Welcome to the latest issue of the The Commons digest!

This is our bi-weekly round-up of community news, relevant content and anything that can help us level up together.

As always, reach out if you have any feedback or if you’d like anything featured in here.

Now onto the update 👇

Insight We're Pondering 🤔

One of the most common misconceptions about leadership? That it implies the pursuit of perfection.Mistakes are unavoidable. They are the cost of doing business. At The Commons, we often say that true leadership isn't a question of avoiding them entirely, or ruthlessly ensuring that your team does the same; it's about creating a culture for dealing with error when it inevitably does arise.

The Commonsmentor Himani Nagrath recently drove this home during an event we hosted with Monday Girl (you can check out a clip here). One quote in particular resonated with us:

"Vulnerability is not the sign of a weak leader; it's actually the sign of a really strong leader. [...] It fosters a culture of normalizing mistakes and even using them to our advantage as a team."

Spot on.

It may sound counterintuitive, but the truth is that mistakes genuinely do benefit your team. You can ask your colleagues what insights they learned from a failed experiment, for example, or reward them for having the courage to take risks in the first place. Team success is a question of what happens in the long run. Himani's point is a welcome reminder that any setbacks along the way won't in and of themselves determine outcomes. What's far more important is how we react to them.

Community Member Spotlight

Today we’re featuring Max Nimaroff, an exceptional operator who is currently GM of Subscriber Experience on the DashPass team at DoorDash. He’s also a mentor here at The Commons, where he has helped improve the careers of countless community members.

Max began his career in market research, focusing on film and media clients, before entering startupland in 2015. He’s accomplished a lot since then, with experience spanning product marketing, growth strategy, BizOps and, as of late, leadership.

We often preach the concept of career ownership at Skillful, specifically when it comes to figuring out what inspires you and how you can impact your team for the better. Few people embody this ethos as well as Max. He has so much advice on designing one's career, giving back to others and finding meaning in both that we asked him to share his experience with the broader community.

Luckily he agreed, and you can read more about his path right here.

⭐️ New Product Alert ⭐️

Maybe you've set your sights on a career in tech. But orienting your compass towards the right roles, functions and job search strategies? That's half the battle.That's why we launched our first-ever Tech Discovery Weekend. You can think of it as a crash course on business careers in tech. We want to help you find the perfect role, identify your dream companies and nail your interviews. Over a single weekend, participants will:

• Discover roles that fit their skill sets
• Gain practical advice to nail their job search
• Meet mentors from top companies like Stripe, Snap and DoorDash
• And so much more...

Sign Up - Tech Discovery Weekend

‍The Tech Discovery Weekend will take place from March 5th to 6th. We care deeply about helping more top talent break into tech. So much so, in fact, that we've made this course as accessible as possible; it's only $99 and anyone can enroll. Check out the itinerary below. You can also learn more and sign up at this link.

Sprint Applications Are Open 🚀

We're accepting applications to our March Sprints!Join hundreds of professionals on a journey to level up and make world-class connections, focused entirely on strategic business careers in the tech industry. We're running the following Sprints in March: Strategy + Operations, Product Strategy and Strategic Finance. Apply at the links below.Once accepted, Sprints are first-come, first-served. If you want to secure a spot, applying ASAP is your best bet. All three Sprints that are in session right now, for example, filled up before we could even finish reviewing applications.

‍Apply Now - Skillful Strategy + Operations

‍Apply Now - Product Strategy

‍Apply Now - Strategic Finance

‍Questions? We've got you covered. Simply reply to this email and we'll be glad to help.‍

Events @ The Commons 🗓

On Wednesday March 2nd, we're hosting a fireside chat with Brett Chang, co-founder of the Peak.For those who don't know, the Peak is a digital media company with over 100,000 subscribers and counting. Brett is a serial entrepreneur with stints at companies like Uber, and he has accumulated a ton of wisdom on topics like product development, fundraising, marketing, finding top talent and more. Fortunately, he's agreed to share his experience with The Commons community

Community members can register through the link we posted in Slack.

#community-wins

We celebrated some hiring announcements and promotions!

• Gordon Li joined DoorDash in Strategy & Operations
  

• Julian Sconza joined Clio in Revenue Operations
  

• Tom Tanguay-Sabourin was promoted to Senior Business Analyst at RenoRun
  

• Raza Khan joined mentor Jordy Winkler on the BizOps team ResQ

Please be sure to reach out on Slack with a word or two of congratulations!

One (Community) Resource

We’re always working on new ways to improve the platform experience for our community members. Over the past few weeks we’ve captured some of the most recent changes and documented them in the first-ever

The Commons Changelog

You can use the Changelog to better understand the resources available to you on your Commons journey. Here are some of the things we've been cooking up:

• We launched our first ever Tech Discovery Weekend. Made with

• for amazing professionals who want to learn about business careers in tech. Click here to learn more (or see above).
  
• You asked, we answered! We've put together answers to some of our most frequently asked questions. You can view them at the bottom of each Sprint page, for example right here.
  
• Access crucial Skillful info on the go. Our platform is now optimized for mobile. Check it out on your phone

You can stay up to date by checking in with the Changelog each week.

P.S. Have a problem The Commons team can solve? An idea for a feature? Spotted a bug? Feedback on the Changelog? Reply to this email.

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That’s all for now

If you’d like to access more news and content before the next update, you can hop on over to Slack.

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