You inherit a team mid-flight. You didn’t hire them. You didn’t set the culture. But now it’s yours—and the results are on you. Some leaders react with frustration. Others get to work. In this piece, I break down a practical playbook for turning around a low-performing team: how to listen, diagnose what’s broken (people, product, or process), land early wins, and sustain momentum. It’s not glamorous work—but it’s some of the most meaningful leadership you’ll ever do.
Category: management
Leadership Strategies for Product Maturity Phases
This post delves into crucial challenges at each product maturity phase. Senior engineering managers and high-level executives will benefit significantly from examining their portfolios and applying applicable strategies.
BCE: A structured approach to prioritizing work and allocating resources
Do you struggle to balance your urgent tactical needs with important strategic goals? Do you wonder how to handle the boatload of important customer requests by prioritizing and allocating resources? The BCE framework is for you.
The cow and the chicken: overcoming resistance to change
The Cow and Chicken are journeying through the countryside and see a diner with a sign that reads "Steak and Eggs". The chicken nudges the cow and cackles delightfully: "Look! Look, Cow!! We're famous!!!". Whereupon, the cow looks at the same sign and snorts derisively: you're involved! I am committed!!
Help! I’m stuck! I want to get to the next level!!
This article clarifies how promotions work and highlights potential pitfalls. It describes a career-growth framework based on technical skills, interpersonal relationships, and influence. As one becomes more senior, the balance between these skills shifts, demanding more focus on relationships and influence.
Keep calm and carry on: Taming the siren call of overwhelm and overwork
If you are constantly overwhelmed and too busy - something somewhere somehow is wrong. Read on to learn more about my journey from an overwhelmed, feisty, flustered newbie to an equanimous, calm, collected professional with arguably more impact.
The complicated parts of leadership: Eliminate chaos
Introduction "How can I trust you? You keep telling me about a new direction every other month" My report after the 3rd organizational pivot within three months. Background I was dumbstruck – there was nothing I could say. As a line manager, I was responsible for delivering the message even though I didn't make some … Continue reading The complicated parts of leadership: Eliminate chaos
The complicated parts of leadership: Trust and Verify
In this series of short stories, I share tricky situations I've encountered while leading teams. These experiences have taught me invaluable leadership lessons and greatly influenced my management style. I hope to help others become more effective leaders by sharing these anecdotes.
10x your feedback game: Choose kindness over niceness
What if I told you there was a way to overcome that sinking feeling associated with delivering feedback? Yes! You can learn to deliver great feedback with deliberate practice. Read on to learn some useful techniques.
Evaluating Managers: 5 heuristics to measure managerial impact
Measuring a manager's impact is hard since outcomes take time. The manager takes full responsibility for the team - be it stagnation, execution woes, poor collaboration, churn, or a lack of focus. This post provides early evaluation metrics as well as tips for course correction.
Book Review: Slack, Getting past burnout, busywork, and the myth of total efficiency
Leaders (managers, directors, VPs, etc.) should read this book if they want to create teams that execute predictably; the book also covers culture and other subtle elements that make teams work efficiently.
Defense-in-depth: a strategy for leading understaffed teams
Leading an underfunded team is a challenge most managers will face over their careers. This blog post provides techniques and a framework for delivering impact under such conditions.
