Anca Mosoiu (Tech Liminal)

Episode 5 · July 19th, 2018 · 41 mins 50 secs

About this Episode

In this episode Kendall, rachel, and Anca Mosoiu discuss:

  • Anca founded TechLiminal, a technology salon, on a fairly sketchy block in downtown Oakland, CA 10 years ago.
  • Anca's been working in tech since the late 1900's (!), the dark ages of tech.
  • Techliminal was designed as "a place where regular people can walk in off the street and learn to use tools."
  • Her work inspired some folks to volunteer to help with TechLiminal, and it became a kind of event hub.
  • Anca didn't have management experience before she started up TechLiminal, she learned most of what she knows about managing volunteers from other local organizers.
  • Volunteers are great, but they need to be motivated by intrinsic means. It's important to make sure they feel important and needed, that their work is valued.
  • Leadership skills are much more important when your people are volunteers--it's almost 100% your inspiration that motivates them.
  • The team composition matters much more, watch for disruptive volunteers.
  • "Volunteering by Obligation" (people who are volunteering to fulfilling an obligation) can make things more challenging.
  • Your own ego has to take a back seat when leading a team.
  • Volunteers often require a lot more checking in and confirmation of the desired output.
  • What? Anca has an anti-authoritarian streak? SAY IT ISN'T SO!
  • What level of transparency is appropriate with your employees? Determining the balance of keeping them on track vs being open with them is very difficult.
  • You have to be more extroverted than you might be comfortable with to make sure you ask the questions you need to ask of your team.
  • Anca recommends the "Ask A Manager" column. https://www.askamanager.org/
  • A senior leader has better judgement about what matters when delivering a project, how much to take on, what to focus on. Junior leaders often try to take on too much at once.
  • Being a leader in her professional life has helped her become more humble, less bossy.
  • Being a good leader means you can speed up the process of picking the place for lunch!

Find Anca at https://techliminal.com/
Twitter: @anca

Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3