A terrific way to erode trust and ruin your momentum as a leader is to be viewed as someone preaching "Do as I say, not as I do." Even worse is when you fail to notice this and are oblivious to the discord. Your team isn't. This week's episode is about spotting and stopping it. Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology and The Tech Exec…

That's *it*! You've had! Enough is enough. Right? Well, you might have reached that point. However, *why* did that happen? This week's podcast episode is about debugging leadership procrastination that lets things deteriorate for too long. Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology and The Tech Executive Operating System. Subscribe to th…

Most executives I work with are extraordinarily accountable and remarkably capable of keeping track of different tasks, projects, and commitments. However, when there comes the time to focus on themselves and how they will grow, they find it hard to gain momentum. Let's change that. This week's quick episode is about the tiniest steps toward gettin…

Your investors? The budget? The team? Regulation? Yes, you certainly have to deal with a lot of constraints. Yet you might be self-imposing the most challenging constraints of all. The bad news is that you will struggle while you let that happen. The good news is that you certainly can do something about it! More on that in this week's podcast epis…

Who doesn't enjoy a hearty rant from time to time, am I right? Unfortunately, sometimes our brains mix up complaining with actually doing anything. That's how many leaders and founders lose connection with their own agency and lose efficacy. This week's podcast episode is about complaining and not being the complainer. Check out my free live sessio…

What are the things that you rely on, consciously or not? Whatever it is, it might be holding you back from growing faster or creating a glass ceiling for your employees. Tune in for more in this week's podcast! Check out my upcoming live session: Cracking Productivity: Why Can't Your Team Improve? This podcast is also available in video form! Grab…

Power moves don't have to be douchy. At least not the ones we're discussing in this week's podcast episode: How to wield your power and make your move, so you're a real executive and not just someone with a glorified title. Take the lead and… lead! More in this week's episode. Also available in video! Click here to watch a video of this episode. Ch…

Sometimes, usually because your boss isn't professional enough, you can let too much time pass without realizing you're underperforming. This week's episode will help you assess your risk factors for this happening to you, as well as how to address them. Don't be blindsided! This episode is also available in video form! Grab a copy of my books, Cap…

Techies often have a default stance of expecting the worst to happen. It might've served you well when you were coding and helped you remember to write an 'else' for every 'if,' but it can be holding you back right now as a leader. More in this week's episode! Check out my YouTube channel! Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology and T…

Stop thinking too highly of yourself. You, too, are replaceable. Apple has done pretty well post-Jobs, surely your startup will survive you taking some time off or focusing on a different area of the company that needs your attention. This week's podcast episode is about embracing how we are all replaceable to create a more robust organization. Che…

What are your expectations of your time as the year is in its final stages? How high of a bar do you set for yourself and your team? Are you acting as a glass ceiling for your organization? More on raising your expectations and the bar in this week's episode. Check out my new YT videos. Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology and The …

Progressing as an engineering leader shouldn't be automatic and "linear." Very rarely are things as simple as that. How much agency and control are you putting into choosing what you're doing most of your waking hours, as opposed to 'going with the flow'? Check out this week's episode for more! Please check out my YouTube channel and subscribe! Gra…

This week's episode turned into a bit of a rant about people who fail to make the most of their careers because they prioritize the wrong things. Months wasted can take years to undo when it comes to your own psyche. Get a grip. New: 2024 Leadership Livestream Package! Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology and The Tech Executive Ope…

Making some plans and deciding to take certain steps in advance to make your life easier in the future isn't "waterfall" and planning is not over-engineering. In fact, I find that most startups are lacking in the planning department. This week's episode is about considering the time-value of work so you do it when it will provide the biggest ROI. N…

Last week's episode was about the importance of taking action faster as a leader. Today's episode, to throw you off, is about avoiding big, drastic, and showy changes in favor of sticking to small changes that become habitual. Still waters run deep. Check out this five-minute episode for more! New: 2024 Leadership Livestream Package! Grab a copy of…

Are we on the brink of "model collapse"? There's no way to keep copying what used to work endlessly and assume it will stay the same. Repetition eventually leads to degradation, unless we mindfully inject new innovation. More on that in this week's five-minute episode! New: 2024 Leadership Livestream Package! Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Y…

When there's a new head-of-state or government elected, we expect to see what they've accomplished within their first 100 days. What excuses have we got, then, not to be making even faster iterations as leaders in startups? More on not 'taking it all in' incessantly on this week's episode! Join my free live session, part one of the 10x Engineering …

Sometimes people make predictions that fail completely. I still think that's healthier than never stating what you think is going to happen. What works for ICs doing TDD is also applicable to executives. For more, check out this week's episode! Join my free live session, part one of the 10x Engineering Teams series: Introducing Healthy Friction. Ne…

Timing is everything. I'm not talking about stand-up comedy but about your ability to spot opportunities and use them. The exact same work has a different value depending on when it is performed. Are you attentive enough to ensure your team is generating the best ROI for its work? Join my free live session, part one of the 10x Engineering Teams ser…

The story of one of my (too many) geeky pranks in my army service and how humans too easily get used to things being off. This is your weekly reminder to stop boiling. Join my free live session, part one of the 10x Engineering Teams series: Introducing Healthy Friction. New: 2024 Leadership Livestream Package! Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing …

You might be understanding 'fake it till you make it wrong,' and leaning too heavily into the faking part. That's in part what the tech industry has allowed itself to do for too long, but now we have to learn what are the real progress indicators and adamantly stick to those. Are you making genuine progress that's improving the condition of your us…

Priority dissonance is what we get when we are so bombarded by tasks that we cannot see the forest for the trees. And if you're not paying enough attention, you'll end up missing great opportunities or kicking yourself for not having acted while it was possible. This week's episode is about fixing that dissonance. New: 2024 Leadership Livestream Pa…

I challenge you to “think bigger” and raise your expectations for your team. Discover the importance of setting ambitious goals and fostering a culture that drives exceptional performance. Move beyond merely meeting roadmaps and strive for greater impact to achieve more meaningful results and become the leader your team deserves. New: 2024 Leadersh…

This is your periodic reminder that leadership is about taking charge, and you can start by taking charge of your day right now. A few simple adjustments can tremendously affect your productivity, motivation, and energy, and this quickly compounds when you start the same approach with your team. Check out this week's short episode for more! New: 20…

Looking back on what you've already achieved isn't navel gazing or patting yourself on the back. It's needed to ensure that you leverage your strengths, motivate yourself and your team, and find those areas where you should be injecting deliberate practice. When's the last time you stopped and looked up from between the weeds? Check out this week's…

We like to think we're logical leaders and can make decisions with rationality. However, sometimes things make our lizard brains trigger and get all stressed about acting faster than really necessary. This week's episode is about learning to hold your horses so you don't quickly decide something that'll take months to undo. New: 2024 Leadership Liv…

Curiosity may have killed that cat, but for leaders it's an unconventional weapon. In an age when people focus more on what they're going to be saying than on listening and learning, those who genuinely lead their lives in a curiosity driven manner have an edge others will never have. Curious to hear how this can instantly make you more impactful l…

I don't care how much budget or time you've got, you can find ways to invest in yourself and grow if you want to. No one can prevent you from learning and honing your skills but yourself. Are you standing in your way? Check out this week's podcast episode to stop making growth excuses. 🖼️ Me reading the daily Il Messaggero in Rome Grab a copy of my…

I routinely speak to over a hundred leaders from all over the world to get a "vibe check." Sometimes, I realize some of them are stuck in a high-tech version of Groundhog Day. Are you as well? Check out this week's short episode about making progress. Last chance to register to my free live session: Sparing the midnight oil! Grab a copy of my books…

Your personal system is crucial to being an effective leader and getting things done. As a geek, I like viewing our routines and habits from this point of view, and it helps me find areas where executives can make considerable upgrades in their day-to-day. This week's podcast episode discusses a few such "modules" you might want to upgrade and how …

Don't go off creating or filling positions by cargo-culting what you see in other companies, assuming that's the right path forward. Similarly, if you're a tech executive, don't charge ahead going for a title or role that's not the right one for you or the company. Cultivating an effective executive team requires us to consider these three basic qu…

It takes two to tango, and you have to know how to lead or you're both going to end up on your behinds. This week's short podcast episode is about realizing your agency to unleash effective and rapid coaching. Stop waiting for spontaneous human improvement. Create it. Check out my free live session: Sparing the Midnight Oil! Grab a copy of my books…

If you want to genuinely become an executive and be viewed as a peer to business partners, you're going to have to stop it with the binary options. The world's not black and white, and those who leverage and create a continuum of options are worth their weight in gold. Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology and The Tech Executive Ope…

Making mistakes is an essential part of growing as a leader. Letting your people is something you have to live with to accelerate their growth. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean you're going to be in ostrich mode and ignore it all. Check out this week's short episode for three pitfalls to avoid. Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology a…

Sometimes, when you procrastinate or reject making a choice, that can open up new opportunities. Other times, that's a sign of weak leadership. How do you make the choice to choose? Check out this week's short podcast episode for some meta-thinking on upgrading your own decision-making. Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology and The …

Hiring has changed dramatically. I for one am happy most people aren't spending 50% of their time interviewing and onboarding new hires. Nevertheless, it means that we need a different set of guidelines to handle growth correctly. Check out this week's episode to ensure you're on track to create a profitable product-engineering team as you grow it.…

The 10x engineer, the 10x leader, and the 10x strategy exist. However, they are often not easy to spot. Realizing that you don't need to come up with something that feels like someone from the future told you can actually increase your odds of achieving 10x work. For more on doing just that, check out this week's episode! Join my free live session:…

There are probably right now different issues that you're aware of that are allowed to fester and deteriorate. As you're busy putting out fires, the next wildfire is creeping up. That's what we get when we trade actual leadership for a simplistic greedy algorithm that only addresses things that have gone past the point of no return and must be solv…

Boy, the last 4 years have been one hectic decade, am I right? The worst thing you can do is give your team the sense that whatever last crisis you had was the last one. It wasn't. Leadership is about handling these moving targets. Learn more in this week's episode. Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology and The Tech Executive Operat…

Especially when teams have waited too long to redo certain parts of their technology, they are way more prone to overshoot and over-engineer the new solution. That's the classic second-system syndrome at play. However, you're only likely to succeed if you know how to keep your team's cleverness at bay. Check out this week's episode about managing c…

How can you create a product-engineering organization that's profitable? Where growth is aligned with business needs; where engineers don't do tech for tech's sake; where value is the first… value? This week's podcast episode is a quick recap of topics from my four-part series about such organizations. Tune in to create a team worth leading. The ar…

How is your team branching out daily, just like in code, and how might you suffer from merge conflicts? Let's peel back the layers of how our individual perceptions shape our professional interactions and decisions. Discover the power of external perspectives and the surprising impact of communication nuances within tech teams. In this episode, we …

When you first consider it, you might not realize what "theory" has to do with leading product engineering. However, there is quite a bit you can and should be aware of in order to help your team thrive and operate faster. In this week's 9-minute episode, I share the two levels of thinking required in order to leverage theory and share it across yo…

Some teams punch above their weight. You can see that many organizations are still suffering from too much bloat, and defocused work. This week's episode shares more insights from my recent conversations with over 100 tech leaders globally about leveraging the concept of non-linearity to create profitable eng teams. New offering: I’ve talked to 100…

Sometimes, what might seem initially like a needle-in-a-haystack problem is a lot simpler. And when you realize that, you can leverage it so your efforts are more effective. This week's episode is about the connection between mousetraps and making people handle their cheese being moved. New offering: I’ve talked to 100+ tech leaders recently about …

Stop focusing your attention on those who are problematic. Handle those situations quickly and move on. Your focus should be on your top performers. Squeaky wheels, no matter how greased, are not likely to get you past the finish line. Check out this week's episode for more on creating effective rapid coaching. Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing…

Are you going to let another year pass by more or less the same? Are you prone to what Albert Einstein described as "insanity"? Life's too short for that. Listen to this week's short episode to get out of the meager loop you've been in and start your path toward a bigger future. And, you just might win the raffle! Grab a copy of my books, Capitaliz…

I'm sure you've got some big goals, plans, and hopes for 2024. However, you're not likely to reach them by just promising yourself you'll work harder this time. Repeating the same methods and applying more and more force will just result in RSI. This week's five-minute podcast episode is about how you can get better results without burning the midn…

Every executive needs to know how to talk to the company's board and handle it effectively. Don't appease it, don't be subservient, and don't surprise it. In this week's episode, I'm sharing common problems and some guidelines to improve your communication and decrease the odds of you making the board become too tactical. Join the Leading Edge Club…

Being a tech executive means that things sometimes change. You might be unsure about where you're headed to provide more impact. However, as Tolkien has taught us geeks, not all those who wander are lost. Let's talk about finding your new direction. Join the Leading Edge Club! Grab a copy of my books, Capitalizing Your Technology and The Tech Execu…