“𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜”, someone on my team told me. We were having a heated debate due to diverging views on technical directions, priorities, etc. And then they went on with something along the lines of “𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘻𝘦𝘳𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.” That was an unexpected 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 in my leadership career. On the one hand, I was unsettled by the information I just received. On the other hand, it gave me the key to reading and understanding certain behaviors and patterns. I was left with the following dilemma: 1️⃣ Should I just let them be a solo player and work on their own agenda, setting a potentially dangerous precedent for the team? 2️⃣ Should I maintain my position and risk losing this person in the short term? To make matters more complex, losing this person would have meant losing important historical information on a key portion of the stack. ⚾️ Talk about a curveball! What I ended up doing that somewhat worked - given the circumstances - was a combination of the following: - 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁: I started to spend a lot more time with this person and built a stronger relationship. - 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗠𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: I de-risked the situation around them by making sure that other people would become proficient in that particular part of the stack. - 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀: Since this person was very good at coming up with new ideas or projects - a pioneer - when the opportunity arose, I helped them take the lead in the early stages of an important new project, surrounded by people who would complement them not only technically but also behaviorally. ✅ Did things get better? Yes ✅ Did the person stay with the company? Yes ❌ Was it a massive success? Not exactly. Some underlying occasional friction remained, suggesting that we had been mostly mitigating the symptoms, rather than addressing the root cause. Sometimes you just have to play with the cards you're served. Accept that improving a difficult situation is always worth it, even when it doesn't make things perfect. #EngineeringLeadership #CTO #Curveballs --- 🔔 Enjoy my content? Follow me for daily content on Engineering Leadership 🗞️ Do you like long-form content? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter “Sudo Make Me a CTO” (link in bio)

To be effective as a software engineer or engineering manager, you hear the advice to build trust with your leaders and your team. I disagree. My advice is: don’t build trust, be trustworthy instead. The difference is subtle but relevant. When you are trustworthy, you focus inwards: on yourself and your behaviors. It’s a much more scalable and authentic approach. You are trustworthy even when nobody is watching. You don’t need other people to be someone who deserves trust. So what are behaviors that make you trustworthy: - You don’t share information that was shared with you in confidentiality - You communicate transparently, even the not-so-good news - You can communicate and honor your boundaries - You take responsibility for your mistakes - You follow through with your promises What else did I miss? ♻️ Please repost if you enjoyed this post 🤝 I coach engineers and leaders to grow in their careers, dm me “CONNECT” to learn more

A once-a-year review IS NOT ENOUGH! I understand there's lots of movement around reviews and how to conduct them. Questions like these come up all the time: Should we have reviews at all? How do we have equitable reviews? How do we have inclusive reviews? How do we deal with power imbalances? I get those questions, and I'm with you. AND for someone to get information about how they're doing at their job only once a year is highly problematic. So how can you start building systems that make room for regular, open, honest, and constructive communication with your team? As you assess your budding and existing relationships, what do you notice about how you proactively make time and space for the “hard stuff?” Let me know what’s coming up for you!

A once-a-year review IS NOT ENOUGH! I understand there's lots of movement around reviews and how to conduct them. Questions like these come up all the time: Should we have reviews at all? How do we have equitable reviews? How do we have inclusive reviews? How do we deal with power imbalances? I get those questions, and I'm with you. AND for someone to get information about how they're doing at their job only once a year is highly problematic. So how can you start building systems that make room for regular, open, honest, and constructive communication with your team? As you assess your budding and existing relationships, what do you notice about how you proactively make time and space for the “hard stuff?” Let me know what’s coming up for you!

I'm not here to rant, but let's be real for a sec... If you're leading a tech startup And you haven’t had your tech team evaluated lately, by a specialist (for free) Are you really pushing for growth? In the past couple of months, I've been doing an obscene amount of audits. I’m shocked with the amount of time and money being wasted… The 5 biggest blockers I see over and over again are: Tech not aligned with business strategy - Wasted resources, delayed projects, and effort that doesn't help the business grow. Undefined goals - Without clear objectives, tech teams lose direction and focus. Constantly changing priorities - Context changing leads to burnout, affecting productivity and morale. Best way to lose your top performers. Tech vs. product mindset - Building cool tech is great, but does it solve the customer's problem? Ineffective leadership - Leadership that fails to inspire or adequately guide the team can lead to disarray and lack of motivation. Understanding technical jargon - Bridging the knowledge gap for non-technical founders to understand tech team reports and needs. Many of these issues are quite simple to address and can be fixed quickly. Not convinced? Let me audit your tech company and I’ll show you where and how to plug those gaps. Send me a direct message or schedule a brief call, and we can have a chat before the week is over. If you have any general questions, feel free to ask below, and I'll gladly share my knowledge. 👉 PS: If you’re looking for some help with scaling your product or tech Head here👇 Book a call here: https://lnkd.in/e-mxbVQ8 Alternatively, you can contact me here: https://lnkd.in/ecrrR3be Or just simply learn more about how I’ve helped founders get CTO expertise without the cost of a full-time CTO salary: https://lnkd.in/ekJKPRrW

I wasn’t ready to be a war time ceo but I had to become one. I feel like I’ve led my business through 2 actual wars. Real attacks that could have left us for dead. The first was COVID and the second is the current pullbacks in demand in SaaS. Everyone’s responsibilities changed, everyone was making less money, and frustration was high. Looking back I see all the mistakes but I know that I’m willing to take risks and mistakes are part of learning. These are the tactics for those going through it for the first time. 1. Take the blame - your relationships with your best people are your best asset. Don’t hurt those too. I lost a great manager because I blamed her. In every convo she was defensive and not able to hear critical feedback. 2. Be honest - people need fast corrective feedback that helps them get better. To hear it they need to know you care about them getting better. This comes natural to me and I don’t know if there is a way to do it if you don’t mean it. 3. Be an anchor for your team. If someone comes to you angry or frustrated you need to take the high ground and support them like you would a child in that role. They’ll feel it and respond inkind. You can’t fake this. My learning is that you have to master yourself before you can be a good guide for anyone else. 4. Take a look internally at every problem. You can only control yourself. You are not a victim. Did the employee mess up or did you not have a great process and proper on-boarding? Was it someone else’s fault or are you not good at hiring people for a specific role on your team and vetting out people who may not fit a role or have the skill set. You can easily make changes to yourself and that is about it. The good that has come for me is tight bonds with great people on my team, a lifetime of learnings, and a clearer purpose. What drives me is helping people, my team, my clients, my family, everyone. I love to be an anchor and I love to support. I’m building my team and my business that let’s me do what I’m best at and care the most about. I get a strong sense of purpose when I’ve really helped someone and that will always be my North Star.

Seeking external support can be a wise decision for a leader who finds themselves repeatedly facing the same problem. Here's why!! Fresh Perspective: External experts or consultants bring a fresh pair of eyes to the situation. They can provide insights and perspectives that you and your team might have missed due to being too close to the problem. Specialized Knowledge: External support can provide specialized knowledge and expertise that your team may lack. This can lead to quicker and more effective problem-solving. Objective Analysis: An external party can offer an objective analysis of the problem and its underlying causes, as they are not emotionally invested in the situation. New Solutions: Often, external experts can introduce innovative and creative solutions that your team might not have thought of. Their experience in dealing with similar issues in other contexts can be valuable. Focus on Core Responsibilities: Seeking external help allows you and your team to focus on your core responsibilities and strategic initiatives, rather than getting caught up in the same recurring problem. Efficiency: External support can expedite the problem-solving process, saving time and resources in the long run. Learning Opportunity: Engaging with external experts can be a learning opportunity for your team. You can gain new skills, knowledge, and strategies that can be applied in the future. #fCTO #CodeDoctors

I don't usually post things as I'm frankly not terribly good at remembering to do it, or lack ideas for content that would be useful to those in my network. That said, today I was reminded of the cause I support and why I'm proud to be #causeconnected. As technologists, we're taught early in our career how to assess and fix problems. As we grow, some of us are fortunate enough to solve more complex problems, and even prevent problems by designing solutions with more robust infrastructure, software, monitoring, metrics, etc. Those of us that choose the path of leadership are usually made aware early on that the problems and solutions to those problems can no longer be the focus. For a team to thrive, and to deliver service our clients can use, our purpose must not be to solve technical issues, but rather to enable those we serve to do their jobs better. In other words, the focus is not on the "how" or "what" we're currently working on but in the VALUE that work provides to our clients, and by extension, the VALUE to those in need of care. It's WHY we do what we do that matters most. When the focus is on "why" no problem is unsolvable, and no solution is off the table. The reason I share this today, is that while I'm well aware of the things I mentioned above I've caught myself falling into the trap of the "how" and "what" quite a bit lately. It is too easy to allow ourselves to fall into the day to day grind and see only the list of problems ahead of you and how you're going to solve them. If this pattern repeats long enough we can forget the importance of what we're doing and what it means to other people. So today I challenge you to think about "why" you do what you do instead of focusing on "how" to do it or "what" specifically you're working on. When you start to think of "how" to solve that difficult problem, or design a new solution, pause and ensure you fully understand the reason you're doing the work. Let that fuel you. You and those around you will be better for it.

My latest blog post: A story about the biggest thing I've ever done in my career, which was as an individual contributor, and some reflections on impact and innovation outside of management: https://lnkd.in/eT3WSVms