Managing Managers

Episode 4: Hypergrowth leadership, the pendulum swing and attention management for managers with Phil Calçado

Sep 15, 2023

Phil Calçado, an engineer director with experience leading software teams in hyper-growth stages, discusses his leadership journey, the challenges and opportunities in the live events industry during the pandemic, managing costs and activities for energy managers, the importance of being involved in meetings and influencing decision-making, and attention management for managers with the introduction of UltraP, a copilot for managers.

50:43

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Episode guests

Phil Calçado

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Building relationships with stakeholders across the organization is crucial for managers of managers.

Establishing baseline communication expectations while allowing flexibility for teams to work in their context is key.

Attention management, including the use of software tools like AlterP, is important for managers of managers.

Deep dives

Building Relationships Across the Organization

As a manager of managers, it is important to build relationships not only with your direct reports but also with stakeholders across the organization. This includes understanding the business strategy, collaborating with other leaders, and being aware of what's happening in different teams.

Introduction

4min

Transitioning into Managing Managers

23min

Navigating Challenges and Opportunities During the Pandemic in the Live Events Industry

3min

Managing Costs and Activities for Energy Managers

2min

Importance of Being Involved in Meetings and Influencing Decision-Making

12min

Attention Management for Managers and Introduction of UltraP

7min

Episode description

In this episode, I chat to an engineer director who has done the pendulum swing (from manager to individual contributor to back to being a manager), working in hypergrowth environments and one of the earliest microservices architectures where he first wrong about the Backend For Front-Ends (BFF) pattern and what he's doing now to help engineering managers.

Guest Biography

Phil has been leading software teams in their hyper-growth stages since the early 2000s. He headed product engineering at SoundCloud and DigitalOcean, and platform engineering at Meetup and SeatGeek. He is currently a co-founder of Outropy.ai, the Copilot for Leaders.

Transcript and show notes available here: ⁠https://managingmanagers.tech/episodes/episode-004-phil-calcado/