Peter Wielander
Staff Engineer & Tech Lead at Minerva Project
Staff Software Engineer and tech lead with 9 years of full-stack experience, of which 2 in early-stage startups, 5 in mid-stage startups, and 2 as a contractor and consultant. Currently...
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- Full-Stack Development: Building applications across the entire stack
- Evidence-Based Learning: Implementing learning based on solid research
- Real-Time Data Synchronization: Engineering instant data updates in systems
- AI Integration in Education: Enhancing learning with artificial intelligence tools
- Collaborative Software Design: Developing user-friendly collaborative applications.
Meet the mentor
Tricky Workplace Situation Handled
- Feedback lets employees improve themselves while also making them feel like they are heard and treated like a human being.
- It is important to distinguish feedback more encouragement. Both should be given liberally, but feedback always needs to be handled in a discrete and constructive manner. Immediate feedback is useful, but only if it helps people focus on the things they can improve without making them feel like they are not good enough.
- I would privately tell Tati that we are very satisfied with her performance and appreciate her being efficient at work. I would tell her that her work attitude sets a positive example for coworkers, and would express my wish for her to cooperate and share her skills with others to create an inclusive environment.
- I can advise about the timeliness and wording of feedback, as well as how to frame feedback to be both encouraging and uplifting while also directing attention at things that can be improved.
- Lowered productivity and motivation Increased stress Bad sleep Become more irritable Become more prone to make errors
- - Rank tasks by how critical they are, and tackle high priority tasks first - Keep a single source of truth for all the tasks that still need to get done - Eliminate small tasks the moment they come up, so there is less management overhead later - Ask for help if you do not feel like you can accomplish a high priority task in time - Be communicative about your workload and engage with others to balance it out
- Keep track of how long tasks take to see if there are tasks that cost a lot of time and could be optimized. See if there are tasks that can be batched up or easily shared with colleagues that have more domain knowledge. Communicate with your team to adjust expectations on both sides, and ask colleagues for insights into harder tasks.
- Re-framing situations to make them less stressful and foster alignment in work expectations vs. reality. Help deal with personal sources of stress that affect work life and vice versa.
- I employ system thinking when considering situations where multiple simpler systems or humans interact to form a bigger system, e.g. when analyzing hardware manufacturing processes, office layout, or data flow and consumption in software systems. I find them most handy in those situations, and use it on a daily basis.
- Hotel and tourism industries are subject to a lot of price discrimination, in that different people are willing to pay vastly different amounts at different times. The IT industry can help in identifying the payment willingness of a client through data-analysis and provide pricing that maximizes margins.
- An employee stepped in and added a fan to the production line, which separated empty and full boxes by weight, by blowing empty boxes away.
- When working on any tool, process, or interaction, always make a list of all entities that are involved and what their needs are. Talk to representatives of these groups to validate the needs you expect them to have. Consider the incentives of the people involved, and how their input shapes other parts of the system.
- My company provides software for remote learning, curriculum design, and live instruction, deploying our product in the intersection between schools that need to teach, and students that want to be taught effectively. An innovative way of using the existing teacher/student dynamic is letting students do their own curriculum development given the final goals, and have teachers evaluate them with the same existing tools we offer.
- Flattened eyebrows, opened and fixed eyes, as well as tensed jaw muscles or pursed lips.
- I would assume a similarly pensive expression, tilt my body sideways and gesture them to sit or come into the room, to signal a willingness to come to an understanding.
- I can help teach a mindset of genuine empathy, that helps with adopting more empathic body language, as well as higher level behavior in situations were anger is at play, like defusing physical situations.
- Signaling a willingness to discuss and understand their viewpoint is important. Instead of mirroring their emotions, remain calm, move naturally, and keep an open body language. Use your body to direct their attention away from you and at the problem at hand.
- The client is at a loss for what to do, possibly pensive or slightly disappointed.