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Why Leadership Skills Matter in Data You might be thinking, “I’m great at my technical job. Why do I need leadership skills?” Here’s the truth: technical skills get your foot in the door, but leadership skills open the whole building. In data, leadership means more than managing projects. It’s about: Inspiring your team to innovate Communicating complex ideas clearly Making strategic decisions under pressure Navigating career growth with confidence Without these skills, you risk hitting a career plateau. The good news? You can develop them, and the right program makes all the difference. What Sets Pier Martin's Leadership Program Apart This isn’t your typical leadership course filled with vague theories. The pier martin leadership program is tailored specifically for data professionals. It understands your unique challenges and speaks your language. Here’s what makes it stand out: Practical, hands-on learning: You won’t just listen; you’ll practice real-world leadership scenarios. Personalized coaching: Get feedback and guidance that fits your career goals. Focus on mindset: Leadership starts in your head. This program helps you build confidence and resilience. Community support: Connect with peers who share your ambitions and challenges. This combination ensures you don’t just learn leadership - you live it. How the Program Builds Your Leadership Confidence Confidence is the foundation of effective leadership. Without it, even the best ideas can fall flat. The program uses proven techniques to help you: Identify and overcome self-doubt Develop a clear leadership identity Communicate assertively without being aggressive Handle difficult conversations with ease For example, one exercise guides you through crafting your personal leadership story. This helps you understand your strengths and how to present them authentically. You’ll walk away feeling ready to lead meetings, pitch ideas, and influence decisions. Real-World Skills You Can Apply Immediately The program isn’t about theory. It’s about action. You’ll learn skills that you can apply the very next day at work, such as: Effective delegation: Free up your time and empower your team. Conflict resolution: Turn disagreements into productive discussions. Strategic thinking: Align your projects with bigger business goals. Time management: Prioritize tasks that move the needle. These skills help you stand out as a leader who gets results. Plus, they reduce stress by making your workload more manageable. How This Program Helps You Overcome Career Plateaus If you’ve been stuck in the same role for a while, it’s frustrating. You know you’re capable of more, but the path isn’t clear. The program helps you: Identify what’s holding you back Set clear, achievable leadership goals Build a roadmap to reach those goals Gain visibility and recognition in your organization Many participants report promotions and new opportunities shortly after completing the program. It’s not magic—it’s focused growth and strategic action. Your Next Step Toward Leadership Excellence If you’re ready to stop wondering and start leading, the advantages of Pier Martin's Leadership Program are clear. It’s designed to empower you with the skills, mindset, and support you need to excel. Remember, leadership isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being prepared, confident, and authentic. This program gives you the tools to become the leader you’ve always wanted to be. Embracing Change in Your Leadership Journey Change is inevitable. As you step into leadership, you’ll face new challenges. Embracing change is crucial for growth. The program teaches you how to adapt and thrive in dynamic environments. Stay curious: Always seek new knowledge and experiences. Be flexible: Adapt your strategies as situations evolve. Learn from feedback: Use constructive criticism to improve. Adopting these habits will help you navigate your leadership journey with confidence. Building a Lasting Leadership Network Networking is a key component of leadership. The program encourages you to build connections with fellow participants. These relationships can lead to collaboration and support throughout your career. Attend events: Engage in workshops and seminars to meet industry leaders. Join online communities: Participate in forums and social media groups. Seek mentorship: Find mentors who can guide you in your leadership journey. A strong network can open doors and provide valuable insights. Conclusion: Take the Leap Take the leap. Your future self will thank you. The advantages of Pier Martin's Leadership Program are immense. It’s time to invest in yourself and your career. You have the potential to become an impactful leader. Don’t let self-doubt hold you back. Embrace this opportunity and watch your career soar.

When you’re ready to take the next step in your leadership journey, finding the right coach can make all the difference. But how do you know which coaching service is the best fit for you? That’s where coaching reviews come in. They offer a window into real experiences, helping you make smarter, more confident choices. Let’s dive into how you can evaluate coaching reviews effectively. I’ll share practical tips and insights to help you cut through the noise and find a coach who truly supports your growth. Why Coaching Reviews Matter: Your Shortcut to Smarter Decisions You might be wondering, “Why should I trust coaching reviews?” Here’s the deal: coaching is a personal investment. You want to be sure your time, energy, and money are well spent. Reviews give you a peek behind the curtain. Real feedback from real people : Reviews show how others experienced the coaching process. Spot patterns : Look for consistent praise or recurring issues. Avoid surprises : Learn about the coach’s style, approach, and results before you commit. For example, if multiple reviews mention that a coach helped clients break through career plateaus, that’s a strong sign they understand your challenges. On the flip side, if you see complaints about lack of follow-up or unclear guidance, you know what to watch out for. Checking coaching reviews online How to Read Coaching Reviews Like a Pro: Coaching Reviews Guide Not all reviews are created equal. Some are detailed and honest, while others might be vague or overly positive. Here’s how to read coaching reviews critically: Look for specifics Good reviews mention concrete outcomes. Did the coaching help with leadership skills? Did it improve communication or confidence? Vague praise like “Great coach!” doesn’t tell you much. Check the reviewer’s background Are they in a similar field or role as you? A data professional’s experience with a coach might differ from someone in marketing. Balance positive and negative feedback No coach is perfect. A few critical points can actually add credibility. Watch for how the coach responds to criticism if that’s visible. Consider the volume of reviews One glowing review is nice, but a large number of consistent reviews is better. It shows reliability over time. Watch for recent reviews Coaching methods evolve. Recent feedback reflects the current coaching style and effectiveness. By applying these tips, you’ll get a clearer picture of what to expect and how well a coach aligns with your goals. What to Look for in Coaching Reviews: Key Elements to Focus On When scanning through coaching reviews, focus on these key elements to guide your decision: Leadership development Does the coach help clients step into leadership roles confidently? Look for mentions of skill-building, mindset shifts, and career advancement. Industry relevance For data and tech professionals, it’s crucial the coach understands your field’s unique challenges. Reviews that highlight this are gold. Communication style Coaching is a two-way street. Reviews that describe the coach as approachable, clear, and supportive indicate a good fit. Accountability and follow-up Effective coaching includes ongoing support. Look for reviews that mention regular check-ins and progress tracking. Results and impact Ultimately, you want measurable improvements. Reviews that talk about promotions, increased confidence, or better team management show real value. For example, for me - you’ll find my clients praising the tailored approach and practical strategies that helped them break through career plateaus and become recognized leaders. Taking notes during a leadership coaching session Avoiding Common Pitfalls When Evaluating Coaching Reviews It’s easy to get overwhelmed or misled by reviews. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid: Ignoring red flags Don’t dismiss negative reviews just because they’re few. If a coach repeatedly gets flagged for poor communication or lack of follow-up, take it seriously. Falling for fake reviews Overly generic or overly enthusiastic reviews without details can be suspicious. Trust reviews that feel authentic and balanced. Overvaluing star ratings A 5-star rating looks great, but dig deeper. Sometimes, a 4-star review with detailed feedback is more helpful. Not considering your unique needs A coach might be great for someone else but not for you. Always filter reviews through your personal goals and challenges. Skipping direct contact Reviews are helpful, but don’t rely on them alone. Reach out to the coach for a discovery call or ask for references. By steering clear of these traps, you’ll make a more informed choice and avoid costly mistakes. Making the Most of Coaching Reviews: Your Action Plan Now that you know how to evaluate coaching reviews, here’s a simple action plan to put it all into practice: Identify your leadership goals Be clear about what you want to achieve. This will help you focus on relevant reviews. Gather reviews from multiple sources Check websites, social media, and professional networks for a broad perspective. Create a shortlist Pick 3-5 coaches with strong, relevant reviews. Compare and contrast Look at strengths, weaknesses, and coaching styles. Reach out for a conversation Ask questions about their approach, experience with data and tech professionals, and how they measure success. Trust your gut After gathering all info, choose the coach who feels like the best fit for your growth. Remember, coaching is a partnership. The right coach will empower you to step into leadership roles with confidence and impact. Taking the Next Step: Empower Your Leadership Journey Choosing the right coach is a game-changer. By carefully evaluating coaching reviews, you’re setting yourself up for success. You’ll avoid common pitfalls, find a coach who truly understands your field, and get the support you need to break through career plateaus. If you want to explore trusted options, check out my reviews to see how this coaching service has helped data and tech professionals like you become recognized leaders. Your leadership journey starts with a smart choice. Use coaching reviews as your guide, and get ready to unlock your full potential.

As a tech leader, have you found yourself stuck in the same role year after year? Continuously putting in the work, but never quite fulfilling the criteria to level up to that next position. You're definitely not alone. For many tech leaders, career stagnation sets in at some point. The skills, experiences, and impact we've accumulated get undervalued. Pathways for growth and advancement become unclear. We get trapped in a plateau, spinning our wheels without upward momentum. One surprising driver behind these stagnation cycles is something seemingly innocuous - antiquated performance review processes. The annual ritual of ratings and feedback from managers is often misaligned from what actually propels careers. It fails to provide visibility into the developmental areas positioning you for bigger roles and responsibilities. As a career coach specializing in tech leaders, I've found that overhauling performance management is frequently the catalyst to getting unstuck. By implementing modern systems tailored for continuous coaching and skill growth, my clients rapidly gain clarity into their upskilling priorities. We bring their blind spots into focus and develop a plan for hitting key milestones. The solution I implement ditches the once-per-year performancerevue slog in favor of frequent coaching touch points centered around measurable development goals. Instead of vague feedback documented and forgotten about, we identify 2-3 concrete skills/experiences the client should prioritize each quarterly cycle based on their interests and target role. From there, they build an evidence portfolio capturing credentials, major projects, code samples, thought leadership activities, and more. We leverage peer feedback to illuminate potential growth areas getting overlooked. The client gets full transparency into whether they're advancing the qualifications for that next opportunity. Every two weeks, we review progress against those cyclical goals. If courses need correction, we adjust in real-time rather than realizing anything at yearly review time. Continuous improvement, continuous coaching. By combining frequent developmental milestones with peer accountability and a portfolio audit trail, tech leaders experience relentless upskilling momentum. No more throwing tons of work at the proverbiall wall and hoping it gets recognized come review season. We have targeted guidance and validation for leveling up. It takes patience and discipline overhauling ossified performance management practices. But I've witnessed firsthand how transformative it can be for tech leaders feeling stuck in their current role. Clients have landed VPs roles, principal engineer promotions, and other previously out-of-reach opportunities through this system. If you're a technologist whose career has plateaued and stagnated, prioritizing performance management optimizations could be the guiding light for finally getting unstuck. Embrace continuous coaching and you'll rapidly accelerate towards that next big opportunity.

As a tech leader, you're constantly barraged with a firehose of tasks, projects, and priorities vying for your team's attention. We've been talking all week about "Balancing Priorities" - without a system for prioritization, it's easy to get overwhelmed and lose focus. That's why having robust prioritization frameworks is critical - it's something I heavily emphasize with my teams. Here are 8 powerful prioritization models and techniques that I recommend tech leaders adopt: RICE Prioritization Model - Developed at Intercom, RICE provides an objective scoring system for ranking initiatives based on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort required. I've found it highly effective for product roadmap planning. Eisenhower Matrix - This classic framework categorizes tasks into 4 buckets based on Importance/Urgency. The goal is focusing on the "Important/Urgent" items first. It's one of my go-to's for cutting through the noise. Opportunity Scoring - I like scoring potential projects/initiatives based on criteria like business impact, customer value, revenue impact, strategic alignment, and resource requirements. Cost of Delay - This approach factors in the cost of not delivering something in addition to implementation costs/effort. It surfaces priorities with compounding costs of delay - something I've seen be super valuable. Weighted Scoring - Build your own custom prioritization criteria weighted by importance (e.g. customer impact, technical risk, regulatory needs, etc.) to align with your goals. I do this frequently when priorities are very specific to my team's situation. Pareto Analysis (80/20 Rule) - The Pareto Principle states 80% of outcomes come from 20% of inputs. So I focus my teams on prioritizing that 20% of high-impact work over the trivial many. Impact vs Effort Prioritization - Plot tasks on a 2x2 grid by impact and effort required. Identify high-impact/low-effort priorities ("quick wins") to tackle first. An oldie but a goodie that I've leveraged. MoSCoW Method - Categorize requirements/tasks into 4 buckets: Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Won't Have this time. The "Must Haves" are top priority. Simple but effective. The right prioritization framework brings clarity and objectivity to your team's efforts. But don't just pick one method - I recommend combining multiple complementary techniques based on the specific prioritization needs. There's no one size fits all model or framework! ✍️ Did I get this wrong or right? Share your experiences and tips on tech-business alignment. ♻️ Reshare if this applies to you! 📞 Reach out if you need a coach who can help unblock you and help you work on these gaps!

I've seen it time and again - talented tech leaders slowly sabotaging their own career growth without even realizing it. The culprit? Failing to prioritize effectively. 💀 In my experience, poor prioritization is one of the biggest unspoken limiting factors holding back so many promising tech careers. It masquerades as "just being heads-down" or "staying technically focused." But over time, it cripples one's impact, perception, and advancement opportunities. I've personally witnessed colleagues stuck in an infinite loop of just working on whatever task or support issue landed in their lap next. They'd jump from one undergrowth ticket to the next low-priority bug without ever prioritizing completion of higher-leverage projects or initiatives. While furiously pedaling, they made little forward progress. The harsh reality is that stakeholders and leadership often can't distinguish whether you're truly staying productive on critical work or just bulling through a never ending list of lesser busywork. The perception becomes that you're laser-focused on overly technical nitty-gritty minutiae at the expense of business/strategic impact. It's a career-limiter as you become seen as too "in-the-weeds". I've also seen the consequences of when a technologist drops the ball on prioritizing their own professional development. They get so engrossed in the tactical workload that they neglect devoting any cycles to upskilling, networking, or career road-mapping. Years go by in a flat trajectory while peers prioritize growth. Clearly, prioritization matters immensely in not just day-to-day responsibilities, but macroscopic career impact. It's the silent killer stunting advancement for so many talented technologists. So what's the antidote to avoiding this limiting factor? Develop prioritization rigor by embracing techniques like: Assiduously prioritizing your workload through methods like scoring models (see my post yesterday) Regularly evaluating and re-calibrating your priority alignment - focus on high impact, high value! Most critically, consciously prioritizing professional development priorities among daily tasks It takes discipline and commitment, but developing strong prioritization skills is a career-accelerating superpower. Don't let poor prioritization silently impede your impact and advancement. I'd love to hear others' experiences with how prioritization challenges have surfaced in their own careers or workplace. This is a critical skillset so let's discuss! 📞 Reach out if you need a coach who can help unblock you and help you work on these gaps.. don't be limited by this, I'll give you the tools to propel your career forward.

As a tech leader, you're all too familiar with the constant juggling act. Multiple projects, teams spread thin, and looming deadlines. It's a battle to prioritize what gets attention and resources vs what gets delayed or cut. 🤺 I know I've struggled with this myself, having to make tough prioritization calls and honestly, I still do everyday! But what if there was a science to effective prioritization? A way to objectively rank your efforts to maximize impact with constrained resources? That's what I want to explore by analyzing some powerful prioritization frameworks that I leverage: The Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) This timeless concept says that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of inputs. For tech teams, that means identifying and focusing on the 20% of projects or features driving 80% of the value. I strive to hone in on high-impact work rather than getting bogged down in the trivial many. One example I use is limiting major new feature development to only things impacting our biggest customer segment or stakeholder group. I NEED to know the impact and the context to ensure it's worth doing. RICE Prioritization Model Developed at Intercom, the RICE model provides a systematic scoring approach that I've adopted. You rate each initiative by its Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort with weighted scores. This gives me an objective ranking illuminating the highest priorities. For example, I recently scored down a product integration sprawling our API due to low confidence, making it lower priority. Eisenhower Matrix I'm a fan of this method that has you categorize tasks into four buckets based on urgency and importance. Items in the "Important/Urgent" and "Important/Not Urgent" buckets get prioritized accordingly. Unimportant tasks are delegated or eliminated. I use this framework all the time with my direct reports to help them focus on their key priorities. Automation = Efficiency Okay, so you've prioritized...now how to maximize output? I'm a big believer in automation being key here. My teams have invested in automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, self-service data platforms, and more. All these reduce overhead so we can pour resources into new high priorities (there's always NEW!) By leveraging science and data-based prioritization methods, tech leaders can bring order to roadmap chaos. You'll have full transparency into your highest impact efforts BUT also, you can easily communicate this logic to your non-technical business partners and teams. And you'll be able to efficiently do more with your limited resources. It's all about working smarter, not harder! ✍️ Did I get this wrong or right? ♻️ Reshare if this applies to you! 📞 Reach out if you need a coach who can help you implement these frameworks so that you be more more effective.

Feeling overwhelmed by your ever-growing to-do list? You're not alone! This week we will talk a lot about "Balancing Priorities" - this is an area that many tech leaders struggle in as the constant demands on both short term "quick wins" keep coming and we often feel like a bottleneck. But don't worry, I've got a 5-step process to help you prioritize tasks efficiently Step 1: Make a Master List The first step is to get all your tasks and projects out of your head and into one centralized list or tool. Having a complete view makes it easier to prioritize. For data folks, compile all outstanding data requests, reports, model builds, etc. I personally use Notion for my list of items but our teams use standard out of the box tools (JIRA, ASANA, Monday.com etc) Step 2: Categorize by Effort and Impact Next, rank each task by the effort (time/resources) required and the potential impact on the business. Ongoing reporting may be low effort but high impact, while an advanced machine learning model could be high effort AND impact. Don't worry about being too accurate at this stage, just your own view. Step 3: Apply a Prioritization Framework With tasks categorized, use a systematic prioritization approach like the ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) model. Assign scores for impact, your confidence in completing it, and the relative ease. The highest total scores bubble up as top priorities. There are many models but personally, I use the ICE model. Example: A customer churn prediction model may score: Impact: 5 (high value, wanted my many, likely to be adopted..) Confidence: 4 (good data & team skills to do this) Ease: 2 (complex modeling, going to require some learning and adjustments) Total: 11 (high priority) Step 4: Define Due Dates With your prioritized list, assign concrete due dates or timeframes to high priority items. But be realistic - if multiple high impacts exist, stagger deadlines. Over-burdening leads to cutting corners. Use this list to align with stakeholders "I think these are the high impact items - what do you think? What information am I missing? Do you align with these timelines?" Step 5: Plan and Execute Finally, schedule those prioritized tasks into your calendar. Use time blocking and identify dependencies. As new requests inevitably arrive, re-prioritize frequently (I do a weekly re-prioritize for myself but monthly only for my teams and quarterly for key objectives) Embrace prioritization as an ongoing process. Prioritizing tasks takes practice, but maximizes your impact and focus. Give this 5-step process a try - I bet you'll gain more efficiency and deliver higher quality results! 💪 Let me know if you have any other productivity tips for juggling multiple priorities. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

As a tech leader, you're stuck between two opposing forces when it comes to driving maximum impact - do we think long term strategic or do we think agile? This is that contant struggle we have between showing value now and showing value in the long term. Strategic Alignment On one side, there's the philosophy that organizations need robust alignment around a unified vision and direction. We're talking: 🔺 Those intense annual/quarterly planning & roadmapping meetings 🔺 Strict prioritization rules - no going rogue! 🔺 Clearly defined OKRs that cascade down to every team 🔺 Mapping all the intricate initiative dependencies 🔺 So. Many. Alignment. Forums. The core idea is that without stringent organizational focus, tech teams will just go off in random directions. You end up with conflicting outputs, delays galore, and resources scattered across too many fronts. It's chaos. I can't tell you how many past roles I've been in where lack of strategic alignment rigor led to nonstop whiplash. Deprioritized initiatives left and right. Never-ending resource shuffling based on the fire of the week. OR Agile Flexibility But on the flip side, us tech folks need to stay nimble and responsive. That means: 🔺 Letting teams figure out their own priorities and roadmaps 🔺 Embracing the "unknown unknowns" through continuous discovery 🔺 Avoiding getting bogged down by organizational debt from rigid planning 🔺 Limiting cross-team dependencies that cause gridlocks 🔺 Rapidly realigning people and budgets to highest leveraged areas If you go too far down the organizational alignment rabbit hole, you lose the ability to capitalize on game-changing opportunities and insights as they emerge. The overhead bogs you down into an innovation tar pit. I've lived this the hard way too - companies wedded to largely arbitrary annual roadmaps that ignored all the signals we were headed the wrong way. Watching the agile startups eat our lunch in real time. So what's a tech leader to do? You need just enough strategic alignment guardrails to avoid chaos. But also the flexibility to rapidly pivot based on new data and realities. For me, the ideal answer here is: WE NEED A MIX OF BOTH - let's plan strategically but leave a buffer for the agility in the space. Let's constantly review our priorities and ensure they remain the highest impact. Let's develop things that can be scaled, modified (Data as a Product anyone..). Where does your team generally lean - more toward unified organizational direction or embracing agile nimbleness? And how do you strike that balance? Would love to hear different perspectives!

Welcome to "Turning Techies into Leaders" - our new medium that will give you insights and tips into how other leaders in tech are bridging their gaps between technical expertise and business insights. My goal - short, actionable, thought provoking content. Not those 60 min drawn out podcasts where you get 1 actionable piece. I want to give you 5 things you can walk away with in 15-20 mins. Stay tuned - our first releases are coming soon!

As a tech leader, driving authentic strategic alignment between your technical teams and the broader business is both critical and challenging. Misalignment creates very expensive bottlenecks often with complex engineering efforts detached from core objectives, non-technical stakeholders disconnected from technical dependencies and ultimately a LOT of frustration from all sides and even likely, attrition from your data team! I've seen the impacts of strategic disunity first-hand and have had to devise focused methods for bridging the tech-business divide. If you're struggling with aligning your teams to company strategy, follow these 7 key steps: 1️⃣ Learn to Be a "Translator" Embrace your role as a strategy ambassador. Your job is to package complex technical requirements into compelling business context (and vice versa...) But also distill high-level objectives into your technical roadmaps so that your teams understand the "context". 2️⃣ Establish Collaborative Planning Strategic alignment requires very strong cross-functional planning. Bring tech and non-tech teams together to map out intricate project interdependencies and to align on the objectives and value at the start. Always rapidly resolve conflicts as they arise 3️⃣ Implement Structured Communication Grow your connections and impact via forums like monthly roadmap reviews, quarterly prioritization sessions, open Q&A channels. Rapidly realign with your stakeholders when changes or conflicts arise. I do monthly 1on1 with all key stakeholders and decision makers to ensure that our communication lines are open. 4️⃣ Identify Leading Misalignment Indicators Don't wait for big releases to ensure success. Make sure you monitor leading indicators of strategic cohesion - # of escalations, risk metrics, output quality deltas. Diagnose and resolve proactively. 5️⃣ Establish Shared Processes & Rituals Lasting alignment requires embedding it into shared cultural habits. Develop consistent processes and rituals that reinforce organizational unity. See point #3 above 6️⃣ Evangelize & Embody the Unified Vision Live and breathe the "why" behind each major initiative. Make sure that every project has a "WHY" with clear objectives. The "WHY", helps your team understand and provide the most value they can.. Showcase and evangelize the core user/business impact your technical work is driving every single day. 7️⃣ Foster Psychological Safety Create an environment of mutual trust where all voices and perspectives are welcomed. This unlocks the open feedback loops required for sustained alignment. Feedback is critical to long term success, without it, your team will be left behind Achieving strategic alignment is an ongoing journey, not a single task. But prioritizing these 7 steps will put you and your teams on the path toward organizational focus and momentum. Have you struggled with the tech-business alignment challenge? I'd love to hear any other tips or processes you've found valuable.

As a tech leader, one of my most vital responsibilities is fostering trust and alignment across my teams and stakeholders through thoughtful, nuanced communication. Whether delivering tough messages about deprioritizing a project, resolving conflicts between engineering and product teams, or simply keeping everyone informed on our Q2 objectives, how I communicate can make or break my credibility and impact. From my experience, trusted tech leadership communication boils down to adhering to these core tenets: Tenet 1: Radical Transparency In our fast-paced world of rapid iterations and changing priorities, I've learned that trust is a renewable commodity. I must continuously reinforce it through radical transparency. For example, when we had to delay a key project last quarter, I overcommunicated the underlying issues, tradeoffs, and revised timeline across multiple forums - Slack, email, team meetings, and 1-on-1s. This transparency ensured everyone was on the same page Tenet 2: Diligent Follow-Through My words are only as valuable as my ability to back them up with actions. If I make reassuring promises but fail to follow through, I'll quickly erode the trust I've built. Tenet 3: A Culture of Feedback As a leader, I can't operate in an echo chamber. I actively solicit feedback through monthly 1-on-1s with reports, quarterly roadmap reviews with cross-functional partners, and our open Github issue tracker. This creates an environment where diverse perspectives can be raised. Tenet 4: Proactive Conflict Resolution Tech teams are highly interdependent. Conflicts are inevitable, but avoiding them only allows issues to fester. When tensions arose between engineering and analytics over a set of project requirements, I brought everyone together for a working session to get full buy-in. Tenet 5: Tailored Communication Not everyone communicates the same way. For example, leadership prefers visual decks, while my own manager is more data-driven. A one-size-fits-all approach leads to disjointed communication. When I adhere to these tenets, I find my teams operate from a place of trust rather than politics or uncertainty. We're unified around our mission and can devote our efforts to delivering impact, not navigating territorialism. This has significantly helped us deliver more value in less time. Trusted leadership requires proactively cultivating candid communication as a core discipline. It's how I build the organizational momentum to deliver on our ambitious technology visions ✍️ Did I get this wrong or right? ♻️ Reshare if this applies to you! 📞 Reach out if you need a coach who can help you become the best you can be! Want more details - check out my Medium post on this topic! https://medium.com/@piermartin/mastering-communication-a-tech-leaders-playbook-for-driving-trusted-alignment-efd40b1a2c93

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Matt Brady from ZUMA on February 29th 2024 and we had a lovely chat! Our topic? Nurture first, hire second. Turning Techies into Leader, Unleashing the Potential Within: Why Develop Your Team Before You Hire We dove into: • Perception: How are data professionals viewed within your organization? • Development: What are the costs and benefits of leadership training? • Individual Impact: What does leadership development mean for your team members' careers and well-being? If anything from our chat resonates with you - contact me and let's chat! Here's the transcript from our conversation: Matt: [00:00:00] Okay. Welcome. So today, nurture first, hire second, turning techies into leader. Leaders. We're joined by Pierre Martin. Pierre, why is this important now? Why are we talking about this? Pier: I think we're going to pick two sides of the argument here. I think you're on the hiring side and I particularly be on the nurture side. But today I think more important than ever, especially in the data side is that we're seeing more and more. Data people who grew up as data from the start becoming managers and leaders and over the last, over that period of time as they develop into leaders we're identifying weaknesses that they have, and we have to find a way of training them to adapt to that. Historically, tech people have been more analytical. They've been very much ones and zeros all the way through their career, and now we're asking them to lead teams to think strategically. We. And we have to invest in them in order to get that that, [00:01:00] that skill set up and running. Matt: So why not bring in pre made managers from other areas or hire managers? Why can't we just do that first? I Pier: mean, you could, but either way you're going to have a gap somewhere along the way. When you hire someone who is a leader first in a tech and a data and analytics kind of role. You're going to have that weakness on the technical side. So then you're going to go and cover that weakness by hiring a strong technical leader. And you're going to have two leaders who aren't able to speak to each other or able to relate with each other because you've got one who is more on the soft skills and you've got one who's more on the technical skills. And so you're always going to face that challenge. I think in organizations in the past, we're looking for that magical unicorn, the person who can do everything from start to end and. As we've now developed, like I said, like earlier on, more people are coming from STEM backgrounds, they don't have that soft skill yet. And I think that's the part that companies need to start to invest in [00:02:00] that and grow those people because they're going to be able to lead that business, the tech side of the business in a much stronger fashion when we invest on those soft skills, instead of having somebody else do that for them. Matt: it. You've had your STEM background, you've come into data analytics, you've been in IC, you've got yourself to a senior position, maybe even a lead position your manager leaves the company, for example, and everyone turns to you. It's not always by design. How are we helping people out? What's a typical journey? Pier: I don't think there has been one. And historically it's, Hey, the company has LinkedIn learning, go take a couple of courses or, Hey, have you read this book? It really worked for me. And I think I'm at the end of that generation. I don't have a tech background growing up. I everybody else in this kind of space fell into data 15, 20 years ago. and have evolved with it. So we often come from backgrounds that are a little bit more on the finance side or the business side or economics. [00:03:00] And now we're seeing people, like I said earlier, graduate with data science degrees or advanced mathematicals or computer science degrees, and a lot of the stuff that's been created in the past works for marketing works for sales works, but there hasn't been anything yet that's been created that truly relates to the way that data analytic people stem background people think about. Or even manage their teams. We are also in this space dealing with people that are like us analytical very much into the, the details of a project. And so I think companies have been using these generic resources to help guide that individual. But now I think when you think about how do we actually tailor that messaging to suit the challenges they have, because not only. Do they have to develop people that are more analytical, that are quite driven, that are used to being black and white in the way that they think? We're also asking them to juggle quick short term [00:04:00] priorities as a service team, because most data teams are often service to a product, service to the business. And finally, we're also saying, Hey, while you're at it, stay on top of all the latest technologies and make sure that your tech debt doesn't grow too much. And so there's a lot of challenges in that space. And most of the management books are the leadership books you see out there today to grow these individuals. Don't really consider that. It's very much more on here's a framework. Here's a topic. Go learn that way. So I think there's still a lot to be done. I think we haven't yet figured that out yet. Matt: Where does the accountability sit? Should it be on the organization or should the individuals be becoming more aware of this situation and start thinking ahead? Pier: I'd say both. I think we're seeing people nowadays look more and more to development I've had, in my roles when I've been dealing with my employees, many development conversations. It's at the forefront. Now, when you ask people what they care about the most, the number 1 thing they [00:05:00] say is development opportunities. And so it's on the manager to find those opportunities where possible, but it's very much also on the employee themselves or the person themselves to find something that will relate to them. I think the challenge we've seen for this industry is there's a lot of books about how to be, how to run a sprint, an agile sprint. There's a lot of books on how to properly build a model or a certain type of analysis. But there isn't really anything about how do I lead my team from an authentic perspective? How do I create a vision that is compelling for my team to follow that factors in that in data analytics, a vision is long term, short term, and there's going to be some pivots in that space. So overall, I think it's on both sides. But I also don't blame organizations at all there, they have to think about the organization as a whole. And when those things come out, whether, like I said earlier, LinkedIn learning or in data [00:06:00] and science, everyone knows, goes to data camp or things like that. Those have very specific areas. They just haven't fully blended the soft skills of the data analytics world. Matt: Could it be as well that with technical skills, you can practice in a Offline situation, pick it up and then take it to the real world and have proper learning. Is that possible in management in any situation? Pier: I think if you have a good network, you can, and that's another element too, is a lot of the, if you think about unless you've actively gone out and built your network in this space oftentimes you're the only. Data analytics leader within the organization. In very large organizations. Yeah, there are many different pockets that have analytics teams. But if you're thinking about a company that has, say, less than 300 people, it's often that you're in a 10 to 12 person team. You're the data analytics person. You might have it. A director or a chief data officer if you're in a progressive organization, but most [00:07:00] of the time those teams report into a product manager or product owner, or they reported to a CFO. And those individuals have absolutely no background in this space, so it becomes hard to have those conversations with them. So to answer 1 of the things that. Would be really helpful is to have a network of people that you can bounce these ideas off of. And just saying you can easily go and do a course on data camp that teaches you how to code something in SQL, and then you can go and apply that to a real world scenario and test it out and see how with a management conversation, I can practice my difficult conversation in the mirror or with a friend. But the reaction you're going to get in real life needs to be something that you're going to learn through practice. And also just making sure that you're able to handle wherever weight goes. And I think that is something that we say, Hey, yeah, here's how you run a performance review and go do it. But when the employee responds back with, I disagree with your [00:08:00] performance of me, and then it's oh, okay, I don't know what to do anymore. And at that point in time. We've seen studies that have showed, what, 57 percent of people have left their job because of their manager. 82 percent have thought about leaving because of their manager. And a lot of the times it's because performance, feedback, those day to day interactions that you can't train for. You can only build a foundation and a framework and over time get experience by learning how it works and fails and thinking about it. And potentially even talking to somebody about what their experiences are. So I think that's part of me to think of them. Matt: Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face. I think what comes to mind. It takes you back, doesn't it? And you feel a bit helpless and the weak point between an employee and the company is often the manager is the focus point. It's cushion, the filter, all these points. So if we. Go a bit more specific and try and give some takeaways. But for people that are listening, [00:09:00] let's start on the business side. We've got this new manager. They are, they've been a super strong IC two, two to four years. They know the business. How are we supporting them from a business side? And then we'll flip on the other side. After that. Pier: So the biggest thing is when we promote an IC, a really strong IC into a management role, there has to be the expectation that things aren't going to be as good as they were when they were an IC. What I mean by that they understand there's a reason they were promoted into that space. They were seen as a very strong individual contributor. So as a manager. What I would recommend we do is provide them with as much context as possible. Now they're changing. So in an IC role, oftentimes you're project based. Now you're managing probably multiple projects, multiple personalities or multiple stakeholders. So the best thing you can do there as a leader, what I try to do with my managers is I try to give them as much context as [00:10:00] possible. Why are we? Taking this on. What is the decision behind it? Is the company wants to expand in six months. And this is why we're diving into this project. And it helps them understand because ultimately, the more context that they have, the better that they can inform their teams about the reasons we're doing things. And a lot of time, that's what gets missed. So in the first month of having an IC become manager, I believe that we should be making sure that we shadow them. Go and it's not a, it's not a lack of trust. It's a, let's make sure that you have the best start possible. We shadow meetings and provide feedback immediately. We go into one on one conversations and give them tips on how to navigate these development conversations, feedback. And I think that's the part of what we've done in the past is say, congratulations, you're a manager. And there are three things that happen. I think you're going to succeed and crush it. And that was the people that make it up the ladder and they've had success. You're going to fail and all of a [00:11:00] sudden you're going to be seen to be a really bad manager. And six months to 12 months later, you're going to leave the organization because I was not supported. They didn't believe in me. They set me up to fail. Or you're going to be in this middle ground of, you're doing okay. You're navigating fine. And then about two years from now, you get frustrated or stuck. And you've been identified as someone who doesn't communicate well enough, but he's doing a good job, he or she's doing a good job, but you're, not ready for the next level. And there's never been a thought to say, Hey, I've put this IC into a business role. I should help them understand context. I should help them build executive presence. I should help them communicate because not only now you're communicating to people like you as an analyst, but you're also communicating to your manager who is may have not been an analyst. Also, maybe to peers or stakeholders in the business who have no idea about data and so how do you communicate with them effectively? So that's what I would look at in that first month is how do you. Set up a framework and [00:12:00] then over time identify those areas to keep focusing on. Matt: I'd love to dig into that. If it goes well, that's fantastic. You can be, it is maybe luck, maybe situational. If it goes well, fantastic. You keep the frameworks and it's everyone's having a great time. But I think what people want to learn from is when it goes wrong or when people are doing okay. So how do we improve the situation? Do we accept failure? What's the thought process? Pier: I think there's accepting failure within a certain amount. I think a lot of times the individual needs to struggle to be able to see that, hey, I can do better, but there's letting it go to the point where. The employee who is being managed by this person is also suffering overwhelm burnout, like I'll use an example. You have a manager who micro manages because he's afraid he or she is afraid [00:13:00] that if they take their hands off the project that it won't be done the way that they want to. And so you can let that go for a few days to see if they're going to let you know, take their hand off by themselves. Because ultimately, if you go in there and say, don't micromanage, Yeah, they might do it, but it doesn't become a skill that they remember for the future. They'll just do it in that moment because I told him not to. That's not a setting a good foundation for the future. So I think there you have to let them struggle a little bit and say, hey, what didn't work again? It relies on having a good. Leader to help them as well to do that or having someone external to help in that space. If you as a leader can't provide that sort of guidance is help them find someone who can, but it's to say, okay, what didn't go so well in that moment? My employee told me that, they're failing. They're not doing as fast as I can. I'm like what sort of objectives have you given them? How have you set up timelines with them? How have you decided what good looks like? Have you had any of those conversations? No. I just, yeah. I just [00:14:00] keep telling them what I want them to do. Again. So I think in there, there's some cases where you want them to feel pain because pain leads to change, but you don't want to let that pain go so long where they become afraid, jaded, or just like this place isn't for me anymore. And I'm going to go leave because that's not what the objective that you want to have. Matt: Can we all swallow our pride and. Go backwards. So if someone goes into management, does it, and they go this isn't for you, go back to an IC. How's that dynamic? Does it work? Pier: Not easy because you have to, in front of all your peers, Not admit that it hasn't worked out, but in a way, that's the perception. And we're still not mature enough in this space to say outside of the Googles, the Facebooks, the apples who have very high ranking individual contributors, most organizations. It's your good. I see you get to a point where it's you've got to start [00:15:00] managing people. Otherwise you're stuck here and they go, okay my only path is I need to start managing a team. And that's what it used to be 30 years ago. And that's the way it's always been. Like, that's how my parents grew up is you go and you manage people and you manage more people. And eventually you manage the company and congratulations. Good luck. So I think it takes a really strong personality to be able to say, this isn't for me, I'd like to go back. And it's also from an organization not to see that as that person has failed. Therefore, we're never going to promote them again, or we should no longer invest in them, because management's not for everybody. And realistically, a strong IC is incredibly valuable to our organization as well. I've seen it, though, I've had one in my time, where they came to me and said, this isn't for me, I'd like to go back. And we made that happen. And then, they thrived after that, but at the same time, it's not an easy conversation to have to say, I'm not. Matt: I'm going to assume there's a few people asking, what was that conversation like? What did you learn? What would you have done differently? Pier: [00:16:00] So actually, believe it or not, it was, they initiated it with me. So I think that was one of the things where, I would have kept on working with them in that space to see that, there are obviously gaps that pop up in terms of, but you could see from, Just their interest level. It wasn't their heart wasn't in it. And so they were the ones that recognized it, which I think is a much easier conversation, to be honest for me to have. But it also means that they I put a lot of thought in it. What I was actually really proud of and impressed with is that they wanted to stay within the organization. Many people in that instance will choose to go and do an individual contributor role at a different organization. But in this case, they wanted to stay. So it takes great maturity to definitely do that. Matt: Kudos to that, for sure, because I think more people are worried about that conversation and would quit before they have to face that conversation. Absolutely. And they'd be open in an interview about it. Why are you leaving? Because I want to go back to an IC, because management's not for [00:17:00] me. How can we, if we're a data leader? And we've got a feeling that this might be the case. How do we facilitate that initial conversation that you're not a failure? Pier: Yeah, I think it's, I think it's questions, so there's a couple of things we can do. Obviously, I think one, one of the things that we can do before we to give everyone a taste of management or leadership is to make them not informal, but in charge of a project with a resource in charge of a program for a period of time or even depending on how you structure your organization, maybe a tribe, you can be in charge of this tribe or, however you want to name it for a period of time and see how you like managing other people or situations. And if they do enjoy it then consider a longer term move into that path. If you do promote someone into a management role and realize that they're not into it, I think a lot of the times. They know I don't use a situation where someone doesn't intrinsically know that something's not for them. Doesn't really [00:18:00] work where you then have to get through is past that first step of making them feel safe, that this isn't a failure, that this isn't something that they did wrong. I'm a big believer that it's the. It's not the person that's wrong for the job. It's that the job is wrong for the person, right? And so there's a reason they've had success in the past. There's a reason that we wanted to move them into that role or thought about them. And then how do we then ensure that they feel safe both ways? Matt: So take a bit of accountability as a company, so that we should be knowing about people's softer skills. So that when the time is needed, then we know who we're going to put in that responsibility. Okay. And so flip it the other way. So to take accountability for ourselves and to prepare ourselves for these kind of eventualities, whether we thought about an IC track or a managerial track how are we best setting ourselves up?[00:19:00] Pier: So if we're setting everything about setting ourselves up in that space, to me, it's. I follow what your passions are. I think there's a lot of don't chase the dollar signs that you might see in the short term. And I think in some cases people will say that I have to go into a management stream as an individual contributor, because that's how I'm going to make more money. In reality, there's a role out there that's going to pay you or value you to the level that you need to be valued as an IC if that's what you truly want to be. And so I think. That's more, it's hard. I don't have the answer in terms of saying, how do we figure that out? But I do believe that people either like managing other people or they don't. And don't try to be something that you don't want to be because ultimately it's going to come across in the way that you either lead your people or lead your teams. And it's going to lead to you being relatively unhappy on a day to day basis. State of what your passion is and when you're passionate about it, you're going to have a lot more success. Matt: What [00:20:00] do you think of the indicators? So I'm sat looking around my team. How would I know that, hey, I'm, I could be a people person. Pier: Typically, these are people that will inherently have people that follow them. It's They're the people that gravitate to others. They're the people that are often asking how others are doing or if they can help in other ways. And that's not exclusive to say that someone isn't going to do that as an individual contributor. But that people that want to become. Managers or leaders are more likely to be given themselves. Like, how can I help you? Or how can, what are you doing? I'm very interested. They're curious. And that's about the people in the way that they can help them. So typically you'll see that sort of behavior come out. I don't want to stereotype too much. I think there's a lot of different ways that a manager could go and it's not necessarily one way or the other. I don't think that, Hey, he's a great communicator. He should be a manager or a leader or, Hey, he cares about people. That's the way it should go. I think there. There's [00:21:00] a lot of that gray area, but typically these air, you'll see them put their hands up for responsibilities or taking on things that involve other people versus individual contributor track might be more likely to put us their hand up for something that's a little bit more specified to a project. That is, I can lead that I can implement that without the people side of things. Matt: That's again, my opinion, would you say, even if you don't get those inclinations, you should give it a go. Anyway, if any project you get given small projects, low risk, just go for it. Pier: You can so what I like to do is I actually like to ask people, when I have those conversations with my individuals, I ask, I said, do you want to be a people leader? Are you looking at this path as something that's of interest? If so, what do you like about it? And then you can see that I'm really, you might have an individual say, I'm really interested in managing a team. [00:22:00] I really liked the element of the dynamics of people and helping them grow. Okay. But I'm really bad at A, B or C, right? And then you can start to have a conversation. It's okay. Before we make this transition over, let's work on those soft skills that are missing or this skill set that could be a blocker. Again, you're never going to move someone perfect into that role. Like we talked a little bit earlier, you're not going to have that magical unicorn that's perfect at everything. I think it's a matter of trading off between what do you want in that role and what can you train? And then, as a leader yourself, you also have to be cognizant that maybe you don't have that skill set to train that individual, let's just say that maybe they're they need to work on their, I'm going to make example, empathy something that you find that they are struggling with that. I'm not an expert in empathy. I cannot probably teach you that skill set. I don't even know how to start in that space as an example. I would look outside, right? Look at other options, whether it's an executive or. Coach or if there's [00:23:00] work that can be done outside of the organization. And to help them grow that skill set. So oftentimes we try to coach them ourselves, but maybe there's an opportunity to go outside of that. Matt: What was your experience when you first became a manager? What would you go back and tell yourself? Pier: Oh God. How much more time do we have? I. I think I'd go back and tell myself that it's going to be a roller coaster. Again, I followed the path. I was an analyst. I worked my way up. I got a team, a small team that started reporting to me. I would get frustrated when they couldn't do it to the quality that I wanted to and that it wasn't as fast as I could do it. And I had to, I had a boss who told me that it was my job to train them and develop them. And that kind of snapped into it. And even myself I looked for resources everywhere to help me on the skill set. Couldn't really find anything had to over time. [00:24:00] I got myself a coach as well after a couple of years to help me navigate some of the soft skills, the gaps that I had, because I knew they would be weaknesses in my career if I didn't address them. Yeah, and just constantly just, if you approach things with a growth mindset and keep looking, you'll find those resources out there to help you. But yeah, there's a lot of things I would do differently. A lot of conversations you go home and you're like, oof. Probably wouldn't have said that or I should have maybe prepared more or maybe, I didn't read the situation. But I think that's all part of as long as you're able to learn from those and move on. Matt: I think that's the way for it's going to be. It's gonna be a big question, though. So if there was one post it now to leave on your desk when you first that first day as a manager, what would it say? Pier: Ask questions. Yeah, that's what I would say. I think or seek to understand. I think that's the thing. People have a reason for the reason that they do certain things a certain way, whether that's how they understood it, whether that's how they want it to [00:25:00] be. There's always a reason behind behaviors and by understanding the reason behind it and understanding, then you can work from there. Because no one comes to the office and says, today, I'm going to do my really bad job. Or today I'm going to upset my manager on purpose. No one does that. Everyone comes with the best of intentions, but we all have good, bad days. We all have home things on our mind. We all have trauma that we grew up with. We've all got these things that we have to that we bring to ourselves. As a holistic person and so yeah, seek to understand it. That's maybe the message I would look. Matt: I like it. I like it. I'm conscious of time. Looking at the comments, a lot of people who have worked with you previously and are singing your praises which is always great to see validate the work you're doing, but what's coming up next? What's on the radar for Pier? Pier: You can see I'm passionate about what we talked about for the last 25 minutes. Right now, what I'm doing is I'm kicking off a data leaders foundation. I think a lot of our leaders are lacking [00:26:00] that what I call foundation to become from managers to leaders. Yeah. Yes, that's what I'm focusing on right now, just to see how that can go. Matt: Go on, tell us tell us a little more. Pier: So things like deep diving into what are your values as a leader? How do you operate on a day to day basis? How do you want to come across? And so with that actually starting to build this out with a few people and if there's anybody that's looking for this journey, obviously feel free to reach out and message me and set up a call and I'm happy to chat more about it. Matt: Amazing. Exciting. And yeah, wealth of experience that a lot of people will have access to. When's this kicking off? Pier: Now. Yeah. Anytime. Matt: Best of luck. Best of luck. Yeah. Thank you everyone for tuning in. And Pierre, pleasure as always. We will speak soon. Ciao to everyone else. Pier: Thanks, Matt.