Manager practice, leadership paths, and listening

Practical notes on 1-on-1s, engineering leadership, pulse surveys, and psychological safety for people who lead teams.

1-on-1 practice

Turn recurring meetings into coaching with better agendas, listening ratios, and shared context.

Better 1-on-1s with shared AI profiles Shared profiles
Why your 1:1s feel like a waste of time (and how to fix them) Meeting design
High impact engineering 1:1: a framework for elite leadership Framework
Mastering one on one meetings: a comprehensive briefing Briefing

Engineering leadership path

IC to lead transitions, EM vs tech lead choices, agentic AI roles, time design, and multiplier habits.

Listening, safety, and engagement

Pulse vs annual surveys, psychological safety questions, burnout design, and manager quality research.

Beyond the rating: 5 questions to build psychological safety in your next performance review Listening and safety
Why your brain won't let you rest: the counter intuitive science of open loops and high performance recovery Recovery and performance
The architecture of belonging: 7 surprising lessons from the world's best onboarding programs Onboarding
How long can onboarding take? Beyond the welcome kit: 5 surprising truths about the first 90 days Onboarding
Mastering psychological safety surveys: 30+ questions to build high performing teams Survey questions
Annual survey vs pulse survey: building a continuous employee listening strategy for 2026 Continuous listening
Employee engagement, remote work, and return to office strategies Remote and RTO
Beyond the title: 5 truths about leading high performance teams Team safety
Architecting resilience: solving the engineering burnout crisis and the future of strategic leadership Burnout
Google Project Oxygen: what it found about managers (and why it still matters) Project Oxygen
1 in 10: Why true management talent and leadership are rare Manager talent