Author, public speaker, and coach for managers and leaders across the tech industry.
Blog Posts
AI 'aha' team meetings
Vicarious learning is a real thing: we absorb skills and knowledge by watching others, hearing about their mistakes, seeing what worked. This is why postmortems are such a great tool for building context, and seeing how other engineers problem-solve. I’ve been thinking about vicarious learning a lot lately, specifically about how engineers are learning to use AI. read more
Creating momentum when an employee is stuck
Many of us are feeling stuck. We’re managing through crisis after crisis, and we’re watching our leaders and our teammates burn out and not be their best selves. I don’t know anybody who’s thriving right now. read more
Finding a buddy when you’re a team of one
I’ve been working with the rad team at Fly.io for the past few months as a fractional VPE, mainly focusing on management-y and culture stuff as the team grows. read more
How to make hard decisions: even/over statements
We face decisions every single day, big and small. Sometimes those decisions have tradeoffs that feel impossible to decide between, which naturally will feel particularly hard to settle on. read more
Be a thermostat, not a thermometer
As I’ve learned more about how humans interact with one another at work, I’ve been repeatedly reminded that we are very easily influenced by the mood of those around us. It’s usually not even something we do consciously; we just see someone using a different tone of voice or shifting their body language, and something deep in our brain notices it. read more
Recognition and rewards at work
“What we recognize is what we reward.” read more
How to announce organizational change in your first 90 days
Congrats, you’ve made it through your first 2 months as a new hire in a leadership role! You’re in the home stretch of this initial season. read more
30-60 days in a new leadership role: run experiments for change
Woohoo, you’ve made it through the first 30 days in your new leadership role, and you didn’t change a thing! Congrats—you’ve been building trust by soaking in information and helping folks on your team feel heard and seen. read more