You can fake a lot of things in business. Authority. Expertise. Competence. But you can’t fake certain traits, like respect. Think about the managers you’ve had in the past. The good ones. The bad ones. People do respect good managers. Why? You remember how it felt to work with them. I bet it felt safe, challenged, trusted and a few […]
I’ve seen this happen over and over. A successful engineer steps into management. They are eager to build great teams and support their people. They know some of the leaders before didn’t do that. They embrace servant leadership, convinced it’s the key to success. But then reality kicks in. The higher you go, the more you realize leadership goes beyond […]
Have you ever been in an engineering discussion where someone starts pointing out all the ideals and how much the company sucks? Complaining about all the mistakes the company makes, how things are broken, and how they should be improved? Well, I have been there on many levels. Those are the moments when you truly understand the pain points, and […]
Amazon’s decision to cut 15% of its managers likely comes from a closer look at ratios. Were there too many managers with only 2-3 direct reports? That’s entirely possible. From my time at AWS, I didn’t see this much in engineering, so I doubt those teams will feel it as hard. But other departments with too many managers overseeing too […]