Nice Work: There will always be lots to do.

Hey there,

I talked to two clients this week who are about to start new jobs. But instead of feeling excited, they were worried: one had been laid off earlier this year, and was nervous it might happen again. The other was leaving their company during a moment of chaos, and was concerned they were letting their team down.

Their worries were different, but the result was similar: neither had given themselves space to focus on the present moment. Neither had asked themselves what they needed right now.

And it turns out, what they both really needed was space—the space to close one chapter of their working lives, and open another. To clear their heads. To just be.

I struggle to give myself that space, too. After all, there’s always something I could be doing—helping others, fretting about the future. But what I know is that when I don’t also give myself space to be, everything’s worse: My anxiety. My self-trust. My capacity to help others.

If you can relate, here’s something I hope you remember this month: There will always be lots to do. Make sure you have some space to be, too.

Almost sold out: Coaching Skills for Design & Tech Leaders

We have just a couple tickets left for our final public workshop of the year, coming up on November 15. If you want to learn how to use coaching skills to be a better leader, snag one before they’re gone. We’ll cover topics like…

• Asking powerful questions that generate new insights—not just the answers people think you want to hear

• How to get out of fix-it mode and empower your people more fully (if you missed Jen’s newsletter about that very thing from a couple weeks ago, go read it—it’s powerful!)

• Tools for reframing challenges and finding choices, even in difficult times

And of course, we’ll include lots of opportunities to practice these skills—so you’ll walk away with the confidence to try them out in your real life, too.

Save the date: December 8

I know I just said that November 15 is our last workshop of the year. And it is. But…we have one last hurrah up our sleeves this year, and we’re this close to sharing it with you. It’s going to be big. It’s going to be joyful. And it’s going to have pricing that works for everyone. Heck yeah.

So look for a big announcement from us next week! We hope it gets you as excited as we are.

– Sara

EPISODE 13

Can you keep a secret?

When to test the limits of workplace transparency—and when you keep your mouth shut.

On the list

Designing a culture of safety
“We can’t choose to feel or not feel something. We do feel it. For me, it’s not stepping over fear or ignoring fear. It’s acknowledging I feel scared and it doesn’t have to hold me back. It doesn’t have to be a barrier to me. And it actually loses a lot of its power—the fear loses a lot of its power once it is acknowledged.” Alla Weinberg’s interview on Brave UX is a must listen.

What is wrong with hiring?
Are you listening to Laura Klein and Amy Santee’s podcast on all the things that are totally bonkers in the tech job market? If you’re currently looking for a job, listen in to feel less alone. And if you’re a hiring manager (or might become one someday!) listen in to learn what NOT to do in the interview process.

No, seriously, f*ck engagement
I wish I’d been at the Push UX conference in Munich a couple weeks ago to see the long version of Dave Thomas’s new talk in person—but if you missed it, too, this shorter version hosted by the Design Justice Network is an excellent intro. Dave talks about why systems thinking is so hard, why focusing on being “a good person” isn’t helpful, and how to start asking yourself tough questions about your values, your time, and the future you want to create.

I don’t know what I’m doing and that’s okay: lessons learned as a manager
Lauren Tormey on the misplaced guilt she felt when she became a manager: “When I hand over tasks to my team to do, I get this feeling like I should be assigning myself those same tasks… But what I have to remind myself each time I think this is that leading is work. Project management, people management, reviewing the content and outputs my team creates, carrying around that extra responsibility as a manager—it’s work.”