https://blog.turboawesome.win/tags/leadership/ Recent content in Leadership on Bits, Trades & Systems Hugo en-us Wed, 22 Jan 2025 11:15:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2025/01/staff-engineer-or-engineering-manager-on-choosing-the-road-that-doesnt-come-back/ Wed, 22 Jan 2025 11:15:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2025/01/staff-engineer-or-engineering-manager-on-choosing-the-road-that-doesnt-come-back/ Thirteen years in, the fork in the road becomes real. The honest framing of what each path actually involves, and why the choice is more reversible than people claim — and less. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2024/11/cross-team-technical-alignment-at-scale/ Wed, 20 Nov 2024 10:30:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2024/11/cross-team-technical-alignment-at-scale/ Getting multiple engineering teams to agree on technical direction is hard. The approaches that work — architecture forums, decision records, working groups — and why lightweight coordination beats heavy governance. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2024/08/writing-rfcs-for-wide-audiences/ Wed, 21 Aug 2024 09:45:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2024/08/writing-rfcs-for-wide-audiences/ RFCs that need sign-off from multiple teams or leadership require a different structure than internal team proposals. The writing changes when the audience includes people who don't share your context. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2023/08/navigating-org-change-as-an-engineer/ Wed, 16 Aug 2023 11:20:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2023/08/navigating-org-change-as-an-engineer/ Reorganisations, leadership changes, and strategy shifts are facts of life in growing companies. The engineers who navigate them well share some common practices — and some common misconceptions about what's actually changing. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2021/10/technical-debt-is-a-balance-sheet-item-not-a-moral-failing/ Wed, 06 Oct 2021 10:18:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2021/10/technical-debt-is-a-balance-sheet-item-not-a-moral-failing/ The language around technical debt is usually moral: 'bad code', 'dirty shortcuts', 'cutting corners'. The financial metaphor it's named after is actually more useful. Debt is a tool. Manage it like one. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2020/05/from-ic-to-lead-the-first-90-days-managing-a-technical-team/ Wed, 13 May 2020 13:44:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2020/05/from-ic-to-lead-the-first-90-days-managing-a-technical-team/ The transition from individual contributor to technical lead is the career move that most engineers underestimate. The skills that made you good at the IC role don't automatically transfer — here's what the first 90 days actually taught me.