Managing Managers

Episode 25: Being a leader first, then a manager with Sarah Abrantes

Jul 6, 2024

Experienced VP of Engineering, Sarah Abrantes, discusses the importance of being a leader before a manager, managing areas without background, and countering authority differences. She shares insights on transitioning to managing other managers, navigating unfamiliar territories in tech management, and the challenges of stakeholder management in leadership roles.

42:30

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Episode guests

Sarah Abrantes

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Act as a leader before becoming a manager to set the right foundation.

Establish open communication and personal connections when managing managers to ensure effective leadership.

Deep dives

Sarah Abrantes' Leadership Journey and Transition to Management

Sarah Abrantes shares how her leadership journey started as an individual contributor, emphasizing the importance of acting as a lead even before having an official management title. She discusses the natural progression from leadership roles to official management positions, highlighting the distinction between leadership and management.

Intro

2min

Leadership, Management, and Accountability in a Growing Company

12min

Understanding Manager Decisions and Past Role at Tier Mobility

2min

Structuring and Scaling Engineering Teams

4min

Navigating unfamiliar territories in technology management

8min

Challenges of Stakeholder Management in Leadership Roles

12min

The Importance of Self-Care and Building Support Structures for Leaders

2min

In this conversation with VP of Engineering, Sarah Pimentel Abrantes, we cover the importance of being a leader before being a manager, the challenge of letting go at different stages, how to counteract authority differences in skip levels and also managing areas where you don’t necessarily have that background and much more.

Guest Biography:

Sarah Abrantes has experienced a lot of different tech roles over her career. She’s collected knowledge from development, business analysis, process engineering, testing and management, all acquired in a vast range of company and team sizes.She has played senior management roles and helped level up engineering leads over the last years in organisations such as GoEuro, N26, GetYourGuide and Tier Mobility, having recently joined Adyen as VP of Engineering.

Sarah also presented at LeadingEng Berlin in 2023, so go check out her talk called “Influencing your company’s culture from the driver’s seat”

Episode and show notes: https://managingmanagers.tech/episodes/episode-025-sarah-abrantes/