Authority Issues

By Rachel Perkins and Kendall Miller

Welcome to Authority Issues, a podcast about leadership, management, and competitive prescription writing.

Hosted by Rachel Perkins (aka piebob), and Kendall Miller... more

4.6

88 ratings

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FAQs about Authority Issues:

How many episodes does Authority Issues have?

The podcast currently has 100 episodes available.

Authority Issues episodes:

April 23, 2020Episode 50: Alicia Brainerd (Salesforce)
In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Alicia talk about:
Germophobia, and being right all along
Realizing managing humans is more interesting than engineering
What HR isn't for
Building experience in the consulting world
Being reminded that there will be a "next" job
Choosing stability over passion
Kendall's lack of patience
The desire for influence vs cultural and procedural debt
Leading a community group at work
Creating space for the team to process the pandemic, a human stand-up
The effort required to explain how you're doing
How instead of a drop in productivity, many folks are seeking control by getting things done, connection by working together more closely
Social and physical meditation
Negative connotations of authority
The relief of having someone tell you what to do
Spending more time cooking, the challenge of constraints on ingredients
Digital minimalism
You can find Alicia on Twitter as @macapplechick
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
46min
April 09, 2020Episode 49: Leadership during times of crisis? We'll do it live!
In this episode, Kendall and rachel talk about:
CW: we're probably going to swear more than usual
The tendency of technical people to try to solve every problem with technology
rachel's perilous journey home
Kendall's cabin fever
The uncertainty of the future, lack of faith in (US) leadership
Whether it's productive to vent about the above
Cutting yourself some slack
Directionality of venting/support structures
Forecasting vs planning
Having compassion for your leadership
Planning for multiple potential futures
Parallels to the 2000-era dot-com bust
Random prison pet training detour
Providing support for emotionally-strapped folk
How much authoritarianism is appropriate when lives are at stake?
The role of trust in authority
Self-soothing techniques from your hosts:
rachel: cocktails, Dungeons & Dragons, Murdoch Mysteries
Kendall: Staying in With Emily & Kumail podcast, watching and reading things that happen on beaches, lots of exercise
Zoom meetings are great until they're not
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
55min
March 26, 2020Episode 48: Cynthia Del'Aria (Raika Technologies)
In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Cynthia talk about:
Being 8 years old and writing in VISUAL BASIC! :heart-eyes:
Taking community college classes with mom at age 12
Geeking out on things that are older than Kendall :)
Selling her first company at age 19
Cleaning up unicorn poop
What happens after the problem is solved
Helping companies find their path
Feeling responsible for the happiness of your employees
The awkwardness of networking
Troubleshooting at the product level
Constantly being in trouble as a kid :)
What should qualify people to be management
Discovering higher mathematics and panicking Kendall
Reading and racecars
You can find Cynthia on LinkedIn, Facebook, and cynthiadelaria.com!
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
54min
March 12, 2020Episode 47: Dan Turkenkopf (Milwaukee Brewers)
In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and talk about:
Moneyball and the new world of big data and baseball
How to merge gut feel based on experience with quantitative analysis
Parlaying an early love of baseball into a paid gig
The draw of building a team from scratch
Kendall being incredibly nerdsniped :)
Starting out as a tech lead
Putting the R in R&D
How baseball players respond to data-driven insights
Baseball engineering org structure
The particular difficulty of remote leadership
Adjusting priorities and developing process to compensate for team needs
Ensuring engineers interact respectfully with non-technical subject matter experts
Seeing his past self in his employees
Watching games to validate data models
Turning his job into a hobby and his hobby into a job
You can find Dan on Twitter at @dturkenk and on LinkedIn :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
50min
February 27, 2020Episode 46: Helen Hutchison (League of Women Voters of CA)
In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Helen talk about:
Growing up with the League
The League as an outgrowth of the Suffrage movement
What counts as non-partisan policy
The struggle of managing and motivating volunteers
How fundraising is harder when people are already 'donating' their time
What an executive director does vs a president in the LWVO
The tendency to move to fill a vacuum
Breaking the cycle of doing this important work via the unpaid labor of women
Developing the organizational habit of offering help and then stepping back to wait for community guidance on what that help looks like
What to look for in an executive director for the LWV
Maintaining consistency and project work across many volunteer terms
The role of local government observers in the League
What it means to be "somewhat ornery" :)
Creating the leadership you want to see via tenacity and patience
The struggle of appreciating some people's volunteerism :)
You can find Helen on LinkedIn and on Twitter as @helenhutch :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
49min
February 13, 2020Episode 45: Brianna Connelly (Integrate)
In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Brianna talk about:
Feeling the need to 'step in' and handle stuff that isn't getting done (right) ;)
Making the decision to go to "hair school" and how that helped her communication skills
rachel's inability to resist the easy joke
Personal mythology and its pluses and minuses
Realizing that focus is required to complete a masters degree (!)
Falling back on high-pressure experience in the salon
The power of the custom cover letter
Fast rise to management and the struggle to develop a culture
The need for early, honest feedback
Missing....Scala? :) and the power to decide what tools your team uses
Recommendation for Leeanne Smullen, leadership coach
Influential nuns in Brianna and Kendall's lives
How honest communication in one's personal life is different from honest communication at work
You can find Brianna on LinkedIn as Brianna Connelly, and on Instagram as @ghostfaceknitter :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
49min
January 30, 2020Episode 44: Corey Quinn (The Duckbill Group)
In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Corey talk about:
Humble beginnings as an "angry UNIX sysadmin" (aka the only kind of UNIX sysadmin)
Vowing to be the opposite of every crappy manager
Corey's Least Favorite Managers
Metaphors (for failure)
Why "We need to talk" sucks
An example of good leadership in crisis
Appropriate levels of intensity in the workplace
What a Cloud Economist does
How "Last Week in AWS" began (and becoming a #quinnfluencer :))
Punching up vs punching down, and knowing the difference
The depressing rareness of people who can take feedback well
Understanding one's own failure modes, and what twitter is good for
Choosing not to work at AWS: https://www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/why-i-turned-down-an-aws-job-offer/
Intentionally obfuscating one's personal life
The value of having the priority interrupt of a toddler's demands
Reconciling one's personal loneliness with a public persona
You can find Corey at https://www.lastweekinaws.com/ and on Twitter as @quinnypig
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
48min
January 16, 2020Episode 43: Beata Puncevic (Healthgrades)
In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Beata talk about:
Coming to the US without knowing any English
Learning to hustle from her parents
Networking at the mall
Learning how to manage on the job
THE BIG PIVOT
Interviewing for a job with no clear requirements
Surviving a full-time job and full-time class load simultaneously
Realizing you're the driver of your own bus
Discovering that leadership is more than execution alone
What makes a senior leader vs a junior one
Developing habits, systems-related thinking, and a recommendation for "Atomic Habits" by James Clear
Her allergy to the RACI matrix
An upcoming series on system-level thinking for leadership :)
Leadership as a partnership, the humbling nature of authority
Management of puppies and getting them into training school
The confidence of having leadership experience and its impact on her personal life
You can find Beata Puncevic on LinkedIn :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
46min
January 02, 2020Episode 42: Jeremy Bowers (Washington Post)
In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Jeremy talk about:
How engineering is a bit different at a newspaper
A lowly beginning doing tech support at Best Buy
Saving the day on a project that won a Pulitzer!
Being glad he's not coding anymore
What "Newsroom Engineering" means
Why campaign finance data is critical to the news industry
Planning a charm offensive
Tactics for pre-empting burnout when deadlines are immutable
Book recommendations:
Camille Fournier: The Manager's Path
Will Larson: An Elegant Puzzle
Donella H. Meadows: Thinking In Systems
The actual net effect of indulging a "brilliant asshole"
Pushing for more remote workers
How to push back against authority when needed
Cooking at scale and for one's coworkers
You can find Jeremy on Twitter at @jeremybowers
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
44min
December 19, 2019Episode 41: Authority Issues 2019 Year-End Bonanza!
In this special year-end episode, rachel and Kendall talk about:
How much we amuse each other
The vagaries of podcast recording technology
Trains. Kind of a lot. I'm sorry :)
Work-life balance over the holidays
Management styles and customizations, a recurring theme
Tactics for feeling more comfortable with authority
What "changing the world for the better" can mean
How many times we've actually met in person (spoiler, it's twice)
What we value about doing this show
Goals for the coming year
As we mentioned, we would love for you to send us your guest recommendations/intros, tag us on twitter: @djpiebob and @blatanterror
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
35min

FAQs about Authority Issues:

How many episodes does Authority Issues have?

The podcast currently has 100 episodes available.