Teams at Work by BUNCH

This week we chatted with Steve Tauber. Steve is a CTO in residence at madewithlove, where he has worked with more than 45 startups, helping them establish scale-proof processes, and build strong, high-performing teams.

Steve also recently co-authored a book called “Freerange Management” that helps leaders create an environment where people are truly happy and free to do their best work.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Steve’s new book on free-range management, and what free-range chickens and engineering teams have in common

• Why leaders need to step back to allow their teams to step up

• What to look for in candidates to create knowledge-first organizations

• What you need on your roadmap to succeed in 2023

2:35 - What is a CTO in residence

9:50 - What are knowledge-first organizations and why they are relevant today

14:35 - Steve’s new book and its value for engineering leaders

25:10 - Double diamond design framework for problem-solving

29:00 - Accountability in free-range management

30:55 - How to celebrate failures and learn from them

38:00 - The toughest moments in Steve’s career and how we overcame them

41:30 - How getting enough sleep can help you solve problems faster

44:45 - Why you shouldn’t read any of the popular industry books

Connect with Steve:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetauber/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SteveTauber

• Steve's book: https://freerange.management/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

In this episode we chatted with Ozioma Egwuonwu, the founder of BurnBright International LLC. Ozioma works with Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations, and business owners, to help them transform their businesses and make them future-proof with key frameworks like Visionary Future-Making.

She is Expert Faculty at Singularity University, graduated from the Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell, and even developed a Masters-level course taught at Columbia University. Ozioma has been featured on NBC, in The Guardian, and has spoken at SXSW, ADWEEK, the Websummit, and more.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to use the Visionary Future-Making framework to access high-order vision and bring it forward into reality.

• The importance of storytelling in solving problems and inspiring your team, your customers… and yourself!

• What different generations need from the workplace, and how that is pushing organizations to find more impactful, forward-thinking solutions for everyone.

Timecodes:

0:45 Conditions and ingredients for transformation

3:40 The Transformation Economy, The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore

6:30 Singularity University, David Roberts

8:50 The future and context of work

19:00 The Visionary Future-Making framework

25:20 Generations in the workplace

31:40 Ozioma’s background

36:30 Overcoming challenges

42:05 Advice for her younger self

Connect with Ozioma:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozioma/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/culturalmaven

• Substack: https://ozioma.substack.com

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

In this episode we sat down with Christain Rebernik, a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, mentor, and father of 3. Christian is the former CEO and Co-Founder at Vivy, former CTO and MD at N26, former CTO at Parship, and created award-winning apps like ShareTheMeal for the UN World Food Programme. His current mission is to educate and empower the changemakers of tomorrow as CEO and Co-Founder at Germany’s first virtual university, Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why Christian as an engineer hated Sales at the start of his journey and why he loves it now (and how it creates value)

• How Christian dealt with failure in his career and what encouraged him to keep going (and how you can do the same)

• Why Christian believes he was not a good leader at first and what he has learned and improved on since

• His biggest success secret and what love’s gotta do with it!

Connect with Christian:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crebernik/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/crebernik7791

Follow Tomorrow University:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/tomorrowuniversity/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

In this episode we sat down with Julius Bachmann, a founder coach whose mission is to make the future of venture more human. He started his career as an investor, then founded a personal growth startup, and now provides a holistic support structure for founders, entrepreneurs and leaders. He shared insights and actionable advice about setting up the building blocks of optimal performance, taking the next tiny step to accomplishing your goals, and guiding your team (esp. co-founder team) out of a conflict.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to balance rational, emotional, and body-level intelligence to support optimal performance, and two easy exercises you can do any time.

• How to break down your 3-month goals into weekly and daily actions, and the motivating questions that will help you take the next step.

• How to get back to a good routine after it slipped, when you know exactly what to do but can’t make yourself do it.

Connect with Julius:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmbachmann/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmbachmann

Get early access to Journey:

• Web: https://www.jrny.coach/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Jossie Haines is an executive and engineering leadership coach focused on empowering high performing leadership through empathy and compassion. Her mission is to retain women in tech and break the statistic that 56% of women leave tech after 10-20 years by empowering engineering leaders with the effective and fair management practices and principles needed to finally more the needle.

Jossie is an avid public speaker, having given over 100 talks, workshops and podcasts on retaining women in tech, engineering leadership, DEI and various technologies.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What it was like in Silicon Valley of the 90ies and how Zynga casually took on Facebook and built a social network in 2 weeks

• How to ask for feedback so that you get the advice you need to grow

• How inclusion is interlinked with productivity and performance

Connect with Jossie :

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jossiemann/

• Web: https://jossiehaines.com/

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Get in touch with Jossie for a free coaching session!

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

This episode’s guest is Sonia Joseph, CTO & co-founder at Alexandria Labs, a web3 library. Sonia is also a machine learning & neuroscience researcher at Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. Sonia and her co-founder are on a mission to bring ebooks to blockchain for readers and authors and we had a super interesting conversation spanning everything from startup life to the future of humanity. Enjoy!

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to keep up to date with an ever faster evolving space around tech overall, and especially web3

• The importance of “exceptional” narratives and how they can help you find your way in your tech career

• What startups and science have in common and how to succeed in both

• Why and how women have a larger decision-making space in society and what the consequences of that are

• Why a library on the blockchain makes perfect sense

Connect with Sonia:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniamjoseph/

• Web: https://www.soniajoseph.ai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/soniajoseph_?lang=en

• Follow Alexandria Labs: https://alexandrialabs.xyz/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Today we chatted with Constanze Buchheim, founder of the executive search consultancy i-potentials. For 15 years, she has been building and transforming teams in the German and European Startup ecosystem. She’s been named one of the 50 most influential women in German business by the Boston Consulting Group and Manager Magazin, and in 2020 was selected by Focus magazine as one of the 100 Women of the Year.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to manage the difference between expectations and consistently delight your customers and your team

• Tips on exploring your own goals, motivations, and roadblocks so that you can be more authentic and transparent with your team

• What are Specialists, Managers, and Leaders, what’s the difference and how each of them contributes to a successful organization

Connect with Constanze:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/constanzebuchheim/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CBuchheim

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it free on the App Store

In this chat we interviewed Kieran Flanagan, Senior Vice President of Marketing at HubSpot. He is an experienced startup advisor and investor, and has spent the past decade building and leading marketing teams. He also has his own podcast, the GrowthTLDR, and has shared tons of actionable advice on how to build and scale effective teams with us.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The difference between a good leader and a good manager, and the ingredients for inspiring your team while giving them the operational support they need.

• How to leverage growth at any stage by balancing three types of roles: builders, creators and operators.

• What everyone can learn from product managers about identifying problems and motivating teams to solve them.

• How to hire for core skills, mindset, and coachability, and the 100-day onboarding plan to give your new team members clarity, accountability, and purpose.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieranjflanagan/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it

free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

Subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources!

In this episode we sit down with Noor van Boven, investor, global people executive, and co-founder at Invested. She has worked and led people teams at Soundcloud, N26, and Deloitte, and is also a board member to numerous startups. With Noor, we reflect on high-context culture and how to design a context for your team to perform autonomously at their highest level. Plus, she told us her strategy for setting expectations and has some great advice for giving feedback in a way that helps your team learn and thrive.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to set “guard rails” so that your team can operate with autonomy, which leads to more efficiency and less confusion.

• The best way to frame feedback so you can support your report’s perspective while staying realistic about the solution and what can and can’t be changed.

• How to define and align with your organization’s cultural dynamics, so that you and your team can have the strongest impact.

We really benefited from hearing Noor’s expert perspective on keeping goals crystal clear and realistic, balanced with her advice to be kind, do your best, and learn from your mistakes. We hope this inspires you too!

Connect with Noor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noorvanboven/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it

free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

Subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources!

Our guest today is Anand Safi. He started his career as an engineer with a strong interest in leadership, then found opportunities to learn and contribute as a coach and mentor at MentorCruise, Plato, BestPracticer, and First Round Fast Track. Over the past ten years, he has worked at eBay, Intent, Insurity, and is an executive contributor to Brainz Magazine. He is now Director of Engineering at Mark43. In this episode, we talk about Anand’s leadership journey from individual contributor to manager and coach.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What makes a team sustainable, and how to manage your time so that you can be both productive and available.

• How to get buy-in from your team and stakeholders by approaching presentations as conversations.

• Why it’s important to stay vulnerable and open when starting a new role, even when you feel like you have to impress and strive for perfection… and how to do it!

We found it really inspiring to hear how Anand has balanced his deep interest in leadership with a realistic perspective about what’s actually possible in the day-to-day. He’s got some great advice for keeping track of the big picture, avoiding burnout, and supporting your team for sustainable success by always being just one Slack message away.

Connect with Anand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandsafi/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it

free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

Subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources!