Career on Stormy Peters

How to Own Your One-on-Ones and Boost Your Career

Wed, 28 May 2025 12:20:58 -0700

Your one-on-one meetings with your manager aren’t just another meeting. They’re one of the most powerful tools you have for advancing your career. And here’s the thing that might surprise you: you own those meetings, not your manager.

I know there are a lot of guides out there telling managers how to run better one-on-ones (I’ve even written one myself), but the truth is, as an employee, you have way more control over these meetings than you probably realize. So let’s talk about how you can actually take ownership and make these conversations work for you.

1:1 best practices for remote teams

Tue, 22 May 2018 11:11:05 -0700

This article was originally published on Medium.

How often should you meet with each of your team members if you manage a remote team? How long should you meet? What else should you do?

My team spans geographically from the west coast of the United States to the Czech Republic and from as far north as the Netherlands and as far south as Brazil.

Here is how I have 1:1s. I am always looking for suggestions and best practices!

7 tips: how to introduce yourself

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 08:56:24 -0700

I hate introducing myself. It’s very hard to introduce someone but especially yourself. So here’s what I’ve learned about giving awesome intros:

[caption id=“attachment_2162” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Photo by lucianvenutian[/caption]

Talk other people up. This may seem counter intuitive, but if you are doing a round robin set of intros, be sure to help others talk themselves up. For example, in a recent Kids on Computers set of introductions, Serena introduced herself. I jumped in to point out that she filed our original 501(c)(3) paperwork - which passed the first time. After that, several people jumped in to help others introduce themselves. The focus of the introductions becomes helping others, not trying to one up others.

The best jobs in life are challenging

Sun, 09 Aug 2015 20:08:47 -0700

The best jobs in life are not the easiest ones. The best jobs are the most meaningful ones. They challenge you - and make the most of your skills. The best jobs give you a chance to make a difference in the world. (And often great jobs also involve working with awesome people that also motivated by making a difference.)

Through exhaustive analysis of diaries kept by knowledge workers, we discovered the progress principle: Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.

How to have hallway conversations when you can't see the hallway

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:20:51 -0700

I recently listened to a talk by Michael Lopp about how to be a great manager.

During his talk, he stressed the importance of hallway conversations. Hallway conversations are informal conversations about projects, goals and status. As Shez says, they are great for bouncing ideas off people you might not normally interact with and just letting them know what you are up to.

Here’s how I do “hallway conversations” while working thousands of miles from my colleagues:

How to get more visibility

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:36:07 -0700

I hear a lot of people worrying about getting more visibility. While I think visibility is important, I think worrying about visibility is the wrong way to go about it. Worrying about visibility makes people do weird, self-centered things.

If you want to be more visible, talk more about other people! Meet people, listen to them, laugh with them, spread their story.

Here are a few simple things that I think raise your visibility:

The secret to my success in a field of men? All my friends. My guy friends.

Wed, 04 May 2011 21:09:34 -0700

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few weeks talking about why we have so few women in open source and web development and how to encourage more women to join. (I even got to spend an awesome afternoon with a bunch of girls. I was supposed to be mentoring them but they were already Python game developers and small business owners - at the ages of 10 and 15!)

How do I raise enough money to work on my project full time?

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:52:48 -0700

“How do I raise enough money to be able to spend all my time working on my favorite free software project?” is a question I hear often.

I have a few ideas and I’m very interested in hearing others as I think the world would be a better place if we all could afford to do work we loved and thought useful.

Focus on the difference you’d make. First off, I wouldn’t approach it as “I need to raise money to pay myself.” Unless you are raising moneyÂ solelyÂ from people that love you, whether or not you get paid is probably not going to sway them one way or the other. You need to tell them what $100,000 a year would do. How would your project be great then? Who would it help? How would it make the world a better place? How would it help this particular type of sponsor?
Believe it. You need toÂ trulyÂ believe your project would benefit from the money and your work. If you aren’t convinced, you won’t convince anyone else.
Figure out how much you need. It helps to have a goal. Would you quit your day job if you had $20,000 in funding? $100,000? $200,000? (Don’t forget costs like health care, vacation time, etc.)
Identify different types of sponsors. Are you going to raise money from developers? Or software companies? Or philanthropic grant givers? Also think about how much money that type of sponsor is likely to give. Be realistic. Maybe they gave a project $100,000 once but they gave five other projects $10,000. You are probably going to get $10,000 if you get anything. Then figure out how many sponsors you’ll need. Figure out where those people are and how you are going to get introduced to them.
Create a pitch. You need a really good web page, a good email, an elevator pitch and unfortunately, you probably need a slide deck too.
Tell the world. Don’t ask everyone for money. But tell everyone about your project and what your goals are. (Hint: your goal is not to raise money but to make your project better. The money is a means to an end.) Use your elevator pitch. Listen carefully to their questions, their skepticism, their ideas. Evolve. Make your pitch better. Figure out how to pitch it to different types of people.
Sell your project. Don’t forget to talk about your project. You aren’t just asking for money, you are selling the potential of your project.
Collect stories. Studies have proven that people are willing to give more money to save one child identified by name and ailment than they are to save 100 kids. Personal stories are moving. Find a couple of stories of how your project has made a difference.
Learn about them. You are not going to get any money from someone whom you don’t understand. Know them, know their business, know what they care about, know how they view you.
Work with an organization that can help. For example, maybe you want money to work on your favorite project and you found companies that are willing to sponsor it but they don’t want to manage it. Would they be willing to funnel the money to you through a nonprofit organization that also supports your type of project?
Ask. Talk to lots of potential sponsors, ask them for money, apply for grants, look for opportunities. If you don’t ask for the money, you will never get it.

What else would you recommend?

10 skills to master to get things done online

Fri, 14 May 2010 10:14:20 -0700

I’ve recently watched a few people struggle to get things done in online projects. I’ve written and spoken on 12 tips for getting things done in the open source community but now I see that people also need to learn how to work with mailing lists and virtual teams.

Skills you should master if you plan on working in a virtual environment. I’m interested in any other skills you’d add to the list.

Why you should only pick one New Year's Resolution

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:59:08 -0700

I “multitask” all the time. But every time I’m on a conference call and I have to say “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that,” I know I can’t really multitask.

Nobody can really multitask. When you try to do more than one thing at once, you are actually switching between the tasks continuously. You lose a lot of time context switching. If the tasks are ones that are familiar to you, like talking on the phone and running after a naked 3 year old with clothes in your hand, it might feel like multitasking, but really your brain is furiously keeping track of both tasks (the conversation with your friend and the route your 3 year old is taking) and switching back and forth between them.

7 ways not to procrastinate

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:51:39 -0700

While I’ve learned not to procrastinate, the truth is that I do procrastinate every once in a while. This isn’t a post about why I procrastinate but rather how I deal with it. Here’s how I deal with my own procrastination:

Do the first step. Sometimes I procrastinate because the task is too large to even know where to start. “Publish a GNOME quarterly report.” That sounds like it’s going to be a lot of work, so I put it off until tomorrow. Once I realize I’m doing that I stop and think about what’s the first step? Deciding what’s in the quarterly report. So I do just that step and then define the next one.
Redefine the scope. Some times a task is just so big or so hard, it’s unlikely you are ever going to make time for it. “Research CRM systems.” I had in my head that this was going to mean installing 4-5 CRM systems or getting live demos, writing up a huge list of features in a spreadsheet and tracking with CRM system did what, gathering requirements and mapping those to the features. So I didn’t do it for a long time. I finally realized that I had been talking about it long enough that I knew what we needed and I knew what people recommended, so I should just write up a quick proposal to recommend the recommended CRM system and to verify it did what we needed.
Do it poorly - or at least not as well as I’d like. I like to do things well, so if I don’t know how to do something or think I won’t do a good job, I put it off. Every once in a while, I realize there’s a task I’ve been putting off forever because I’m afraid I won’t do it well. Then I just do it. And I put it out for review some where and cringe when I think of people seeing the unfinished work. But it gets done. (And the feedback I usually get is that it looks fine.)
Decide to do it as a favor for someone else. Another reason I procrastinate is because I don’t think something is important - someone else asked me to do it. In those cases (when I realize that’s happening), I either tell them I’m not going to do it or I decide I’m going to do it for them. Even though I don’t think it’s important, it is to them and so I do it for them.
Don’t do it. Sometimes I procrastinate because I’ve really decided not to do it. There are two reasons I might decide not to do a task:

Sometimes I procrastinate on things because I’ve subconsciously decided they aren’t important. Crossing them off my list relieves my stress.
Give it to someone else. Some times there are tasks that others can do more easily or with more joy. I really wasn’t the right person for the job. If I can, I give it to them to do. You can trade. For example, I do the laundry and the dishes and not much of the cooking.

Hold something hostage. I’ve been known to say I’m not eating lunch until this is done. That usually works. (It’s best to pick something that doesn’t make somebody else wait for you!)
Promise someone else. Often I’ll tell someone I’ll do it and by when. Then I feel like I’m letting them down if I don’t get it done. (Be careful. Some research shows that by publicly commiting to do something, you might be less likely to actually do it. Something about you already got the kudos for good intentions so now you don’t need to do the task.)

How do you deal with tasks you keep putting off?

Why you shouldn't do it all yourself

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:17:36 -0700

One of the hardest things to learn in management is how not to do it all yourself. People often call this a problem with “delegation”. But the problem isn’t with telling others what to do. The problem is learning how not to do it all yourself.

I talked earlier about how my style is to Trust and Empower, but I didn’t talk about why that’s hard or even why I chose that style.

Why do people go to conferences? For the people!

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:34:21 -0700

People go to conferences to see friends, meet people and learn new things.

Over 80% of people said that seeing friends and meeting new people was the reason they went to conferences or it was very important. 53% of people said “attendees they want to hang out with” is the reason they go to conferences. The comments really reflected this with people talking about how meeting people renewed their energy and many talked about how “fun” it is!

12 tips to getting things done in open source

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:27:28 -0700

Most people used to the proprietary software world, with no experience in open source software, are amazed that anything gets done. (And lots gets done in the open source, way more than in most proprietary software companies!) And people new to open source are usually at a loss as to where to start. Often they come with a great idea, tell a couple of people who confirm it’s a great idea, and then … well, and then they don’t know what to do and the great idea fades.

What does a nonprofit board do?

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:09:59 -0700

I now work for a nonprofit board of directors, so when one of my friends told me that she just joined a nonprofit board and took a class on what it means to be on the board of directors, I got pretty excited.

Over lunch, my friend (Serena) answered all my questions and brought me her class materials. The slides looked like the discussion might have been interesting. The booklet she got (which she said they valued dearly and I checked, it sells for $20) was a good summary. It was less than 30 pages of content but it summarized the board of directors’ duties well. (And I’m happy to say I’ve seen the GNOME Foundation’s board doing all of these things!) There’s an even shorter online summary here, as well as a lot of good (free) articles on the BoardSource website. From the book Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards:

How I'm learning to create effective presentations

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:21:36 -0700

Creating effective presentations is really hard. Here’s a short summary of my journey and the two books that helped me. (This started out as a book review and I realized that what I really wanted to write about was how I was learning to create presentations.)

The number one thing that has helped me give effective presentations is giving lots of presentations. Practice makes perfect.

My very first professional presentation was at an HP Unix conference. My boss’s boss’s boss was in the room. He told me later that he wrote “SLOW” really big on a piece of paper and held it up over his head. I missed it.

Imagine twice as many developers

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:31:14 -0700

I didn’t see Danese Cooper’s talk “Why Whinging Doesn’t Work” but the title has really been bothering me. I almost titled this post “stop telling me to stop whining!”

I should start by saying I have never complained about my career in technology. (And I’m sure Danese wasn’t thinking about me personally when she wrote her title!) To the contrary, I feel like I’ve lived a charmed life in technology. Not only have I had very few negative experiences but they’ve been outweighed ten times by all the positive ones. And as I tried to point out in my lightening talk, in every negative gender related experience I’ve had, it’s always been guys who’ve jumped in to straighten things out.

Seven mentors!

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:03:33 -0700

So earlier I blogged that I had seven bosses. (It was mostly in reaction to the fact that I felt like I was getting way too much attention!) But I realized this morning that I really feel like I got seven mentors. What a way to start out a new job - with not one mentor but seven!

The GNOME board of directors has been great. They were very clear from the beginning that I should feel free to ask them any questions. When I expressed concerns that I was going to flood their mailboxes, they said, no, no don’t worry. (I think that was Vincent - I hope the rest of you agree. :) They did tell me not to necessarily expect verbose replies and that I might see a lot of “+1"s which means “I agree” or “me too”. So I’ve been sending them lots of mails, some important, some FYIs and some just downright trivial (who does x?) and they’ve replied quickly to all of them!

20 things you can negotiate in a job offer

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:41:21 -0700

John Mark had a great post 10 Survival Tips for the Modern Wageslave. I thought I’d follow up with another piece of career advice that I never got: every aspect of a job offer is negotiable. I actually got advice from my university career office to NOT negotiate a job offer. Luckily I got other advice too and since then I’ve learned it’s all negotiable. This isn’t a post about how to get the biggest salary. It isn’t even a post about how to negotiate. My point here is to say that it’s all negotiable. If you’ve always wanted a title of “technical evangelist”, you can ask for it. If you’ve always wanted a love sack with your name embroidered on it, well, they might think you’re weird, but you can still ask for it.

Learning not to cry in today's work place

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:04:19 -0700

One of the things I’m passionate about is encouraging women in technology. With that in mind, I’m going to talk about something that’s never discussed in mixed company: crying at work. Or rather, trying desperately not to cry at work. I’ll tell you how I try not to cry at work and I’ll tell you how you can help someone who’s trying not to cry: create space. Tell a joke, change the subject for a minute.