of workplace politics and personal grudges.
- Group projects in the author's classes often lead to frustration, with students blaming each other rather than communicating to resolve misunderstandings.
- At Amazon, the author encountered a VP who threatened physical violence over an intern issue, revealing a toxic culture where such behavior was tolerated due to the individual's perceived irreplaceability.
- A senior TPM at Amazon shared that leadership roles increasingly required aggressive behavior, prompting the author to question how to lead effectively without compromising personal ethics.
- While at Snap, the author's emotional email response to internal criticism led to public reprimand by the CEO, highlighting the challenge of maintaining professionalism under stress.
- The author critiques the polished narratives of technical executives, noting how they often sanitize past mistakes to present a trajectory of continuous personal growth.
- Reflecting on leadership, the author argues that poor emotional control is not a strength, despite systems that sometimes reward such behavior if paired with high performance.
- The author now teaches, using group projects to help students navigate interpersonal conflicts in a controlled environment, aiming to foster self-awareness and better teamwork skills.
- The overarching theme is self-reflection and growth, recognizing personal biases and the importance of questioning one's own actions and perceptions in conflicts.