From Geek to Star #47 - 5 pieces of advice from Simon Sinek to grow in your career

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🗓️ This Week – Episode 47: 5 advice that Simon Sinek shared, useful for us 

You may have heard of Simon Sinek, a well-known author, speaker and thinker on leadership and organisations.

A few days ago, I watched a 20-minute compilation of some of his talks, and it struck a chord. I thought it would be worth sharing with you, especially because many of his ideas connect with the S in SHINE: Soft skills.

Soft skills are not “nice to have” for tech people, especially in this AI-age. Whether you are a manager or an individual contributor, they can help you go a long way.

Here are 5 takeaways I found useful in the video.

1. Keep an infinite mindset

One of Simon Sinek’s key ideas is the “infinite mindset”: focusing less on short-term wins and more on long-term progress.

For us in tech, this is a helpful reminder. Your career is not one project, one promotion, one reorganisation, one good manager or one bad manager. It is a long game.

Obstacles will come. Changes will happen. AI will keep accelerating. But if you stay focused on building yourself over the long term, you are less likely to feel stuck when one specific road becomes blocked.

2. Go after what you want, while respecting others

There is nothing wrong with ambition. Wanting to grow, to have more impact, to be promoted, to move to another role, to become more visible… All of this is fine. The point is not to wait passively and hope someone will notice you.

But there is a way to go after what you want while respecting others: not stepping on people, not playing politics in a dirty way, not forgetting that relationships matter.

In tech, many people hope that good work will speak for itself. Sometimes it does. Often it needs intentional behavior. 

3. Take care of each other

This one may sound simple, but I find it powerful. Careers are not built alone.

Help others when you can. Share knowledge. Support colleagues, and not only tech colleagues: business, finance, legal… colleagues as well. Make introductions. Give credit. 

And when you need help, ask for it. For many engineers, asking for help can feel like a weakness. It is not. It is part of working in a system with other humans.

And in the long run, the people who help others usually build stronger networks, stronger trust, and stronger careers.

4. Be the last to speak, and the first to listen

This is especially useful for managers and leaders, but also for individual contributors. When you speak too early, people may align to your view too quickly, especially if you have authority or technical credibility.

Listening first helps you understand:

• what others see that you may have missed

• where resistance may come from

• what problem people are really trying to solve

For tech people, this is a very useful skill. We often jump quickly to the solution. Sometimes too quickly.

5. Take accountability and practise empathy

It is easy to take credit when things go well. It is harder to take accountability when things go wrong. But this is where trust is built.

Practising empathy also does not mean becoming soft or avoiding difficult conversations. It means trying to understand what others are going through before judging their behaviour.

As tech leaders and engineers, we work with many people who do not think like us: business teams, finance, HR, operations, customers, vendors. Empathy helps us bridge that gap.

And maybe this is one of the biggest lessons: growing in your career is not only about becoming better at what you do. It is also about becoming better at how you work with others.

🙏 I’d Love to Hear From You

Take 20 minutes to watch this compilation of Simon Siney and let me know what is the first thought coming up to your mind. 

Reply to this email, I read every note.

Follow me on LinkedIn for more reflections and “behind-the-scenes” thinking between newsletters. Don’t hesitate to comment or reshare,  it’s one of the best ways to grow your SHINE 🌟. If you want to know more about how I can support you or your teams to thrive in a tech career in this AI-age, have a look at my offerings here.  

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✨ May the SHINE be with you!

From Geek to Star by Khang | The Way Forward