My manager is one of the calmest people I know. Early on, I thought it’s due to his personality. Lately, I think it’s beyond that…it’s also because he is confident…not only on his capabilities but also his self-worth (which is different from ego-centric) so he is not afraid to speak up his mind or operates …
Category Archives: Kindness
Make it Better
I asked J who I worked with several years ago if she’d be interested in editing UncoverSpecial book. Now she has a full-time job yet she loves the idea of the book and said yes right away. A few days later, she emailed me a few questions, e.g. Do I plan to have chapters of …
Cheers
6 is a good number in Chinese culture, 六六大順 = 66 everything goes well. I sent my manager a card and a Starbucks gift card to celebrate his birthday and 2 year anniversary at current company. Also, I thank him for creating a positive environment for the team as well as wishing him and family …
Catch the Moment
Yesterday I saw the family messages on Line about aunt’s birthday. I texted her to wish her happy birthday and asked if I can bring lunch or dinner and what she would like…no response. Later in the afternoon, I found out the Persian restaurant was open (which I asked a few weeks ago if aunt …
Karma
I watched Richard Peck to become toastmaster international president at this year’s international convention. Time goes fast. We met 9 years ago at a district 53 conference. I newly joined toastmaster then and attended the conference for the first time by the encouragement of my mentor. I remembered Rich, tall, slim man in suit, standing …
Customer Interview
My boss asked me to work with the product and UX/ research teams in designing and preparing customer interviews of a customer portal. Learning a new system (totally different from the one I’m leading and the opposite end of user journey) and about customers are very exciting to me. However, for several team members, interviewing …
Let’s Try
The product manager proposed 2 changes for communication: (1) instead of him doing the stakeholder demo bi-weekly on Monday for the new features, he wants the developers to do so after each sprint on Thursday. The benefits: stakeholders and tech team get to know each other and tech team could practice presentation, coached by the …
Shocking News
I heard shocking news at a previous company: a ‘powerful’ long-timer was removed due to harassment charges and two people ‘suddenly’ passed away; there were young, one under 60 and the other in 20s. There is a Chinese proverb:人做事天在看;善有善報,惡有惡報,不是不報,時機未到 (God/ higher force watch our action; good for good, bad for bad, if it doesn’t happen …
Love and Logic
Chinese pronounces eight as ‘Ba’, similar to Eight so Eight Eight (August 8) is Father’s Day. I called home to wish dad a Happy Father’s Day! Normally dad handed the phone to mom quickly, today we chatted. He spent most of time talking about a recent car repair and a fuel system cleaner. I know …
Empathy
I called the dentist office on late Friday afternoon as I started to feel pain in the back of tooth (gum?) but the office was closed. Fortunately, the situation didn’t worsen over the weekend. I called first thing this morning, Monday, and the front desk staff fit me into the schedule right away. 2 hours …