[Dutch Lock Down Day Three Hundred Eighty Three]
I’m asked this one a lot lately and, thankfully, I’ve thought about it quite a bit and even wrote it down.
My core principles are to embrace radical transparency and fail often; while I sometimes struggle with one, I’m rather successful with the other.
My core values are compassion, honesty, and open-mindedness.
GitHub.Com/RainLeander
But first the news:
- Coronavirus cases decline by 7%, intensive care numbers still rising
- Netherlands to allow small crowds at football matches, theaters this month
- Weekly coronavirus update: 48.186 new cases, 142 deaths
I don’t usually answer that eloquently as much as something like, “I embrace transparency, collaboration, and appreciation.”
The transparency value is something that has been with me since I was quite young and was quite miserable to live with in America where you need to be polite and filter your thoughts and actions depending on context, environment, and people.
You can imagine how delightful it was for me to move to the Netherlands where it’s normal and expected to be honest and transparent always, despite context, environment, and people.
The collaboration thing developed as recently as my dance career – I discovered that I loved working with my dancers to create movement and timing rather than telling them to do MY movement and timing on THEIR bodies. Choreography was a collaboration.
And then I joined Red Hat where collaboration is a core principle. That experience made my love of collaboration evolve, develop, and grow stronger.
The appreciation thing, though, is fairly new.
It began with my mom who wanted me, nay TRIED, to get me to write thank you cards for presents I received or kindnesses shown and because she TOLD me to do it, I would not.
#CantTellMe #REBEL
But in the collaboration / open source / tech world, appreciation is shown with swag, stickers, free things and I one HUNDRED percent embrace this culture.
Here’s the thing, though, is that I realized how painful it is to NOT receive appreciation. For example, when there’s a list of contributors and you’re left off. Or you realize you’re paid significantly less than everyone else on your team. Or when everyone in your class is invited to a party except you.
It hurts.
Suddenly, expressing appreciation became vital.
And I haven’t expressed appreciation to you enough.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for liking posts. And retweeting. And sharing. And following.
Thank you for for commenting.
And messaging me directly.
And supporting me in this little corner of the web.
I appreciate everything you do. Even when you visit without a single like, comment, or share.
I see those metrics – you all are awesomeness.
So, thank you.
And I’d love to hear what your core principles are – what are your values? And how are you embracing them day to day?