Writing
Stories from technical leadership. What actually happens on real projects, what it cost, and what it taught us. Written for the person who has to lead the next one.
Leading People
Google’s research suggests that effective management depends on coaching, communication and team dynamics, alongside technical expertise. What does this mean for engineers moving into leadership?
21 October 2026 · 5 min read
Career
Four months in I had the resignation conversation drafted. One question from an old manager reset it.
17 September 2026 · 6 min read
Career
The scoreboard disappears and nobody warns you. You have to build your own, deliberately.
15 September 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
You would never debug a system by guessing, yet that is exactly how you read your own behaviour.
10 September 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
Nine seconds of temper, three weeks of blindness. That is the exchange rate.
8 September 2026 · 6 min read
Commercials
Three clauses decide how your next six months go. Twenty minutes, before you need them.
3 September 2026 · 6 min read
Commercials
Be warm with the people and precise with the agreement. Warmth is not a control.
1 September 2026 · 6 min read
Commercials
Debt is a word we invented for each other. Budget holders fund consequences, not conditions.
27 August 2026 · 7 min read
Commercials
Same team, same money, same problem. The difference was four lines on page one.
25 August 2026 · 7 min read
Delivery & Risk
Sort decisions by what it costs to walk them back, not by how much they cost.
20 August 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
Deferral is not safe, it is just quiet. Ask what would actually change your mind.
18 August 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
The defence assembles itself before you decide anything. The whole technique is not speaking first.
13 August 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
Wrapping criticism in praise teaches your team to brace every time you say something kind.
11 August 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
A task list is remote control with extra latency. Give people a finish line they can check themselves.
6 August 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
You gave away the typing and kept the worrying. That is not a handover.
4 August 2026 · 6 min read
Commercials
Silence is only pressure if you did the hour of homework that lets you afford to wait.
30 July 2026 · 7 min read
Communication
People tell you positions and act on interests. Find the interest and the deal is usually cheap.
28 July 2026 · 6 min read
Communication
Two minutes on a Thursday evening turned a six week argument into a twenty minute one.
23 July 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
Nobody is lying. There is just no record, so the loudest version wins the room.
21 July 2026 · 6 min read
Communication
The escalation is fine. Finding out from their own boss is what they will remember.
16 July 2026 · 7 min read
Communication
Escalation is a routing decision, not a confession. Authority, resources, time: fail one and it goes up.
14 July 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
Your register reflects what people feel safe writing down, not what actually threatens the project.
9 July 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
A documented risk with no activity against it is not a control. It is a signed confession.
7 July 2026 · 7 min read
Commercials
Finance reporting runs six weeks behind reality. Here is the number you can get on a Friday.
2 July 2026 · 7 min read
Commercials
Price, cost, margin. You make commercial decisions weekly whether you know it or not.
30 June 2026 · 7 min read
Delivery & Risk
Accept work informally and you accept its whole lifecycle informally. Invisible work reads as slowness.
25 June 2026 · 7 min read
Delivery & Risk
Your best engineer built something lovely that nobody asked for. That is still a scope change.
23 June 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
Padding hides the one thing worth saying out loud, and it gets negotiated away anyway.
18 June 2026 · 5 min read
Delivery & Risk
Status was green for eleven weeks. It went red in one, and none of the reasons were new.
18 June 2026 · 2 min read
Delivery & Risk
A range with a named unknown goes in one end and a dated commitment comes out the other.
16 June 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
Avoidance is not neutral. It is a position that accrues interest, and you lose the framing.
11 June 2026 · 5 min read
Leading People
A design review is the socially acceptable container for everything else that has gone wrong.
9 June 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
You promote the visible, and visibility is not the skill. The quiet one is often the one who works.
4 June 2026 · 5 min read
Leading People
Answering is the fun bit, which is exactly why it is suspicious. Hand the question back with scaffolding.
2 June 2026 · 5 min read
Leading People
How is it going is a greeting, not a question. Narrow and awkward beats wide and polite.
28 May 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
Being the fastest person in the room is a poor reason to keep doing the work yourself.
27 May 2026 · 2 min read
Leading People
The moment a difficult, brilliant person becomes easy to manage, something has already broken.
26 May 2026 · 5 min read
Communication
Bad news loses value every week you hold it. Fine means no decision needed from me.
21 May 2026 · 6 min read
Communication
They are not marking your design. They are deciding whether this still needs their attention.
19 May 2026 · 6 min read
Communication
The hedge does not buy you time. It buys you a manager. Lead with the number and the date.
14 May 2026 · 7 min read
Communication
Length reads as hedging, not diligence. The first two lines are the whole report.
12 May 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
The second name in the cell is a decision you postponed to the worst possible moment.
7 May 2026 · 6 min read
Communication
You meant the build was finished. They heard a date, and they repeated it to a customer.
6 May 2026 · 2 min read
Delivery & Risk
A grid is a record of a conversation, not the conversation. Ring the row owner and ask.
5 May 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
A recommendation without a stated cost is a preference in a suit. Four lines fix it.
30 April 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
The one page is a diagnostic, not a deliverable. It finds the decision you have been avoiding.
28 April 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
Nobody reads your deliverables list. In month five, the exclusions are the only page anyone opens.
23 April 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
Integrate, migrate, uplift. Week one words that different people fill with different contents.
21 April 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
Protected time on week six is the whole trick. Reactive work will always fill week one.
16 April 2026 · 6 min read
Delivery & Risk
Reactive work feels excellent and still loses you the date. Two hours a week is the fix.
14 April 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
Fake consultation damages trust faster than any amount of blunt direction.
9 April 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
Reversibility and time tell you which style to use. Consensus is not free at 02:14.
7 April 2026 · 6 min read
Career
The promotion is subtractive. The scaffolding comes down long before the title arrives.
2 April 2026 · 6 min read
Leading People
The role is four accountabilities: delivery, technical direction, people, and stakeholder confidence.
31 March 2026 · 6 min read
