Newsletter
A Complete Guide to Interviewing Candidates — From Competencies to Questions to Debriefs
Interviewing can be complex, and stressful. Here's a guide to doing it well.
Latest
People Managers
A Day in the Life of an Amazon Tech Director Poaching a Senior Engineer
Recruiting from internal Amazon teams is a proven way to gain experienced members for your team. If you're careful, and convincing.
People Managers
A Day in the Life of a Senior Manager at Amazon Creating the World's Worst Operations Meeting
I decided that we needed an ops meeting. Unfortunately, my attempt didn't go as planned.
Newsletter
Happy Holidays! And Spending Your Life Wisely
A brief interlude during the holidays.
Mid Career
You Don't Have to be a Manager to be a Leader Because Leadership != Management
Leadership is a way of relating to others. Management is an organizational construct. Many leaders are not managers, and (unfortunately) some managers are not leaders.
Late Career
Motivation — The Secrets Behind How to Create Drive in Yourself and Others
A walk through of the major components of motivation (autonomy, mastery, purpose), and the tools you can use to build an energizing workplace.
Personal Dave Posts
An Announcement, a 2.5 Year Newsletter Update, and My Highest Ever ROI Action at Amazon
My move to Substack, a bit about how the newsletter has grown, and a great story about how I helped drive down errors across dozens of systems, without my team lifting a finger.
Career Growth
On the cusp of senior management - will she make it?
Career growth is a tricky thing. We have ups and downs, two steps forward and one step back. How will she fare?
Late Career
A Detailed Account of a Failed Principal Promotion
Not everything we do will be successful. We learn a ton from failure. Unfortunately for managers, our failures sometimes impact our teams as well.
Organizations
Finding an Explanation vs. Permanent Resolution of Issues
If we're not careful, we default into defensiveness when issues arise. And everyone involved will be tempted to avoid blame, and keep things simple. Don't fall for that trap.
Mid Career
Don't Let Your Soft Skills Block Your Career - Overcoming Mental Blocks
Everyone recognizes that hard skills can be a blocker for their career, and that means everyone focuses on strengthening their hard skills. Soft skills are similar. They can hold you back, and they can be improved. And I'm going to talk about how.
Career Growth
Leveraging the Three Phases of Career Growth for Outsized Rewards
Many employees tend to let their careers drift from opportunity to opportunity. That can lead to excellence, or not. Purposefully driving your career through the three phases of career growth is a way to have agency over your career.