Blog

Musings and thoughts on Engineering Leadership

12-Sep-2025

The Secret to Creating Professional Development Experiences That Actually Matter

This guide reveals what separates truly transformative professional development experiences from the forgettable ones, exploring the five essential elements that make leadership retreats and conferences genuinely valuable. read more

27-Aug-2025

5 Essential Things Every Leader Should Evaluate After a Reorganization

When you're suddenly leading a new department after a reorganization, you need to quickly assess the landscape without the usual onboarding grace period. This guide outlines five critical areas to evaluate—from goals and team effectiveness to culture and barriers—plus how bringing people together through strategic gatherings can accelerate your success as a new leader. read more

05-Aug-2025

Why Your Fall Business Update Is Putting Everyone to Sleep (And How to Fix It)

Tired of watching eyes glaze over during your company's fall business update? This post challenges the traditional slide-heavy approach to sharing company information and offers creative, interactive alternatives that will keep your team engaged and actually processing the content you're sharing. read more

22-Jul-2025

The Productivity Paradox: How Our Obsession with Efficiency is Making Us Less Productive

Despite our obsession with productivity tools, optimization techniques, and AI solutions, workers are more burned out than ever, working longer hours, and ironically becoming less productive as they spend more time trying to be efficient than actually working efficiently. The research shows that strategic rest, genuine breaks, and being less focused on constant productivity optimization may be the key to actually achieving sustainable high performance. read more

28-May-2025

The Anti-Goal Setting Guide: Creating Objectives People Actually Care About

Why does traditional goal setting fail to inspire action? And how can you transform goal setting from a dreaded admin activity to a meaningful and useful process that connects with a person's natural tendencies and aspitations? Learn three practical approaches to create objectives people genuinely care about pursuing. read more

22-Apr-2025

Building Leadership Influence By Asking The Right Questions First

Learn how to increase your leadership influence by focusing on the critical questions that matter to different stakeholders. Discover how to tailor your communication approach to executives, peers, and team members by first understanding what information is most valuable to them. read more

05-Mar-2025

Why Hackathons Are Breaking (Not Making) Your Engineering Culture

Discover why traditional engineering hackathons might be undermining your team-building goals and learn why these popular events often fail to deliver on creating higher-performing engineering teams, deeper connections, and sustainable momentum. read more

11-Feb-2025

The Post-Performance Review Guide No One Talks About, Part 2

Use this guidance to reframe and process difficult feedback, from dealing with managers who don't understand your role to transforming frustrating feedback into opportunities for better visibility and communication. read more

04-Feb-2025

The Post-Performance Review Guide No One Talks About, Part 1

Master the often-overlooked art of processing performance review feedback with this leadership guide that shows you how to turn vague feedback into actionable growth plans and avoid the common pitfall of letting valuable insights slip away in the daily grind. read more

22-Jan-2025

Beyond 'Keep Doing What You're Doing': Writing Reviews That Matter

Whether you have individuals you're trying to provide critical feedback to or ones where you just want to say 'keep doing what you're doing'. here's how to write meaningful performance reviews for your direct reports that pushes you further, focusing on measuring true impact and providing actionable feedback that drives growth and makes you look like a superstar manager. read more

15-Jan-2025

The Art of Upward Reviews: Writing Feedback Your Manager Will Actually Use

Navigate the delicate process of writing upward reviews with these tips that addresses common fears about retaliation and shows you exactly how to provide constructive feedback to your manager, whether they're a first-time supervisor or the CEO. read more

06-Jan-2025

The Complete Guide to Writing Self-Reviews (That Actually Get Read)

Struggling with your self-review? This guide demystifies this part of the performance review process, showing you exactly what to write and who reads it, so you can stop agonizing over lengthy paragraphs or incomplete bullet points. read more

19-Nov-2024

Grab your spot today for this exclusive virtual workshop on crafting purposeful gatherings

Register for this unique workshop today to take your next gathering to the next level read more

14-Oct-2024

Your Essential Checklist for Planning a Gathering: From Logistics to Extras

There are a million things to think about when planning a gathering. Use this comprehensive checklist to make sure you're not forgetting anything. read more

28-May-2024

Unlocking Advanced Facilitation Skills: Insights from Georgetown University's Transformational Leadership Facilitation Certification

Learn about the key insights I gained from Georgetown University's Facilitation Certification course, including advanced techniques, personal growth, and the art of designing impactful meetings. read more

02-Apr-2024

Can't Meet in Person? Tips for Planning a Great Virtual Offsite

Discover expert strategies to transform your virtual offsite into an engaging, fun, and productive experience, overcoming the challenges of remote team dynamics. read more

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