About

My name is Near Privman. I'm a software development manager, a father, a feminist, and several other things.

All views expressed on this blog are my own, and do not represent any group or organization.

Popular posts from this blog

Why write a blog?

My CEO has challenged me to explain why I keep a blog. He says he just doesn't get why most people write blogs - where do we get the presumption to think we have something so interesting to say we feel compelled to broadcast it to the world? My first line of defence was that I have no such presumption and I don't mean to 'broadcast' my thoughts to anyone. The blog, I claimed, was just somewhere I can dump text, and then I'm able to refer people to it instead of having to repeat myself. While this is rather true for a couple of posts (writing RTL and my name's spelling), it's a load of bull when it comes to anything else I've written. I've realised long ago that I do have some pretty big presumptions about what I have to say to the world and about how much it would (or should) interest people. I simply want to be heard. To feel that I'm being listened to. I like the attention. It's a very basic human need, so I guess it's no surprise there
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My Barking Mad Neighbour

An elderly neighbour of ours, recently deceased, used to be very upset with us for keeping a large dog (Daisy's medium, actually). I guess he wasn't very mentally stable, because besides yelling at us how wrong it is to keep such a vicious dog (she never did anything but bark), he would also frequently bark back at her - quite impressively. We were a little concerned at the time that he might do something about it (from complaining to our landlord to trying to hurt Daisy), and somewhat relieved when he moved out (apparently to a home for the elderly). I just now realised that he may have sometime witnessed a dog doing something very vicious, and that it would explain his extreme reaction to being barked at. I suddenly don't dislike him anymore.
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Why you might not have any feedback for your report

There’s plenty of research to support the critical importance of feedback to the success of professionals, their teams and their leaders. If you’re a manager and you’re actively trying to educate yourself about how to grow and become better at this job, you probably know that the art of giving feedback is both challenging and fundamentally essential to your role. But you might still be struggling to find any meaningful feedback for some of your reports. When you challenge yourself to give them feedback, or when they do the challenging, you find yourself telling them that they’re doing great and they should just keep at it. While reassurance that one is doing well is universally needed, it is no substitute to actionable feedback, and your reports are right not to be content. Something is preventing you from being the boss they wish for: someone who can help them be better aware of their current limitations, and push the envelope. There could be many reasons, but I’d like to sha
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