Early Career
Creating an impact doesn't always make you feel accomplished, and feeling accomplished doesn't necessarily mean you're creating an impact. This is about the dopamine trap of getting things done.
Late Career
The concept of Thinking Big is not about having big ideas. It's about charting a path to accomplish great and challenging things.
Organizations
Designing processes and software to scale is expensive but necessary. I'll walk through why scaling by definition (basically always) leads to a loss of agility.
Managing Up
Upward feedback is a gift from an employee to a manager. How to politely give the gift of feedback to anyone, but particularly your manager.
Personal Dave Posts
AI is great for some things. Not all things. Join me as I take on this experiment.
Interviewing
All interview processes are imperfect. But I think the Amazon Bar Raiser program is a brilliant differentiator.
Interviewing
Complaining about co-workers is an immature and dangerous temptation.
Tech industry career and leadership advice from an ex-Amazon GM and Tech Director.
What unexpected things happen when your scope increases, almost everything is ambiguous, and results (not effort) are all that matter.
Staying calm in a crisis is a necessary component of leadership.
The Amazon Leadership Principles are awesome in driving behaviors within Amazon. Why don't other companies manage this type of behavior influence?
Getting past the euphemisms - this is what “performance management” looks like from the manager chair.
A bit of this and that.
Why most career asks fail (if you even ask) and how making your requests smaller, clearer, and time-bound dramatically increases your odds of getting a good response.
Your natural tendencies work brilliantly in the right context, but real growth comes from learning when to flip them.
A few hard-earned lessons about people, politics, consistency, and the parts of work we pretend aren’t part of the job. But really are.
You don’t need permission to lead. You just need to look, sound, and act like a person others instinctively follow. Because, yes, we're all sheep.
Doing your work absolutely matters. But you can easily sabotage yourself by saying the wrong thing. These are a few phrases that quietly sabotage your reputation.
Levels in an organization garble communication. A skip-level meeting is an opportunity to communicate clearly. Most importantly, it helps low-level employees see past their blinders.
Being a good student might make you a poor worker. Here are a few habits and behaviors that might serve you well in the classroom but poorly in the workplace.