I explore the three leadership traits that are often deemed crucial for leaders in tech: Driving innovation, getting things done, and being authentic. I examine each of those and show how they’ve been used to gloss over problematic consequences for individuals, our industry, and beyond. I also share many practical tips for leaders dealing with these issues.

Discover how facilitation skills can transform your leadership approach, whether you're a people manager or not. Learn practical frameworks, tools, and resources to elevate your ability to guide teams toward shared goals with confidence and purpose.

In this episode, I explore actionable allyship strategies with Leo, an experienced staff engineer. Learn how senior technical contributors can support colleagues from underrepresented groups through meeting techniques, documentation, and intentional advocacy — all without direct management responsibilities.

No one wants to be micromanaged, and no one wants to be told they are a micromanager. The word has negative connotations, and usually, it’s for good reason. But there's more to micromanagement than just power and control—it’s a complex issue that often stems from deeper challenges.

As an engineering leader, one of your key responsibilities is to navigate and guide your team through the uncertainty that often comes with new projects and goals. You are to ensure your team has the information they need to do the work that needs to be done. What, then, if you’ve gone to great lengths to bring clarity to your team, only to realize you’ve reduced ambiguity so much that there is no engaging challenge, no room for creative problem-solving? You'll walk away with actionable strategies for shifting your focus from constantly driving for clarity to helping your team embrace and thrive in ambiguous environments.

With all the lost time and huge frustration that comes with interviewing, it's easy to compromise your values in favor of feeling the relief that comes from getting to the end of the interviewing process and finally landing a job. In the long run, though, you don't want to compromise your values and non-negotiables. It will land you right back in the interviewing process sooner rather than later.

In this episode, we discuss a massive problem everyone in the tech industry faces: The challenge of finding a company whose values align with yours and navigating the infamous, often confusing and frustrating, interview process the tech industry is known for.

What should engineering leadership roles look like? What's been a hotly-debated topic in tech for decades has gotten very real, very often for my guest today—because he’s always been a bit of an outlier: He wasn’t an engineer before becoming a manager. In an industry that highly values "technical skills" and where there's low consensus on what skills make a good manager, he's grappled with finding his place, having an impact, and how to grow his career onward.

We’re starting this podcast with a two-episode series about different shapes of leadership roles. In this episode, you hear from Max, who shares his path from engineer to technical lead of leads, and: The relevance of fruit baskets, new skills to learn a, nd fears to face, plus practical advice for everyone in technical roles considering or new to a leadership role.