It's something that all companies do and yet it's still a very misunderstood topic: evaluating the performance of people managers. The majority of methods regularly used for measuring managers rely heavily on superficial metrics and outdated practices that fail to capture the true essence of effective leadership.

Join Andy and Mon-Chaio as they explore the complexities of leadership evaluation, shedding light on the nuanced and multifaceted nature of managerial success. They discuss the pitfalls of traditional assessment techniques and introduce evidence-based approaches that provide a more accurate and holistic view of a manager’s impact on their team and organization.

Whether you’re an engineering leader, a people manager, or simply interested in the dynamics of leadership, this episode offers valuable insights and practical strategies to enhance your understanding of what makes a great leader.

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 In this episode of the Tactics for Tech Leadership podcast, hosts Andy and Mon-Chaio explore where leaders should spend their time, touching on the importance of signaling dedication, performance, identity, and power through time management. They discuss the contrast between crisis, wartime leadership, and peacetime stability, emphasizing the Eisenhower Matrix as a tool to prioritize urgent and important tasks. The hosts share insights from their experiences, including how leaders often misidentify crises and the impact of time use on organizational culture. Listeners will also learn about the surprising benefits of sometimes letting things fail to improve overall system resilience.

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While Andy is away, Mon-Chaio shares anecdotes and stories from his time at the Plato Elevate conference, snippets that didn't make their way into the prevous episode.

 In this episode of the TTL podcast, Mon-Chaio and Andy review the recent Plato Elevate Conference in San Francisco. As a unique gathering focused on engineering leadership, Mon-Chaio shares his key takeaways from sessions on effective reorgs, experiments in culture engineering, and the innovative EngOS. The duo also explores the broader value of conferences, particularly the networking opportunities and on-the-ground experiences that often eclipse formal talks. Mon-Chaio highlights the significance of continuous learning for leaders and the practical applications discussed in various roundtable sessions.

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From pair programming to NoEstimates, the industry brims with creative minds proposing new ideas and methodologies to tackle longstanding challenges. The issue, however, isn't the scarcity of innovative concepts, but rather the failure to implement them, often dismissed with the notion "it won't work" ... or, in other words, "it's impossible."

In this episode, Andy and Mon-Chaio delve into the psychology behind the significant hesitation to consider provocative yet potentially beneficial new ideas. To illustrate this resistance in a practical context, they discuss two longstanding processes that, despite their potential, are seldom utilized. They dissect the mental barriers that lead us to deem things "impossible" and offer practical strategies to overcome these obstacles, in their ongoing quest to create more modern and impactful development organizations.

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 In this episode of the TTL Podcast, hosts Mon Chaio and Andy delve into the Theory of Constraints, an approach developed by Eliyahu Goldratt. They discuss how this methodology applies to various systems, including technical, people, and cultural systems, emphasizing its importance in software leadership. The hosts explain the core principles of the theory, such as identifying and elevating constraints, and explore its practical application through examples in both technical and organizational contexts. They highlight the necessity of continuous improvement and systems thinking, noting the challenges of aligning this approach with personal and organizational goals.

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Join Mon-Chaio in this VacationCast episode where he recounts an anecdote from his past involving collaboration, inclusion, and using diverse language in a business environment.

In both popular literature and media, we've all seen the clichéd portrayal of the brilliant engineer spouting indecipherable jargon to explain a situation ... and, inevitably, the main character uses a simple analogy to demystify the message. In the real world, however, things rarely mirror those stereotypes, but miscommunication or poor communication of technical messages is still one of the biggest and often hidden problems for engineering leaders and organizations.

In this episode, hosts Andy and Mon-Chaio tackle the challenge of technical communication in the workplace. They offer practical advice for engineering leaders on how to effectively convey complex technical messages to less-technical bosses and peers. The focus is not just on using financial terms like ROI or KPIs, but on truly understanding your audience and using storytelling to make your message clear and impactful. Andy and Mon-Chaio also discuss the importance of empathy and the power of narrative to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical worlds.

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 Mon Chaio and Andy explore the concept of Zoom fatigue, investigating its existence, potential causes, and its ramifications for both extroverts and introverts. They delve into personal anecdotes, research findings, and theories such as media naturalness theory to understand the cognitive and somatic exhaustion associated with video conferencing tools. They discuss how Zoom fatigue is defined, its link to increased brain fatigue, and how it disproportionately affects women and introverts. The hosts also offer potential solutions and adjustments to mitigate the effects of Zoom fatigue, raising questions about the long-term implications of video conferencing on workers' productivity and well-being.

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Both conventional wisdom and widespread anecdotes point to the conclusion that extroverts make better leaders. But is there any evidence of this, or is this another belief with little basis in fact?

In this episode, Andy and Mon-Chaio examine the misconceptions around introversion and extroversion and dive into the research around the relationship between extroversion and leadership acumen. They then shift the conversation to the practical implications of these findings for engineering organizations, discussing how leaders, regardless of their place on the extroversion spectrum, can leverage their innate strengths to build and maintain high-performing teams.

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