Simpler Machines

I've found myself more than once referred to Nat Bennett's Simpler Machines; most recently: Why doesn't everyone do XP?[0]. 0. https://www.simplermachines.com/why-doesnt-everyone-do-xp/

Oh my, I’m conflicted about this post. (Disclaimer - I’m CEO of a small company and also adore the Turn Your Ship Around book and partly base my leadership style on that book. ) I suspect that the author would be fine with the company meeting if he didn’t already have well formed (and it appears, justifiably formed) opinions about the competence of the company’s leadership. Human beings are wired in a particular way; being physically present together in a room at least occasionally should have strong benefits, if enough other caveats are met. So - I wonder if the baby is going out with the bath water? Do I describe myself as a leader? Yes, I do; because the evidence of my life shows that to describe myself as anything else would be silly. Maybe we could say that resources need to be managed and people need to be led, but the average manager/leader doesn’t understand the distinction, or perhaps doesn’t have any desire to. One last thought; I’ve seen it written that people join companies and leave managers and I agree with this wholeheartedly. For me, the simplest measure of whether a manager is a leader is the staff turnover on their team. That is one metric you simply cannot fake. And that manager is a superstar if their team members are able to regularly grow into new roles (or switch into a new role that is a better fit, as happened today.) ~ Edit ~ I just read the blog post that the author linked to, about Pivotal Software. We have a very similar philosophy. In…