Migration: Bye to the Pi
Well... it happened. If you checked in earlier this week, you might have noticed Dev Leader was completely down on Thursday. Quite a bummer... but the show must go on. Migration to a new host was necessary, but that wasn't without some hiccups.
For me, having a site hosted was still a pretty new process. I had tried it a couple of times before, but running a web server that I controlled always felt better. Just more control I suppose. Migration started off sort of sour where I was required to re-install Wordpress on my host a few times due to some technical difficulties... And of course, it was hard to sit still while I knew my site was down. Once I finally had Wordpress launched, the only part of the migration that went smooth was having a backup of my site four hours before it went down. Talk about timing!
There's silver lining in everything though, and this little migration blip was no different. My Raspberry Pi was a fun little box, but it wasn't fast by any stretch of the imagination. Page loading times were a bit slow, and serving images could sometimes be terrifyingly slow. Now that the site is hosted, there should be a very noticeable performance improvement. Additionally, with the new host comes some additional reliability! That's always awesome.
See? Migration wasn't so bad after all, I guess! My list of things for any Wordpress user to be doing regularly:
- Back up your posts
- Back up your comments if your readers are actively engaged in discussions
- Back up the media you use on your blog
- Export your plugin settings
- Keep a list of plugins you have running
- Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions: 10 Tips for Doing it Right: Anyone in a leadership position knows just how valuable being able to provide feedback is. Heck, anyone who is driven to improve themself craves feedback. Joel Peterson provides an awesome list of tips for being able to provide feedback. I'd say frequency, positivity, and confidentiality are among the top take away points from his list.
- 10 ways to make your .NET projects play nice with others: First programming article in the list this week. I thought this one stood out because I think anyone working in a team has either heard some (most) of these or is trying to work through them. Troy Hunt has put together a list of 10 things that any developer working in a team should be conscious of to make sure their code plays well with their teammates. Number one on the list is the same as my number one. "Works on my machine" carries no validity. Why? Your customers don't have your computer. It's a frequent thing when working with the QA team and developers want to cover their butts... But it won't cut it!
- Only 13 percent of people worldwide actually like going to work: Had to share this one, because if the stat is real, it's scary. It's scary to think that almost 90% of people that go to work don't actually like going. In Jena McGregor's article, this low rate is attributed to poor working conditions, job availability, and job engagement. On the bright side for us North Americans, we're a bit higher at just under 30%. That's still far too low for something we spend a majority of our lives doing. It's important to find a company you can get behind, and I definitely lucked out with Magnet.
- The New Science of Who Sits Where at Work: Rachel Feintzeig shared an interesting article about seating in the workplace. I've shared some articles before about open concept offices and that I do enjoy working in them, but the seating perspective is pretty interesting. For example, changing your org hierarchy is one thing but unless people are changing their daily interactions, it won't have that big of an effect. However, if seating arrangements are responsible for 40-60% of people's daily interactions, simply moving people around will really stir the pot.
- What is the Biggest Mistake Managers Make?: In John Murphy's article, he points out something that is probably less obvious than it should be. The biggest mistake a manager can make is focusing on the wrong things. He provides some steps to help align managers with the goals of their company to ensure that focus is in the necessary areas.
- 8 strategies for successful culture change: Culture is something that is dynamic and always evolving within a company, but often there are things that are core to the company culture. What happens when you need to make some work culture changes? Michelle Smith shares some tips on how to approach a work culture shift.
- Why Inspiring Leaders Don't Sweat: Here was an article that hit home with me because I'm guilty of it. Panicking. Why is it bad if you're panicking in a leadership position? The biggest problem is that your teammates will pick up on it and switch to a panick state too. It's incredibly demotivating, and it's usually at a time when motivation and inspiration is truly needed. In Steven Thompson's post, he talks about how and why to keep calm and lead on.
- 3 Proven Ways to Make Tough Job Decisions: Jennifer Dulski discusses three approaches for helping make tough life and career decisions. At some point or another, most of us will be faced with making a decision in our career path that's going to be difficult--difficult for you to decide or difficult for you to explain to those you're close to. I think the "Sit With" approach is my favourite of the three.
- 4 Ways to Have a Life Outside Your Business: This one should probably hit home with anyone working in a startup or running a business. Alexa von Tobel shares four tips for how to have a life outside of work and why having a life outside of work is necessary to be successful. I think something that's often overlooked (somehow) is "me time". I'm guilty of it too, but you get to a point when you're not doing anything just for yourself. It's great to be dedicated to your company and be passionate about your work, but it's also importnt to step back, take a breath, and do something just for you.
- 17 Things The Boss Should Never Say: Dave Kerpen has another great article on what not to say--this time from the boss's perspective. Some of the worst ones in my opinion? Telling your teammates it's only their problem (or not yours, at least) or being adamant about not evolving your perspective/processes. Some gems in there from quite a few business owners.
- 9 Lessons From the World’s Best Mentors: This one is pretty quick from Chester Elton, but there's a few different perspectives shared in here. Sone key points in my opinion are ensuring that you're doing what you can to help others and not getting paralyzed by risk.
- Key Reasons Delegating Is SO Difficult and What To Do About It: Most new managers and leaders have this problem. How do you delegate work? Perhaps you acquired your management or leadership position because you proved that technically you were very capable in your position. So how do you get others to do work you think you could be doing? Judith Sherven shares some insight on why being able to delegate is an incredibly important skill as a leader. After all, being able to grow as a leader means being able to effectively delegate responsibilities.
- Want Greater Employee Engagement? Develop Intrapreneurs: In this article, Larry Myler talks about increasing employee engagement by developing intrapreneurs within your organization. It's inline with what Tayun's guest post was about the other week. Provide people autonomy and let them execute on their strengths. It's a sure-fire way to increase engagement.
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