Happy Friday and Halloween Weekend!

I love Halloween weekend. Oddly I do almost nothing to celebrate it though. So I'm sitting here writing this email to you all, giddy with excitement about my favorite time of year where I have no real plans.

Now, most of you have heard of the great resignation, but for those of you that haven't it is an observation that people aren't going back to their jobs. They have decided that they want something more and better than whatever that job or boss was and are focusing on themselves to better their lives.

For a lot of those folks, they're going to find their way into the tech industry. It has a low barrier to entry with good compensation, and relatively few downsides. At least, that's how it looks.

Here's the funny thing. I think our industry has experienced this great resignation for over a decade now. Someone once mentioned the average tenure of a CTO is 18 months. There has been such a steady demand for talent that people in tech realize they can change jobs quickly when they find themselves in an undesirable situation.

So with more people coming into the field and a very liquid talent pool that is mostly remote, will something change? I think so, but it'll be less pronounced. Companies that treat employees poorly will lose out as they keep spending time replacing workers with contractors. Great companies will accelerate as they retain and develop their talent.

Keeping and growing talent will be one of the biggest competitive advantages for the next few years, and I don't think companies are ready for this.

Obviously, this is a really big topic that has many factors at play, but I want to end my email with one tip. Start using skip levels.

Skip levels are when you have a 1:1 with someone two levels above you. By normalizing skip levels you're allowing people to broaden their perspectives into how decisions get made and different approaches to leadership. You're also galvanizing your organization as poor leaders know there is a backchannel for feedback. This last point is where attentive folks will see the most improvement.

You might think that you don't have time to add that many more 1:1s to your calendar, but if you look at how many employees move through the hiring/firing process and the time commitment involved, the extra hours in a month in skip levels pay for themselves.

As an aside, my coaching business has seen a change from folks wanting their first job, to folks wanting out of their current job.

So, there's my prediction, and a small step to help. Have a great weekend!

Here's my weekly update for October 29th, 2021...

🗒️ How to Introduce an Activity as a Facilitator

At some point in one’s career in tech, you’ll wind up leading a meeting and need people to take part in some facilitation activity.

That might be a retrospective or an activity where you hold a vote.

If you’ve ever felt awkward introducing the activity, here’s a step-by-step way to do it next time.

Click here to read more

🗒️ How I Define a Team

Team is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot and sadly often means individuals assigned to work in close proximity.

Since I specialize in building teams, I have a very different definition.

Click here to read more

Enjoy,

Ryan Latta