A 27-year-old lifeguard won one of the world’s most prestigious surfing competitions. What, to you, are some of the most impressive accomplishments in sports?
Word of the Day: countenance
This word has appeared in 44 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
How Much Do You Share With Your Friends?
Do you often express your innermost thoughts, feelings and struggles? Or do you keep those vulnerabilities to yourself?
Color Love | Winter Hues
Are you a fan of the color purple? This deep winter color palette, with its icy violet and royal purple, will make you want to pull on a wool coat! Those may not be your typical frosty color choices; however, this pastel purple color palette is a great choice if you want something calm, clean, and fresh.
Pastel Purple Color Palette
This palette is highly inspired by our 2023 Blog Planner & Life Planner and their limited edition color – Lavender. So if you like violet and purple shades, make sure to check the planners, as you will love them!
As always, we have put together a mood board with some inspiration. It is in perfect Pinterest format, so feel free to pin it for later.
See our collection of other gorgeous color palettes by visiting our color palette section.
What do you think about this color palette? Where would you use it? There are really no limits here. We would love to hear your thoughts. Share them in the comments below. In addition, make sure to check our other violet & purple propositions:
Lastly, learn about the power of color in blog design in our blog post to see how important colors are in all the projects you create.
And, of course, don’t forget to check the 2023 Ultimate Planners! Over 100 pages that will help you grow your blog and social media and plan your perfect year!
If you create something using today’s color palette, don’t forget to share it with us!
Remote Leadership: Q&A with Darren Murph, Head of Remote at GitLab
Modern leadership skills, such as strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, resilience, and agility, have changed significantly with remote work and digital transformation.
Our latest research, Making of a Modern Leader: Do Your Employees Have the Skills To Lead Through Change? explores what leadership means today and the skills our employees need to connect, inspire, and thrive. The research draws upon a survey of 1,000 people managers globally, trends from Coursera learners, and insights from remote leadership champion GitLab.
In the following Q&A, Gitlab’s Head of Remote Darren Murph, expands upon some pressing questions about leadership in remote working environments. For more about GitLab’s remote leadership practices, check out their “How to Manage a Remote Team” course on Coursera.
Here is what Darren has to say about remote leadership in today’s rapidly changing world of work:
What are the key differences between in-person and remote leadership?
Darren Murph: Remote leadership should overall be more intentional. With in-person leadership, systems are created to optimize the speed of knowledge transfer (e.g., How fast can Person A tap Person B on the shoulder and receive an answer?). With remote leadership, they are created to optimize the speed of knowledge retrieval (e.g., How can we design knowledge systems so Person A and Person B can seek and find information regardless of time zone or availability?).
Remote leadership should also involve the planning of more intentional in-person interactions, which are vital moments that should not be overlooked or purged from a team’s budget. It should also seek more input from teams through public tools. GitLab, for example, enables everyone to contribute ideas, input, and feedback through comments on the platform, even if you aren’t the person who created the idea.
What are four things every remote leader should get into the habit of doing?
Darren Murph: First, in every scenario, ask, “What do I not know?”. Second, hire for weaknesses. Know your energy vampires and focus on hiring others who receive energy by doing that very work. Third, be eager to learn, change and grow. You need to be interested in evolving as a leader to keep up with the changes in technology and employee needs that come with it. Fourth, value your rest ethic as much as your work ethic. Rest is not in competition with work.
What advice would you give a learning leader looking to upskill teams in leadership?
Darren Murph: Leaders today should see each of their peers and direct reports as whole human beings, not just colleagues. Getting the most out of a report involves a deeper understanding of their purpose portfolio. Work is a slice of that portfolio but not the entire portfolio. Seek to understand what makes them who they are, what gives them energy, and what they seek from work. Today’s workplace leaders must first be willing to be led to a place of human understanding.
Could you share some leadership tips for someone managing a remote team they’ve inherited?
Darren Murph: Absolutely. First and foremost, don’t box people in. Each person is an individual and has nuanced motivations. Discover theirs and unlock their potential. Second, ask how you can be helpful. Don’t assume that the leadership style you prefer is the one that works best for them. Finally, do not relent on documentation. A memos-over-meetings culture creates an atmosphere where business results can be decoupled from linear time, leading to more flexibility and a sense of control.
How do you have high-impact conversations remotely?
Darren Murph: Start with a document. Writing forces clarity of thought. When you write what you’re planning to converse about, it leads to more precision, and it enables more parties to contribute input to the topic at hand. Also, be clear in your ask when scheduling synchronous time for conversations, and include an agenda with the aforesaid document in the calendar invite.
What is essential in remote leadership to navigate uncertain times?
Darren Murph: The truth is that there is no such thing as certain times. The only constant in the business world is change, and modern leaders must internalize a growth mindset to be resilient in the face of tomorrow’s challenges. Practically, leaders can audit their company values and ensure that operating principles are made explicit. Don’t leave workplace expectations to chance. Additionally, empower your teams to be present in their local communities through simple initiatives like Community Impact Outings.
How should leadership asses that everyone is feeling comfortable with technology?
Darren Murph: Your workflows and usage guidelines should be well-documented and easily accessible to everyone on your team. Once that is done, survey your team regularly with questions that will uncover gaps and misunderstandings. As a leader, you must lead by example. This means operating as you expect your team to operate and being open to suggestions on evolving methodologies.
What are the top three priorities for you right now in your “Head of Remote” role?
Darren Murph: I’m evolving, and expanding the reach of TeamOps, a new people practice that makes teamwork an objective discipline. It’s built for all teams — remote, hybrid, and office. I’m also putting together a second team to support the growth of TeamOps, which will be in charge of coordinating the evolution and expansion of GitLab’s Strategy & Operations function. Finally, I’m ensuring that I create memories and impact on my family and community, taking time off to recharge.
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Discover how to make your remote leadership practices more successful by downloading our research, “The Making of a Modern Leader: Do Your Employees Have the Skills To Lead Through Change?”
How I Went From Film Producer to Full-Stack Engineer in 11 Months
Learning to code so that you can land a job in tech can feel daunting. That’s why we’re sharing inspiring stories from Codecademy’s community — to show how people like you (yes, you!) can embark on a learning journey and end up with a totally new career. We hope these stories serve as a reminder that there’s no single path to a more fulfilling work life.
Today’s story is from Julia Jubileu, a 30-year-old Ruby on Rails Developer at Konduto, a Brazilian company that provides anti-fraud services for ecommerce websites, living in São Paulo, Brazil. Read more stories from Codecademy learners here — and be sure to share your story here.
Why I chose to learn to code
“As soon as the pandemic hit, and when the first cases of Covid-19 started to be reported, we were forbidden to film in the city. So I had a lot of free time. I was a bit disappointed for a while because I didn’t feel like I had much of a perspective of growth for my future — but I was so focused on work that I didn’t have time to think about what to do.
I was very worried and I started to contemplate this idea of changing careers. Immediately what struck me was that it seemed like every company everywhere was only hiring software developers. Even though I didn’t think I could become a software developer or engineer at the time, I’d started to consider it. At the same time, a friend of mine was building his personal website, and he was learning how to code to do it. I thought, He’s a person who kind of came from the same background as me, and who also wasn’t a math genius — because I thought software engineers were math geniuses. I started to believe that it was attainable for me, too.
I was starting to imagine that I could spend some time learning this. I shared this idea with some friends who already worked as programmers and they were very supportive; they totally thought I could do it. There was just a combination of the necessity because of money, some curiosity because I was very intrigued, and incentive and support that I got from my friends. The first resource I found was Codecademy — that’s how I took my first steps learning.”
Learn something new for free
How I made time to learn
“I still had to go to an office for work, so I started to wake up earlier so I could study before work, and then study on my commute. A couple of months later, I left the film production job. It just was unsustainable, because I was almost paying to [commute to] work.
Already I could see a future for myself and I believed that I could work as a developer. I quit my job and I applied for a boot camp and intensive programming training. When I wasn’t working anymore, my problem wasn’t finding time — my problem was setting limits and goals*.”
* Having trouble setting realistic goals as you learn to code? Here are 29 bite-sized coding goals that you can work towards, no matter where you are in your coding journey.
How I saved up money to switch careers
“When I left the company, I didn’t have any resignation payments. I had nothing; I had no money. But I did have a car, and I sold it. I lived on this revenue for about 6 months. I also had help from my family and my partner, but mostly I had the money from selling my car.”
How long it took me to land a job
“I started learning in June 2020, approximately, and in October, I quit my job. In May 2021, I started working as a Junior Full-stack Developer.”
How I got in the door
“I did this boot camp, and it is sponsored by lots of companies. So the idea is that you kind of start to build a relationship with the developers and the HR people, and they will point the people who they like the most to job interviews. So I kind of was already on track to get a job.”
How I nailed the interview
“The process of getting accepted to the bootcamp was kind of like a long interview. I had to take some programming tests, and I had to solve, like, 30 LeetCode questions. And then I got into the program, and the idea was that we had 3 months of working as a developer. We learned about Agile methodologies, rituals, routines, code reviews, and TDD [test-driven development] to prepare to work as a professional developer.
To get the job I have now, there was an interview, but it wasn’t technical. The interview was more so we could get to know each other.”
How I evaluated the offer
“Firstly, there were some key practical considerations, like how much I was going to get paid. That was very important. But also I was interested in making sure that the place I worked would prioritize education and continuous learning. As a beginner, this was very important to me. They totally made sure that I had a lot of space to learn and grow. Most of the successful engineers at the company started there as well. I think that was the main point: To be able to have space to learn, to ask questions, and to just be comfortable as a beginner.”
How day one and beyond went
“I think that selling my car was the best deal ever, because this work is so rewarding. I love it. I was super welcomed into the team, they support me, and they are very committed to my growth. So I am 100% happy that I made the move.
We have a daily stand-up meeting where we will sort of talk about what is the priority for the team and then check what we will work on for this week’s sprint. I will work on tasks, and also contribute to [technical] specs on the tasks that we are building and defining. I will also read code* that my colleagues wrote.”
* Code reviews are common collaborative processes that you’ll take part in on a dev team. If it’s your first time reading or reviewing code written by someone else, here are some tips for making it a successful code review.
What I wish I knew before I started learning
“I don’t think I would’ve done anything differently. I guess it took me a long time to grasp the fundamentals of the thing that I was doing: I was writing code, but I think it took me a long time to really understand that, basically, it’s all about inputting data that you’re going to process and turn into some output that solves a problem. When I did manage to get that simple concept in my head, it clicked, and it was much easier.
Now when somebody talks to me about wanting to start learning how to code, that’s one of the first things that I’ll say: ‘Coding is really basic. What you have to do in the end is very simple, but the form that you do it in changes.’”
Not sure where to start? Check out our personality quiz! We’ll help you find the best programming language to learn based on your strengths and interests.
Want to share your Codecademy learner story? Drop us a line here. And don’t forget to join the discussions in our community.
Film Club: ‘The Benevolents’
What does it mean to be a good listener?
Lesson Plan: ‘An Ailing Arkansas City Elected an 18-Year-Old Mayor to Turn Things Around’
In this lesson, students will consider what it takes to become an elected official at a young age, and identify a community issue they would tackle if they were mayor.
Wildlife
Are wild animals welcome in your community?
Word of the Day: disintegrate
This word has appeared in 27 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
