Team Management

  • Managing Hyperperformers

    We dedicate this episode to managing hyper performers. We define who the hyperperformers are, what distinguishes them from the rest of the team and how to manage hyperperformers for the maximum results while retaining them. We share management practices to avoid. In the end provide a checklist that our listeners can use to manage hyperperformers effectively.

  • Tim Wenzel: Building Exceptional Teams

    We are featuring a guest, Tim Wenzel, who is a Silicon Valley native, expert in recruiting, including building early teams and PayPal and Tesla, and a founder and an executive recruiter at The (A)Lyst Group. Tim shares practical recommendations on feedback, candidate experience, and building teams in dynamic startup environments. In the end, Tim shares a checklist that our listeners can start using today to build exceptional teams.

  • Cultivating Trust

    We dive deep into the importance of trust in engineering management, and how it impacts productivity. We share that trust is built and reinforced over time. We highlight the different layers of trust, including organizational, team, and individual trust, and emphasize the need for consistency and building trust through actions. We explore the subtle distinction between expectations and trust. We also discuss the emotional toll of mistrust caused by broken trust. In the end we provide a checklist that allows our listeners to start cultivating trust in their organizations.

  • Effective Remote Work

    In this episode, Adam and Slava discuss the new normal of the remote workplace. We discuss the challenges in working remote, key benefits to being remote, and provide guidance for managers to effectively manage remote teams and maximize healthy productivity.

  • Getting Things Done: Staff Meetings

    We share what staff meetings are, why they are important for keeping your team accountable for their deliverables and how they help you to stay on top of everything the team is doing. We provide guidance on how frequently you should run them and how to make them effective. In the end we provide a checklist that our listeners can use to start running effective staff meetings.

  • Team Building: Know What You Need To Build A Team

    Learn how to identify what you need based on the team you currently have.

  • Team Building: No All-Star Teams

    We provide guidance on how to understand and avoid building All-Star Teams. In the end we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to build complementary teams, not all-star teams.

  • A title image for Kudos Program

    Building Teams: The Kudos Program

    We provide a practical guidance on how to build engaged teams by implementing a Kudos program. In the end we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to implement the Kudos program immediately

  • Building Teams: Birthdays and Lunches

    We provide recommendations on two powerful yet easy to implement approaches to maintain the human connections and the spirit of camaraderie in a team, celebrating birthdays and going to lunches. This is the first episode in the series dedicated to the most important activity any engineering manager is responsible for, building and maintaining effective teams.

  • Effective Agile: Remote Teams

    We provide guidance on how to effectively manage remote teams in an Agile environment. In the end we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are managing their remote teams effectively.