Managing Managers

Episode 17: A unique leadership journey and avoiding swirl with Sally Lait

Mar 16, 2024

Sally Lait, Engineering Director for Trust & Safety at Bumble Inc., shares her non-traditional tech journey and managing managers. She discusses leading beyond her expertise, avoiding 'swirl' as a manager, and advocating for empathy and inclusivity in teams.

48:17

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Episode guests

Sally Lait

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Transitioning to a manager of managers role involves balancing directive leadership with empowerment and coaching new managers.

Being mindful of unintentional communication ripple effects is crucial to avoid creating unnecessary work or misunderstandings as a manager of managers.

Deep dives

Challenges of Transitioning into Managing Managers

Transitioning into a managing managers role faced challenges of balancing directive leadership with empowerment, coaching managers who were new to their roles, and navigating the shift in relationship dynamics, especially when managing a former peer.

Introduction

2min

Evolution from Developer to Managerial Role in Tech Industry

2min

Navigating Career and Parenthood

5min

Fostering Cross-functional Collaboration in a Global Team Setting

8min

Exploring Benefits of In-Person Interactions and Investing in Engineering Managers

4min

Navigating the Challenges of Managing Managers

21min

Building a Strong Support Network as a Manager

5min

Closing Remarks and Contact Information Sharing

2min

I have worked with so many people who have followed a non-traditional route into tech and so really enjoyed hearing Sally’s journey into tech and how she found herself managing other managers. Given her experience, it’s also great to understand how she leads and manages areas of tech that are beyond her own individual contributor experience and love the concept of swirl and to be wary of this as a manager of managers.

Guest Biography

Sally Lait is an Engineering Director for Trust & Safety at Bumble Inc. – encouraging kind connections that demonstrate integrity, equality, confidence, and respect during all stages of any relationship, through our apps like Bumble Date, Bumble For Friends, Badoo, Fruitz, Official etc. Prior to that she’s been VP of Engineering at Farewill, led engineering in Operations and Financial Crime as well as Monzo’s web discipline, ran a digital transformation consultancy, and worked for a global digital agency. What’s really important to Sally is building a strong culture, and creating supportive and inclusive environments for people and teams to thrive and do fantastic technical work. She’s a strong advocate for building software and teams alike with empathy, responsibility, and accessibility in mind.

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