About this site

This site is all about leadership, productivity and working with intention. My name is James Hoffman. I have been working in software for over 15 years with the last 6 years in management. I have made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of things that I think could benefit others.

Productivity

I geek out on productivity. I love learning about systems, tools and peoples experiences. I am constantly adapting my own system to make it better or to just adjust to the flow that makes sense for me currently. Productivity systems are not a one size fits all, or even a fits most, it is about adapting, mix and matching, until you find what works best for you. In a leadership role this also means trying different tools that can give good metrics so you can see what changes actually made a difference and not what just felt faster.

Leadership

Leadership is my bread and butter. Most of my career, prior to becoming a manager myself, I did not have good leadership. Most of them were good people, they just didn't know how to be leaders or managers. I believed that I could do better and create a better experience for team members, so I set out on the path doing everything and reading everything that I could to get into management. My core philosophies are:

Trust Through Openness: A good leader must build trust and this comes from honesty and openness. I don't treat my relationships as strictly work, I share my own life and experiences.
Feedback: It is critical that feedback be continuous. It's not easy but it is necessary. People need to hear when they are doing well but even more, they need to hear when they have things to improve. People can't grow and get better if they don't know what to work on. It needs to be continuous because no one should have critical feedback on a performance review that they hadn't heard before, they have to be given a chance to correct it before hand.
Calm Under Pressure: It is important to always be understanding of different situations and not to overreact. A leader's job is to regulate their own emotions and response so the team feels safe reporting issues. Every problem has a solution and it is easier to get to the solution when you know the problem.
Team First Mindset: You are a bridge between the greater organization and your team. A good manager and leader, trusts their team, gives them autonomy and represents them to the greater organization. The team should be able to trust that you will have their back.

Work with Intention

The last thing is "Work with Intention". The best things happen to those that intentionally made it happen. If you never ask, that answer will always be no. When I got my first role as a manager, it was with intention. I made the decision. I read a lot of books on leadership, management, communication, productivity, etc. I volunteered for any leadership opportunity that I could find, to both work through my weaknesses and get experience. When a management opportunity presented itself, I was ready.

Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation - Zig Ziglar.