Tech Lead Journal

Marsha Acker, author of 'Build Your Model for Leading Change' and host of 'Defining Moments of Leadership' podcast, shares insights on building a model for leadership and leading change. Topics covered include challenges for organizations in making changes, David Kantor's theories on structural dynamics and functional awareness, communication challenges, and the three different models leaders need to think about.

Alan Williamson, author of 'Think Like a CTO', shares tips on how to become a great CTO. He discusses the role of a CTO, visionary thinking, working with CEOs, building engineering teams, dealing with imposter syndrome, and personal review.

Heidi Helfand, author of “Dynamic Reteaming”, discusses team changes and the five patterns of dynamic reteaming. Topics covered include onboarding, offboarding, maintaining company culture, ideal team size, and leadership role in dynamic teams.

Jan Molak and John Smart, co-authors of 'BDD in Action: Second Edition', discuss behavior-driven development (BDD) and its essentials. They introduce BDD, its benefits, and the Gherkin language. They share advice on applying BDD, managing BDD specifications, and techniques like feature mapping and example mapping. They also discuss the screenplay pattern and the Serenity projects. They provide insights on testing layers to apply BDD and anti-patterns to avoid.

Evelyn Van Kelle & Gien Verschatse, co-authors of “Collaborative Software Design: How to Facilitate Domain Modeling Decisions”, explain the importance of collaborative software design in solving complex problems. They discuss the role of a facilitator, socio-technical skills, the influence of cognitive bias, and the structure of collaborative modeling. Tips for remote collaborative modeling are also shared.

Andre Martin, organizational psychologist and author of “Wrong Fit, Right Fit”, discusses the importance of finding the right fit company for us in our work. He shares common misalignments like modern hiring practices and infinite browsing, and explains how to find the right fit through self reflection and fit excursions. Andre also touches on the role of leaders and managers in creating a better right fit culture in organizations.

Zachary White, career coach and host of the Happy Engineer Podcast, shares how engineers can become happier through lifestyle engineering. Topics discussed include debunking work-life balance, stepping out of comfort zones, mastering mindset, building our own blueprint, doing less, managing burnout, and the importance of coaching for engineering leaders.

“The goal is not Agile. The goal is not DevOps. The goal is not Cloud. The goal is value, time to value, safety, happiness, and quality." Jonathan Smart and Simon Rohrer are the co-authors of “Sooner Safer Happier”. In this episode, Jon and Simon shared how we can deliver better outcomes in a more humane way of working, by delivering better value sooner, safer, and happier. They shared several principles, patterns, and anti-patterns described in the book, such as focusing on outcomes, the leadership as team number one, intelligent flow, creating alignment, and having the ability to unlearn and relearn.   Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:03:41] The Age of Digital - [00:06:29] Patterns & Anti-Patterns - [00:11:15] Better Value Sooner Safer Happier (BVSSH) - [00:13:18] Focus on Outcomes - [00:17:06] Empower the How - [00:19:28] Role of Leadership - [00:23:30] Leadership Team is Team #1 - [00:26:41] Intelligent Flow - [00:31:28] Stop Starting, Start Finishing - [00:34:43] Building Alignment - [00:36:48] Limited Velocity to Unlearn and Relearn - [00:40:10] 4 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:43:41] _____ Jonathan Smart’s BioJonathan Smart is co-founder and CEO of Sooner Safer Happier, a thought leader and a coach. He has been an agile and lean practitioner since the early 1990s and the lead author of the award winning and bestselling ‘Sooner Safer Happier: Patterns and Antipatterns for Business Agility’. He is also the founder of the Enterprise Agility Leaders Network, a member of the Programming Committee for the DevOps Enterprise Summit, a member of the Business Agility Institute Advisory Council, a guest speaker at London Business School, and speaks at numerous conferences a year. Simon Rohrer’s BioSimon Rohrer has been a hands on practitioner across both software engineering and enterprise architecture for over twenty-six years, and has had a passion for agile software development since picking up the eXtreme Programming white book in 1999. He’s passionate about an eclectic and pragmatic approach to modern ways of working, incorporating lean, agile, systems thinking, DevOps and other principles and practices at the right pace and in a human context in enterprises, typically with a legacy of existing technology and a drive to do things better. Follow Jonathan and Simon: Jonathan Smart’s LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/jonathansmart Simon Rohrer’s LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/simonrohrer Website – soonersaferhappier.com Slack – soonersaferhappier.com/community _____ Our Sponsors Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/144 Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Think about delegation as more of a coaching mindset instead of the doer mentality. It’s not about looking at the immediate task at hand, it’s about teaching that to others." Akanksha Gupta is the author of “Think Like a Software Engineering Manager”. In this episode, Akanksha described the role of an engineering manager and the key traits of being a good engineering manager. She gave advice on how one can transition to the EM role and talked about the difference between an engineering management and leadership. Akanksha then walked us through the three key pillars of engineering management, which are people, process, and projects. We discussed topics, such as delegation, performance management, cross functional collaboration, and time management. Akanksha also shared her practical advice for women in technology who are also interested in becoming an engineering manager.   Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:03:38] Writing the Book - [00:05:54] Engineering Manager (EM) Role - [00:08:25] Transitioning to an EM Role - [00:10:48] Traits of a Good EM - [00:14:17] Engineering Manager vs Engineering Leader - [00:18:31] Boss Mindset - [00:20:01] Advice for Women to Become EMs - [00:21:56] Delegation - Learn to Let Go - [00:24:30] Managing Performance - [00:27:33] Cross-Functional Collaboration - [00:33:27] Setting Up Processes - [00:37:20] Managing Up - [00:40:00] Time Management - [00:42:02] A Growing Todo List - [00:45:50] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:47:28] _____ Akanksha Gupta’s BioAkanksha Gupta is an experienced Engineering Manager at AWS. Prior to joining Amazon, she was an engineering manager with Robinhood, Audible and Microsoft. She completed her Masters in Computer Science at Columbia University. She is also part of the IADAS (The International Academy of Digital Arts and Science) and was awarded the Fellowship by the British Computer Society and the RSA. Akanksha is also a huge advocate in Women in Technology. She is an Amazon Bar Raiser at Amazon and is an active mentor at PlatoHq, GrowthMentor and FastTrack mentorship programs. She has served as the jury member for several esteemed awards such as Stevie Awards, SIIA Codie, GraceHopper and the Webby awards. She has also been part of the Grace Hopper committee review for Software Engineering track and has served as a Track chair for Global WomenInTech conference. Follow Akanksha: LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/akankshaguptamgr Plato HQ – platohq.com/@akanksha-gupta-1364542759 Growth Mentor – app.growthmentor.com/mentors/akanksha-gupta _____ Our Sponsors Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/143 Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“To build trust, you need to do the right thing, do the best you can, and show people you care. And when you do that, it builds commitment. Trust and commitment are how teams do best and win the most." Michael Foss is a leadership coach and the founder of CoachFoss LLC. In this episode, we discussed the power of leadership principles and positive leadership. Michael started by sharing the important principle of building trust and creating a shared commitment with the people we work with. He then shared what he learned from his time at Amazon and explained why creating leadership principles is important for any company to thrive. Michael also explained the powerful techniques for leading a successful process improvement: creating standard work and using Andon from the Toyota Production System. Towards the end, as a certified trainer, Michael summarized leadership essence of both John Maxwell’s Leadership and John Gordon’s Power of Positive Leadership. So many leadership insights you can learn just from this summary alone!   Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:04:04] Building Trust - [00:15:35] Creating Standard Work - [00:23:00] Pulling an Andon - [00:26:18] Power of Principles - [00:30:19] Building Shared Commitment - [00:33:18] John Maxwell & Positive Leadership - [00:38:58] Mental Health & Wellbeing - [00:48:34] 4 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:53:30] _____ Michael Foss’s BioMichael is the Founder & CEO for CoachFoss LLC. As a speaker, trainer, and consultant, he is passionate about Finding Optimal Solutions for Success and thrives on inspiring and motivating leaders, teams, and individuals to achieve and sustain transformational success. Michael is certified to train The Power of Positive Leadership & The Power of a Positive Team by Jon Gordon and is an active Executive Program Director John Maxwell Leadership Certified Speaker, Trainer, and Coach. Michael has extensive global experience and success as a logistics and supply chain operations leader, having worked for companies including Walmart, Flexport, CloudSort, Caterpillar, Amazon, Cameron, Weir, and FedEx. Michael is a Fellow, Past President, & IAB chairman of the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE). He earnt his Lean / Six Sigma Black Belt from the University of Villanova and he was awarded the Texas Tech Whitacre College of Engineering Distinguished Engineer’s award, one of only 27 industrial engineers ever awarded. Follow Michael: Website – coachfoss.com LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/coachfoss Instagram – instagram.com/coachfoss11 Linktree – linktr.ee/CoachFoss _____ Our Sponsors Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/142 Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.