Training, coaching, and fractional CTO for engineers who want to lead. Technical leadership insights, engineering management, and career growth.
AI coding tools are optimising the wrong thing and nobody wants to hear it. Writing code was already fast. The bottleneck is everything else: unclear requirements, review queues, terrified deploy cultures, and an org chart that needs six meetings to decide what colour the button should be.
Last Tuesday I was on a coaching call with an engineering manager. Let's call her Sarah (because that's her name). She was describing a situation I've now heard about forty times in the last twelve months. Her most senior developer, a guy with twelve years of experience and very strong opinions about YAML indentation (2 spaces, obviously, he's not a monster), had just refused to use Cursor. Not…
Nobody tells you this when you become a manager: the conversations that make you successful are the ones that make you want to crawl out of your own skin. It's not the high-fives and the "great job on that launch" Slack messages that prove your success. It's not the strategy sessions where everyone nods along to your brilliant insights that give the best impacts in your team. The conversations…
Let's be honest. Finding and keeping great engineers is tough. You know how much one brilliant engineer can change the game. But what if I told you that, without even realizing it, your own hiring process might be the biggest thing scaring off the exact people you want to hire?
Burnout in engineering teams is rarely caused by a single event. Instead, it’s the result of persistent, often overlooked management habits that quietly erode motivation, well-being, and performance. Here are 9 habits, why they matter, what happens if you ignore them, and actionable tips to build a healthier, more sustainable engineering culture.
Recently I've been speaking to a lot of new leaders, and a mistake I am seeing quite often is equating productivity with the number of tasks they complete, meetings they attend, and decisions they make. Many new leaders, particularly those transitioning from individual contributor roles, fall into the trap of trying to do everything themselves. This approach stems from good intentions—wanting to…
Influence in leadership isn’t about bossing people around. It’s about getting everyone on the same page and working towards a common goal.
Stepping into a leadership role in the tech industry can be as exciting as cracking a complex algorithm. Yet, with this transition comes the responsibility of managing a team and being responsible for outputs, productivity and, more importantly, their personal and professional growth. At the heart of all of this lies the art of conducting one-on-one meetings. The effectiveness of these personal…
Stepping into the shoes of an Engineering Manager, you're entering an entirely new ballpark. Scrap that, it's an entirely different sport! It’s not just about flexing your technical muscles anymore. Now, it's about steering your team smoothly towards scoring those goals while keeping everyone motivated and the vibes positive for everyone, including yourself. The quick switch to manager mode means…
In recent months, a concerning trend has begun to manifest across the engineering industry. Companies are increasingly choosing to compress the role of Engineering Manager into a primarily technical function - focussed more on writing code than building and supporting their team.
Entering into a leadership role within the tech industry is both an exciting and challenging experience. As a new tech lead or engineering manager, you are faced with a set of responsibilities that go beyond coding and technical oversight. While your technical skills have brought you this far, effective leadership demands an entirely different skill set, including core skills like communication,…