Allison Matlack

487 points

Raleigh, NC

Allison is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer turned communications lead at Red Hat who is known for her enthusiastic speaking style and passion for helping other leaders inspire their teams. She's an experienced Agile practitioner and coach of software engineering teams in various stages of maturity, as well as a comms specialist with a change-management style steeped in the tradition of the Open Decision Framework. She's honored to have been an Open Organization Ambassador since 2016 and loves helping others find ways to put open principles into practice.

Open Minded Author Contributor Club Open Organization Ambassador

Authored Content

Beyond engagement: What leaders need to know about empowering others

Empowering employees doesn't mean you won't need to manage them. But it does mean leaders need to think differently about their roles.

Learning to be open without turning into a mesmerized chicken

Three years after immersion in open principles, a starry-eyed dreamer contemplates the limits of being a steward for organizational culture.

4 tips for leaders helping others evolve their careers

In open organizations, managers and other leaders have a responsibility to employees seeking new opportunities for development and growth.

Leaders are more powerful than they think

Humility is fine—but managers shouldn't sell themselves short.

Changing your entrenched processes can increase customer loyalty

How does your team balance doing things for the sake of process and consistency, doing things fast, and doing the right thing for the customer?

I'm not an impostor and know exactly what I'm doing

"I really appreciate you helping me out," I said as I followed the industrial/organizational psychology expert to the coffee machine, seeking help with a feedback survey for…

Contributed Content

In it together: When your manager is your greatest advocate

In an open organization, the best kind of manager is the one that sets context and empowers others to do their best work.

Brick wall between two people, a developer and an operations manager

Putting open values into management practice

How does transitioning into management change someone's view of working according to open principles?

A summer reading list for open organization enthusiasts

The books on this year's open organization reading list crystallize so much of what makes "open" work: Honesty, authenticity, trust, and the courage to question those status…

Authored Comments

amatlack

21 Jan 2020

Never enough: Working openly with anxiety

I feel seen.

I haven't been diagnosed with OCD, but the anxiety performance loop hits very close to home for me. I think mine stems more from codependency, which a therapist and I have definitely discussed -- a tendency to need external validation, mixed with paralyzing fear of disappointing people I care about. It's such a joy. ;-)

Thanks for sharing, Sam!

amatlack

24 Oct 2018

Beyond engagement: What leaders need to know about empowering others

Thank you so much, Kate! I would add a big +1 and say that information should not be used as a tool to wield power or maintain authority. We're all so much more effective with the right context!