The Operator

The Operator

By tabdulwahabaminBusinessCareersManagement
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The Operator episodes

  • Can You Delegate Without Losing Control? 20 Years From IT Specialist to IT Leader | Alarqam Alkendi
    Can you delegate without losing control? Alarqam Alkendi has spent more than 20 years in IT, across healthcare and manufacturing, going from IT specialist to leading IT operations across several countries. On The Operator, he shares how he stopped being the one with every answer and built a team that runs on systems, ownership and clear expectations.
    In this episode:
    - The five-minutes-versus-three-hours dilemma every hands-on manager faces
    - Why always providing the solution makes your team dependent on you
    - Building KPIs on systems, not on relationships
    - Where AI stops and human judgment and accountability take over
    - Hiring for foundations, and owning the root cause
    - His advice for new managers after 20 years in IT
    Chapters
    0:00 Preview
    0:20 Meet Alarqam
    1:01 From engineer to manager
    2:00 The first year as a manager
    3:37 Five minutes or three hours?
    7:56 His week and the knowledge base
    11:47 KPIs built on systems
    14:51 How AI changed managing people and operations
    19:36 Hiring for foundations
    24:02 Root cause and accountability
    24:55 Advice for new managers
    The Operator is a podcast about how leaders structure and scale their teams. Hosted by Abdul Wahab Amin.
    27 min
  • You Have to Adapt: Managing Engineers in the AI Era | Fakhir Khan | The Operator 01

    The conversation covers Fakir Khan's career journey, transition to a managerial role, experience in podcasting, management practices, cadences, managing AI-enabled teams, the hiring process, learning from failure, HR challenges, handling underperforming team members, managing AI agents, and ownership. Key takeaways include the importance of adapting to industry shifts and the significance of trust and reliance on team members for success.

    Takeaways

    * Adapting to industry shifts
    * Trust and reliance on team members

    Chapters
    00:00 Introduction to Fakir Khan
    00:39 Fakir's journey in AI and software engineering
    01:26 Transitioning from engineer to manager
    02:57 Management practices and team dynamics
    05:22 Challenges in management and leadership
    08:01 AI's impact on software development
    12:10 Estimating effort in AI-driven projects
    15:41 Hiring practices in the AI era
    20:58 Managing AI agents in engineering
    30:01 Lessons learned from failures in management

    #AI #SoftwareEngineering #Leadership #EngineeringManagement #AINative #SoftwareEngineering #ClaudeCode #TechLeadership #AIagents #EngineeringLeadership #Cursor #StartupEngineering #TheOperator

    44 min

About The Operator

From the publisher's feed

I became a manager with zero experience and made every mistake in the book. Scaling a company? I had to figure that out the hard way. This podcast is for anyone walking that same path and looking…