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Musings and thoughts on Engineering Leadership
Middle managers often get overlooked during reorganizations, receiving information haphazardly while scrambling to understand what changes mean for their teams rather than positioning themselves for success. This guide provides five strategic steps that managers can take when they suddenly find themselves reporting to a new boss after a reorg, from understanding their new leader's style to building relationships with new peer groups. read more
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Register for this unique workshop today to take your next gathering to the next level read more
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
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