Dear Workaholic (Note to Self)

back with a “5 minute Friday” audio edition

the Tweet that got me thinking about this

ibrahim @ibscribe

I've done this - didn't go over well

Dan Rose @DanRose999

Sheryl refused to participate in late night meetings. She had the confidence to admit she went to bed at 10pm and told Mark she'd be happy to meet when she woke up at 5am if he still hadn't gone to bed yet. Her vulnerability was inspiring and signaled strength not weakness.

key concepts I cover in this snippet:

1. extreme levels of self accountability creating stress for all

2. tying up too much of one’s identity into creating impact

3. incorrect pattern matching that more hours will help

4. implicitly absorbing cultural norms that no longer serve

5. an output vs outcome mindset focused on delivery vs learning

I’d love to hear from listeners about the techniques they’ve used to foster PM collaboration - please chime in via comments👇. And if you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing.

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further reading / references

• this old Signal v Noise blog post about being tired isn’t a badge or honor is a great reminder, and something the authors expand on in Rework and an accompanying podcast episode (workaholics aren’t heroes)

• almost wrote this (and still might) as a satirical essay like Savior Syndrome and The Ineffecitve Executive

• some thoughts on difficult childhoods creating amazing employees

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childish drawing / interpretation