Tech Leader Pro

By John Collins

Tech Leader Pro is a weekly podcast for sharing ideas, principals, and approaches that you can use to lead a large team, with a focus on the technology industry. Each episode covers in detail a leader... more

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How many episodes does Tech Leader Pro have?

The podcast currently has 92 episodes available.

Tech Leader Pro episodes:

January 06, 2025AI as a force multiplier (TLP 2025w1)
AI is a force multiplier when applied correctly, it is the horizontal scaling of intelligence.
Notes:
In the military, a force multiplier is defined as the following: "In military science, force multiplication or a force multiplier is a factor or a combination of factors that gives personnel or weapons (or other hardware) the ability to accomplish greater feats than without it. The expected size increase required to have the same effectiveness without that advantage is the multiplication factor." Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_multiplication
The concept is to use technology to enable human effort by your team to be multiplied well beyond their normal impacts.
I tell the software engineers in my team that they are force multipliers, as their efforts always result in oversized impacts.
In software engineering, there exists the legend of the 10x engineer, that can do the same amount of work as 10 regular engineers.
The degree of impact here may be exaggerated, but there is no denying that some team members are far more productive that others.
In my opinion, the best way to increase productivity with technology is to:
Take an existing manual process and automate it.
Make that automation a push-button action for anyone in the team to execute, as many times as they wish.
I spent 5 years in a start-up working on this exact problem, and selling the solution.
Automation is a force multiplier, because it enables us to make a process reproducible, then scale it to multiple executions in parallel (the multiplication factor).
For example, a process executed by 1 person manually can be executed by 100s or 1000s of computer threads in parallel. This is what computers are good at.
AI is the logical end-state of all automation.
You start with a script, and you end with AI.
When all automations grow up, they want to be an AI.
AI is your true "10x engineer", except it can be 100x or 1000x...
AI is the horizontal scaling of intelligence.
What I have been working on this week:
Posting Shorts to X, TikTok, Instragram, and YouTube.
Blog post: "Social media is a flywheel for bad ideas" - https://techleader.pro/a/674-Social-media-is-a-flywheel-for-bad-ideas
Blog post: "I will not be renewing my X Premium+ subscription" - https://techleader.pro/a/672-I-will-not-be-renewing-my-X-Premium+-subscription
Blog post: "Stop following bad trends in 2025" - https://techleader.pro/a/671-Stop-following-bad-trends-in-2025
Media I am enjoying this week:
"The Ceres Solution" by Bob Shaw.
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/675-AI-as-a-force-multiplier-(TLP-2025w1)
...more
7min
December 31, 20242024 wrap and 2025 predictions (TLP 2024w52)
Wrapping up 2024 trends in technology, business, and the economy, and making 2025 predictions.
Notes:
Wrapping up 2024 trends in technology, business, and the economy, and making 2025 predictions.
It is important to state that these predictions are not what I want to happen, but are instead what I think will happen.
Therefore they are not my opinions.
2024 predictions revisited:
e/acc versus decel will become more vocal.
With the election victory of Donald Trump and US tech leaders, especially Elon Musk, siding with him, I think this year has largely been victorious for the e/acc side.
Senior tech leaders are now realizing that they need to get their hands on legislative powers, as those powers have been used against them in the past too often.
An example of this is the DOGE initiative lead by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, with the aim of reducing government red tape and bureaucracy in the US.
Result: prediction met, with a win on the e/acc side.
Nuclear will make a comeback.
One interesting trend this year was data center owners taking power supply into their own hands, by investing in small nuclear reactor technologies.
These reactors are called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
In an unprecedented example of "build your own infrastructure", they no longer trust governments to provide reliable, cheap energy.
Amazon for example announced such an investment in October 2024. Ref: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/amazon-nuclear-small-modular-reactor-net-carbon-zero
Result: prediction met, and this trend will continue in 2025.
Main stream media will be gamed by generative AI.
I have been unable to find evidence of this in 2025, either because people are too wise to images and videos generated by AI, or because the results are not good enough yet to fool them on a large scale.
Result: prediction not met, but maybe in the near future?
The EU will continue to regulate tech.
With the Digital Services Act in 2022 (Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Services_Act) and the Digital Markets Act of 2023 (Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Markets_Act), the EU is already ramping up pressure on tech companies operating in the EU.
The EU moves slowly like all large bureaucracies, but it is only a matter of time before they start to impose fines on large tech companies using these legislations.
In the meantime, legal firms around the EU are making a fortune helping firms to prepare for compliance.
It is GDPR all over again, only more far-reaching.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have published a great overview of the legislations here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/12/eu-tech-regulation-good-intentions-unclear-consequences-2024-year-review
Result: prediction met.
Free speech restrictions will drive more people to VPNs and anonymous services.
The biggest surprise for me this year has been the UK, which has made a sharp turn towards authoritarianism under the new Labour government lead by Sir Keir Starmer. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keir_Starmer
In a remarkable turn of events after Brexit, the UK is now arguably the most heavy-handed European country for regulating its own citizens free speech online, with many high-profile cases ending up with prosecutions and prison time.
Result: prediction met.
2025 predictions:
America first.
The Donald Trump election victory marks a return to insular foreign policies and protectionism.
Ireland will be impacted if corporation tax is reduced in the US.
The Empire strikes back.
DOGE efforts will run aground when unions and other employee legislations prevent mass lay-offs. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Government_Efficiency
The "Deep State" civil service is too entrenched to be unraveled in a single term.
I suspect these efforts will get bogged down next year.
AGI will continue to disappoint.
I recorded an episode previously about the lack of a "Moore's Law" for AI (ref: https://techleader.pro/a/658-There-is-no-Moore's-Law-for-AI-(TLP-2024w35)), and how OpenAI model growth is already slowing down.
"AGI is near" is the new "Singularity is near".
While recent growth in generative AI has been remarkable, we are still decades out from AGI.
Woke media is dead.
The final sting of a dying bee.
Most people want to be entertained, not preached to.
They are voting with their pockets.
I expected large gaming and Hollywood companies to pivot back to their historical center grounds next year.
The EU will continue to swing Right.
Immigration policies and a lack of policing is spurring the growth of ring-wing parties across the EU.
The Left offer no solutions to these problems, but offer more of the same.
Across the EU several incumbent government parties at at risk, look to Germany first, then France.
The above predictions are just for fun, and are not met as advice to take actions or investment decisions.
Happy New Year!
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/673-2024-wrap-and-2025-predictions-(TLP-2024w52)
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10min
December 23, 2024Burnout (TLP 2024w51)
The warning signs are there, I am burned out.
Notes:
It has been a few weeks now since my last podcast, and my topic today will explain why.
Recently I have been feeling tired, grumpy, and sick with a cold.
I have also been sleeping long hours, even falling asleep on the sofa after work.
In the morning, I open my work cellphone with sense of dread for what new escalations I will have to face today.
Basically I am burned out.
My work-related stress is at an all-time high, in the past few weeks I have had to deal with the following:
Getting a new manager (my fourth in 2 years).
Hiring two more senior people into my team and on-boarding them.
Conducting many annual performance reviews, some of which were difficult.
Launching two new products into production.
Multiple production issues across several products.
Closing an external audit of one major product.
Dealing with a new peer who seems quite hostile.
Reorganizing my teams to get them ready for expansion next year.
Getting budgets approved for that expansion.
Getting vendor contracts signed off for 2025.
Etc etc etc...
Stop the train, I want to get off!
Leadership is difficult, and you rarely (if ever) get thanked for any of it.
You team, you peers, your manager, and your stakeholders are quick to point out issues, but rarely offer praise for successes.
Frankly speaking, at this stage I am doing it for the money to support my family, and would happily quit and do a start-up full-time if I could secure the funding.
In the interim, I have taken a few weeks off to recharge my batteries, when I will play games, read books, and watch TV series.
The gym and my karate training also helps to manage the stress.
But if 2024 was anything to go by, 2025 will be brutal.
Take care of yourselves my dudes, talk to you next time for my yearly wrap!
Happy Christmas.
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/670-Burnout-(TLP-2024w51)
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4min
November 26, 2024Conducting annual reviews (TLP 2024w47)
It's that time of year again, when I need to conduct many annual performance reviews over the coming weeks.
Notes:
It's that time of year again, and sadly I don't mean Christmas!
As a leader, I need to conduct many annual performance reviews over the coming weeks.
It is always a busy and challenging time, because you have to thread the line between giving someone actionable feedback, while not being so candid that you damage their morale.
It is also a good time to reflect on your team, in order to determine who is who at the zoo.
In my mind I have three categories that they fall into:
Excelling - these are your star performers, who are on the path to promotion. Keep them close, mentor them, and watch them grow.
Delivering - these are your "steady Eddy" performers, quietly getting stuff done. They are competent professionals, operating at the correct level for their skill-set and maturity levels.
Struggling - these are your "problem children", and are not meeting the expectations of you or their peers. They are struggling, so need to be either mentored heavily to get them to improve, or your need to manage them out.
The majority of your team should be in the "Delivering" category, with a few stars in the "Excelling" category and hopefully nobody in "Struggling".
A senior leader of a huge engineering team in a big company once gave me this answer, when I asked him what I needed to do in order for him to consider me a top performer: "Imagine if the company was a ship that was sinking, and I had to choose who to pull onto the life-raft with me. That's my top guys."
In essence, become indispensable to your manager.
It's harsh, but the fact is we are also being judged harshly in a professional setting.
As leaders, we must provide accountability when someone fails, as well as praise when they succeed.
It's the accountability piece that will test you.
I hope your reviews go well, here are some final tips:
Gather feedback about the team member from others.
Provide examples for all feedback topics.
Let them talk, and listen.
Provide factual feedback with evidence, and never, ever, get emotional.
What I worked on this week:
greppr.org now provides search suggestion auto-completion!
Media I am enjoying this week:
Caesar by Christian Meier
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/669-Conducting-annual-reviews-(TLP-2024w47)
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8min
November 19, 2024Online refugees are fleeing to Bluesky (TLP 2024w46)
The center ground of moderates is becoming a no man's zone, with the Left moving to Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, while the Right have taken over X.
Notes:
I find myself very amused this week about the reaction of some people to the recent election victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential campaign.
As a European, I offer no opinion on the candidates as frankly it is none of my business.
But as a follower of online trends, I am deeply amused by the amount of users on X who are announcing their dramatic departure, in protest for President Trump's election, and the alleged role that Elon Musk had in that successful campaign.
Even newspapers like the Guardian have announced that they will no longer post on X!
In a fit of rage-quitting, left-leaning X users are fleeing like online refugees to their perceived safe haven Bluesky.
Bluesky, a tiny rival to X that I spoke about before on this podcast last year (ref: https://techleader.pro/a/587-Tech-Leader-Pro-podcast-2023-week-18,-a-better-Twitter), is now reportedly creaking under the strain of this influx of disgruntled users.
In my opinion, everyone currently leaving X is disgusted by reading opposing opinions.
They don't reflect, they deflect.
Instead, they should reflect on why the majority of their fellow citizens disagree with their world view.
Because of this mindset, our online tribal silos are getting deeper and deeper.
Online platforms are not walled gardens, they are ghettos.
Watching online refugees forming a new ghetto on the Bluesky app in real time is fascinating to me.
The center ground of moderates is becoming a no man's zone, with the Left moving to Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, while the Right have taken over X.
Tribal lines have been redrawn.
We live in interesting times!
Media I am enjoying this week:
Caesar by Christian Meier
Season 2 of Silo on Apple
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/667-Online-refugees-are-fleeing-to-Bluesky-(TLP-2024w46)
...more
8min
November 12, 2024DEI training is a waste of time (TLP 2024w45)
This week, I want to explain to you why I believe DEI training is a waste of time, as bias is an innate part of being a human being.
Notes:
Last week I was totally overwhelmed, hence I missed an episode.
As we coming to the end of the year, I am working hard to meet many project deadlines.
This week, I want to explain to you why I believe DEI training is a waste of time.
It comes off the back of me having to attend compulsory training this week in the company where I work.
For those that don't know, DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
In principal, this is a noble cause. The idea is to train us not to treat people differently based on their gender, colour, age, or any other attribute.
We learned about such topics as "covering" when a person covers up aspects of themselves in order to fit in at work, therefore restricting them from bringing their "true self" to work.
In reality, we all present a professional persona that is different from our true selves.
To be professional, we must often leave topics at home like personal issues, political beliefs, or any other topics that are likely to upset or annoy our colleagues.
Basically, we are all "covering" whether we admit it or not.
Secondly, the reality is we all have bias. Bias is naturally, as it is a survival instinct.
If our ancestors got attacked by a certain animal type on a regular basis, they became biased against that animal pretty quickly.
In modern times we are not that different: during an interview process you will be judged, that will often include bias, and yes that is unfair.
Pretending that bias does not exist is simply that: pretending.
DEI initiatives while noble in intent, it simply tries to suppress bias rather than remove it.
You cannot remove it, as it is an innate part of being a human being.
As a leader, it is much better to acknowledge your bias and to challenge it internally, as bias can create blind spots.
Reassess you bias on a regular basis: is it still valid, are their decent sample sizes to justify it, or is it all based on your own personal experience that may be flawed?
Challenge bias, but don't pretend you can remove it completely.
And remember: others are biased towards you also for all kinds of unfair reasons.
That is life.
Media I am enjoying this week:
I finally finished Maelstrom by Peter Watts, which is part 2 of his Rifter series.
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/666-DEI-training-is-a-waste-of-time-(TLP-2024w45)
...more
7min
October 29, 2024Always front load your project risk (TLP 2024w43)
On why it is so important to tackle the riskiest topics at the beginning of your projects.
Notes:
As we near the end of the year, like many of you, I have a lot of project deadlines approaching.
Q4 in a company tends to a be a very busy time, when we are closing projects while opening planning and budgeting for the following year.
For one of my projects, some topics that contain risk are not closed yet. That always makes me nervous.
This week I was discussing with the PM that we need to address those topics now, rather than leaving them to the very end.
The reason for that is simple: if there is undiscovered additional work required for those risky topics, it is better to discover that while there is still enough time to do anything about it.
If you leave it to the end, it's too late.
According to the dictionary, to front-load means: ": to assign costs or benefits to the early stages of (such as a contract, project, or time period)", ref: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/front-load
Here I am talking about risk, which you can certainly consider to be a form of cost if those risks come through.
I see this anti-pattern in all aspects of life all of the time: people will often delay the difficult topics, instead choosing to concentrate on "low hanging fruit" or easy topics instead.
A strong leader will always tackle the hard topics first, as they know that is where the risk is, especially when those topics are on the critical path of a project.
As a leader, you must train your teams to take the same approach.
They must not be tempted to avoid such topics, and it is your job to remind them to stay on track.
Hit the hard topics hard and fast, and see what falls out.
What I am working this week:
Adding search suggestions and auto-complete to greppr.org
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/665-Always-front-load-your-project-risk-(TLP-2024w43)
...more
7min
October 21, 2024The three types of communication (TLP 2024w42)
There are three main methods of communication commonly used in a business context.
Notes:
I was traveling last week so no episode.
Three forms of communication:
Terse
Verbose
Obfuscation
Terse is the most optimised form: always use this when communicating with senior leaders.
Senior people do not have time to parse long-form content, so keep it concise.
Verbose is fine if you are writing an essay or poetry, but rarely has an application in a business context.
Avoid verbosity, especially with senior leaders. If you make them work to parse your meaning, you will just annoy them.
They are time starved.
Finally, obfuscation is used only when someone is trying to hide something, and won't give a straight answer.
That form of communication should be avoided at all costs, and senior leaders will see through it.
Bad news, like all news, should be delivered tersely.
Just state the facts, and don't obfuscate if you value your career (unless you are a professional politician).
You will note that my podcasts are terse.
Long-form podcasts can be great, but who has the time to listen to all of them?
I respect your time so I keep them short.
Media I am enjoying this week:
Slow Horses seasons 2 to 4.
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/664-The-three-types-of-communication-(TLP-2024w42)
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7min
October 08, 2024Align on goals not culture (TLP 2024w40)
Cultural conflict is fine (how we do things), but conflict on strategic goals is not (what we are building).
Notes:
Senior leaders tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the culture of their organization.
CEOs for example love to talk about their corporate values, which is often nothing more that a list of cultural talking points that are not enforced.
In reality, an organization is made of of many sub-cultures, which often operate in a radically different way to each other.
Such competition can in fact be very healthy, as that can lead to innovations.
Friction in an organization is good. Too much comfort kills innovation.
Furthermore, a team or a department having the freedom to express their own unique culture is also healthy.
If you enforce the same culture in your organization, the net result will be a mono-culture that will be devoid of innovative thinking.
Rather than trying to get everyone aligned around such a mono-culture, you should align around goals instead.
Culture is a framework, but goals are the destination.
Your team can be misaligned around culture, even having competing sub-cultures, but misalignment around goals is fatal.
Your job as a leader is to point your team towards their north star, then let them figure out how to get there.
Direction is more important than velocity: going fast in the wrong direction is useless.
Steady progress in the right direction is more desirable than that.
Our history is full of examples when conflict drove rapid innovation, through necessity.
You have to strike a balance of course, but in simple terms no conflict can lead to no innovation.
Cultural conflict is fine (how we do things), but conflict on strategic goals is not (what we are building).
If you spend too much time trying to have the perfect utopian culture, but neglect strategic goals, your organization will fail
Media I am enjoying on this week:
Slow Horses season 1.
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/663-Align-on-goals-not-culture-(TLP-2024w40)
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6min
October 06, 2024Being overwhelmed (TLP 2024w39)
Last week I was totally overwhelmed, which resulted in me recording this episode one week late. Why does this happen?
Notes:
Last week I was totally overwhelmed, which resulted in me recording this episode one week late.
It got me thinking again about why does this happen?
My normal day looks like this:
First thing in the morning, I review my emails and messages and then add actions to my task list.
I use five.today to manage that task list daily, it's free to use if you want to give it a try!
Using that tool, I then decide what are the five most important tasks I need to complete today.
Some of those are new tasks, others are from my backlog.
If I close those five tasks by the end of the day, I can log off at the end of my day feeling satisfied.
Now that's my ideal rhythm, and frankly I manage to do that 99% of the time.
I am quite disciplined about this: remember you cannot manage others if you cannot manage yourself first.
Lately however I have been overwhelmed, so much so that the above rhythm has been completely disrupted.
A series of dramas is all it takes for you to immediately find yourself fire-fighting as soon as you go on-line.
In this situation, your agenda is effectively hijacked, and the five tasks you planned to do today are quickly forgotten about.
Working in this mode is fine for short periods, but is not sustainable long-term for obvious reasons.
For the past two weeks by the time I reached Friday, I was absolutely exhausted.
Eventually the fires are extinguished, the root cause analysis reports are written, and promises of lessons learned are made.
Once calm is restored, you get back to executed your daily routine.
This weekend, I will record two episodes to make up, as I want to keep the sequence going even if I am late.
I will post them a day apart.
I am also behind on creating videos for all of these recent episodes, so sorry for that if you are following along on video platforms.
Being overwhelmed is bad, but you will come out the other side of it eventually.
What I am working on this week:
Search results on greppr.org now open in a new window.
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/662-Being-overwhelmed-(TLP-2024w39)
...more
7min

FAQs about Tech Leader Pro:

How many episodes does Tech Leader Pro have?

The podcast currently has 92 episodes available.