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You're leading the team you were recently part of.
The skills that got you here are not the ones that keep a team healthy. Most of the job is now conversations nobody trained you for.
Drawn from these themes
The leadership shift nobody prepares you for.
Why do so many engineers struggle after becoming Tech Leads? Former N26 CTO Pat Kua explains the mindset shift from maker to multiplier, with practical advice for Software Engineers, Tech Leads and Engineering Managers who want to lead with greater impact.
How great hiring teams make the final decision.
Former Amazon Bar Raiser Sean O’Neill explains how great hiring teams run interview debriefs, avoid bias, use blind voting, challenge assumptions, and make stronger hiring decisions. Essential listening for managers, interviewers, and candidates.
How to run better interviews and spot real talent.
Former Amazon Bar Raiser Sean O’Neill explains how to run better interviews. Learn experiential questioning, the STAR method, and how to separate drivers from passengers, even when candidates arrive with polished stories or AI-assisted preparation.
Why tech leaders hit the wall, and how they find their way back.
Burnout often builds gradually before leaders suddenly hit the wall. Andy Skipper, CEO & Founder of CTO Craft, explains how CTOs and tech leaders recognise burnout, recover from it, and create healthier leadership environments.
Responsibility, inclusion, and the future of tech leadership.
Tech leader Freddie Quek explores digital exclusion, the Triple Bottom Line (Profit, Planet, People), and how the tech sector can drive inclusion at scale. Learn why 30% offline affects all of us, and what leaders can do today.
See exactly where you stand, and what to do next.
Meri Williams explains the six core skills for technical leadership. Learn how to assess your capabilities, map role expectations, and plan your career toward engineering director or CTO roles.
Why hard work stops working, and what high-impact leaders do instead.
Learn the five levels of high-impact leaders and how to break the effort ceiling. Giorgos Ampavis explains why hard work stops working—and the shifts that help you increase your impact, progress faster, and avoid burnout.
How carers quietly build resilience, empathy, and clarity: the real markers of great leaders.
A powerful conversation on carers in the workplace, hidden leadership skills, burnout, flexible working, and how employers can support and retain carers. Featuring leadership coach Kirsten Hurley.
How to turn a bold plan into collective action across the company.
Learn how to launch a company strategy that lands so everyone understands, owns, and delivers it with clarity and momentum.
How to regain control, rebuild trust, and deliver under pressure.
Turnaround leader David Crawford’s five-step recovery: spot risks early, stabilise delivery, reset stakeholder trust, and ship under pressure. Includes a free tracker template.
How to speak like a leader, get noticed, and earn trust.
Cheryl Warlow’s executive communication playbook: earn time, write emails leaders act on, lead with recommendations, handle tough questions, and land impact in the boardroom.
How to say what needs to be said and drive lasting change.
Coach Clem Pickering and Jeremy share a feedback playbook—timing, wording, and See-Think-Feel-Intent—to build trust, raise performance, and make 1:1s and reviews actually work.
Forget posters and slogans. Build a culture that works.
Alya Lilani on turning values into daily behaviours that improve hiring, retention, and performance. Simple steps to define, embed, and live company values that work.
How to get results without burning people out.
Coach Charlotte Rooney on balancing results and relationships: clear expectations, kind candour, simple rituals, and momentum. Build healthy, high-performing teams without burnout.
Free, ungated, and written by the guests themselves.
Assess your leadership mindset with Pat Kua’s free Tech Lead worksheet. Five practical questions to help engineering leaders move from writing code to multiplying team impact, improving delegation, coaching and technical leadership.
Pat KuaPDF · 110 KB
Download Tom Day’s Manual of Us to align your team before a project begins. Define roles, objectives, values, ways of working, and success criteria to improve collaboration, build trust, and prevent conflict in high-performing teams.
Tom DayPDF · 442 KB
Download Tom Day’s Manual of Me to help your team understand your working style, strengths, communication preferences, and motivations. A practical template for building trust, improving teamwork, and preventing conflict before it starts.
Tom DayPDF · 348 KB
Learn how to explain technical ideas clearly using Ben Pearce’s AOREN framework. A practical guide for engineers and technical leaders to improve communication, influence stakeholders, structure presentations, and drive action.
Ben PearcePDF · 144 KB
Sean O’Neill’s Hiring Debrief Template helps teams make better hiring decisions. Capture interview feedback, use blind voting, compare candidates, and run structured debriefs to reduce bias and choose the best talent.
Sean O'NeillWeb link
A practical guide to burnout in tech leadership. Andy Skipper, CEO & Founder of CTO Craft, explains how CTOs and engineering leaders can recognise burnout early, recover from it, and create healthier leadership environments.
Andy SkipperPDF · 2.2 MB
Map your technical leadership skills, identify development areas, and compare roles with Meri Williams’ Career Vectors Framework — a clear tool for engineers, managers, directors, and CTOs.
Meri WilliamsPDF · 3.1 MB
A practical self-assessment tool to break the “effort ceiling” and boost your impact. Discover the five levels of high-impact leaders and learn how to work smarter, lead better, and accelerate your career without burning out.
Giorgos AmpavisPDF · 1.5 MB
A practical guide to recognising and supporting carers at work. Learn the hidden challenges carers face, the leadership strengths they bring, and the actions employers can take to improve culture, retention, and wellbeing.
Kirsten HurleyPDF · 1.4 MB
Learn how to turn strategy into action with Andy Toor’s practical toolkit. Includes conversation guides, manager scripts, and weekly reflection tools to help every team understand, own, and deliver the plan.
Andy ToorPDF · 1.5 MB
Master David Crawford’s five-step system for rescuing troubled projects. This guide explains how to spot early warning signs, stabilise delivery, and rebuild progress with confidence.
David CrawfordPDF · 3.3 MB
A simple five-measure tracker to help leaders regain control, rebuild trust, and deliver results on failing projects. Used by turnaround expert David Crawford.
David CrawfordXLSX · 11 KB
Cheryl Warlow’s playbook for communicating with senior leaders. Learn how to earn attention, structure messages that land, and make every executive interaction count.
Cheryl WarlowPDF · 7.7 MB
Clem Pickering’s toolkit for giving and receiving feedback that works. Learn models, frameworks, and habits to build trust, improve performance, and lead with confidence.
Clem PickeringPDF · 7.7 MB
Define, select, and activate company values that drive performance. Alya Lilani’s toolkit helps leaders turn abstract principles into daily behaviours that deliver results.
Alya LilaniPDF · 169 KBMost people sit between two of these. Have a look at the others.
You're good at the work. Now you want the next thing.
You can ship. What's less obvious is how careers actually move: who notices, what to say, and which of the thousand things people tell you is worth acting on.
Your job is now other people's decisions, not just your code.
Above senior, the work stops being what you build and starts being what you can get a room to agree on. Nobody hands you the authority to go with it.
You set the direction, and own it when it doesn't land.
At this level the hard part isn't deciding. It's getting an organisation to act on the decision, hire against it, and keep going when it becomes inconvenient.
You're building the thing and running the business around it.
Nobody sets your priorities and nobody covers for you. The work is deciding what to raise, what to build, who to sell to, and how to keep going.
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