Time to discuss the current bookclub book, The Art of Leadership by Michael Lopp. For our next book, we will be reading Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates.  

In this episode... Like many, I’ve been furloughed. I work in the event industry, so being brought back full time is looking grim until spring next year. The company I work for is a small tight knit team that is committed to getting everyone back, and I love working there. There are still some projects and events that trickle in, and they’ve given us the option of working them, but they will have to back pay them when we come back on board. I want to be a team player to help us get back on our feet, but back pay doesn’t help me right now and working an event can be Russian roulette. How do I set boundaries between helping a team out of love for the place, and taking a stand on what I need to as a professional they hired? Don't forget to read along with us, The Art of Leadership by Michael Lopp is our next bookclub read!  

This episode, we answer this: My brother works in a manufacturing engineering plant. The company is a week or more behind promised delivery dates to various customers and has been running frantic shifts 7 days a week, to the extent that they are pulling marketing and engineering staff out of their normal roles and having them hand assembly parts. Today, someone in his group tested positive for COVID-19. They are not allowing employees in the group to leave for testing; they sprayed everything down in the area with disinfectant and sent everyone back to work. What would you do in this situation? He's not long out of school, so hasn't gotten himself well established yet - walking isn't a great option, especially with the economy like it is. Don't forget to read along with us, The Art of Leadership by Michael Lopp is our next bookclub read!

It's time to talk about Radical Candor by Kim Scott! For our next book, we're reading The Art of Leadership by Michael Lopp.

In this episode, we answer the question: Each Christmas my team puts together a group gift that they give to me along with a card. Each year, I write a nice card for each of them, but, I don't buy a gift because I don't make that kind of money! Worse, because there are a lot of them, even pitching in 5 or 10 dollars each adds up to a really nice gift. Am I doing the right thing? Should I be getting them a gift? This would almost double my Christmas budget! Don't forget to read along with us, we will be discussing Kim Scott's Radical Candor next week!

So now we circle back and read The Phoenix Project after having finished the sequel. How did it hold up? Let's see... For our next trick, we'll read Kim Scott's Radical Candor!

Later than we'd have liked, we answer a question that is very timely and important: How do I talk about Black Lives Matter and the protests and all that with my team? I know we're supposed to leave religion and politics at home, but it feels like I should address this. Should I? If you have questions about this, or feedback about our handling of this conversation, we definitely want to hear from you... email jer@, dawn@, or questions@ leadingquestionspodcast.com If you want to learn more, some great resources: How to Be and Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo Be sure to follow up with Lauren Michele Jackson's What's Missing from "White Fragility" Save the Tears: White Woman's Guide by Tatiana Mac

In this episode, we answer: My boss has been trying to transition our team from everybody working all the time, day or night to setting realistic expectations for support and holding us to those. It's hard for me to take her seriously when she answers emails day and night within minutes of their arrival. I'm not talking about just high importance emails, but all emails. It's rare for an email that is sent between 6am and 11pm to fail to get a response from her within an hour. Sometimes, she even responds to emails at 2 or 3 in the morning! I don't feel right not paying attention to my emails when sometimes they're from her, and if it's important enough for her to be online at all hours, shouldn't I be too? What do you think she really wants us to do? And some special treats from us to you: Olive Garden by Shytown Puppy Monkey Baby Don't forget to join us as we read The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford!

Find out if we're crazy for reading them out of order, but this bookclub episode covers The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim. Next up, we'll go back and read The Phoenix Project to see how it stacks up with this newer work.

Our question for this episode is: I occasionally get invited to do social things with some of my employees and if I'm interested in the event itself I'll go - typically things like video games or even holiday parties. I don't go to every events, but I do go to the ones that sound fun. I'm not playing favorites. But it also means that I have gone to events for less than half of my team. Is that ok? Don't forget to tune in next week as we discuss Gene Kim's The Unicorn Project!