Teams at Work by BUNCH (Darja Gutnick (CEO, Co-Founder of Bunch))

Veteran software developer and engineer James Trunk has had a long and notable career, starting at the tender age of 19 in his first internship, up until now, where he currently works as Head of Engineering at Znipe, while also transitioning into a new leg in his career as VP of Engineering at Griffin.

Join Darja and Anthony (co-founders at Bunch) as they chat with James and discuss about the most notable parts of his career, sharing anecdotes and important insights in his journey that took him from software development, to his first gig as an inexperienced team leader, and eventually to his current role, where he uses his unique approach to management to build effective engineering teams to tackle any challenge.

Connect with James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-trunk/

Get your AI coach on your iPhone and level up your leadership skills in just 2 min a day: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bunch-daily-leadership-coach/id1500872908?l=en

Our guest today is David Noël, ex-SoundCloud VP turned leadership coach.

In this episode, we had one of the most authentic, honest conversations about taking non-traditional paths to find your passion, admitting when it’s time to leave your job, and remembering what is really important in life.

David reflects on starting his leadership journey from a young age as a boy scout, how the transition from manager to leader isn’t always easy and gives actionable advice on what it means to be a leader.

________

Connect with David on LinkedIn or on Twitter @David. Make sure to also subscribe to his Friday’s Five newsletter.

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it free on the App Store by searching “bunch coach.”

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ or subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources.

________

Things you learn in this episode:

- The real difference between leaders and managers

- Pursuing unconventional paths to finding your passion

- How to recognize when it may be time to step down

- Sticking to your core values during times of crisis

- Integrating life and work experiences to avoid ranking work and career progression as more important

My co-founder Anthony and I sat down with Renita Kalhorn who has been coaching leaders for the last 14 years. She's a mental trainer for the Navy Seals RDAC, has an MBA from INSEAD, and mentors startup founders and corporate executives alike. We talked about the new leadership landscape, the VUCA world we're living in, and what it takes to succeed in this environment - so you won't become anyone's bad boss story.

In this podcast episode, you will learn how to:

• Overcome volatility by making things concrete

• Counter uncertainty with daily rituals

• Unravel complexity with common sense

• Give ambiguity the boot with clear de-briefs

In this week’s episode, our co-founders Darja and Anthony chatted with Eric Weiss, ex-CTO at Rock My World, Angel Investor, CEO, and Podcast Host at Chaos To Clarity, and an Executive Coach working with technical founders and executives to help them overcome the challenges of growth. Eric shared his two guiding leadership philosophies that helped him throughout his career, and his key learnings on the pillars you have to oversee and manage as an engineering leader, and how to balance them all. Eric also shared how was passionate about technology alone at first, but after beginning his engineering career, he discovered his love for working with people and leading teams, how much he enjoyed understanding the motivations of each team member, how to best work and collaborate with them, and leverage their own motivations to achieve the shared team goals, which ultimately led him to become an engineering leader and coach.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why the role of the CTO is the most complicated C-level role and is it even possible to truly excel in it at all

• Why executives sometimes make bad decisions and how to prevent it - spoiler alert: Eric does a live exercise for that in the podcast!

• Why understanding the product-building methodologies and being customer-centric is more important than being a good coder

• BONUS: top learnings from 40 Teams at Work episodes from our co-founders Anthony and Darja

Timecodes:

• 2:11 - where Eric’s passion for leadership and technology came from

• 5:15 - why the role of the CTO is the most complicated C-level role

• 9:15 - the pillars you have to oversee and manage as an engineering leader, and how to balance it all

• 13:13 - why is it important for engineers to be customer-centric

• 21:30 - understanding the product-building methodologies is more important than being a good coder

• 25:15 - Eric’s two guiding leadership philosophies

• 36:00 - what are the most common challenges executives and founders are facing today, and how Eric helps them navigate this chaos

• 39:17 - you should be leading out of confidence, not out of fear

• 42:00 - feeling scared as a leader? Do this exercise

• 46:00 - Eric’s advice to his younger self

Connect with Eric:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/realEricWeiss

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmweiss/

• Podcast: https://linktr.ee/chaos2clarity

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Our guest today is Ömer Karisman, ex-Mobile, and UX Lead and Getir, and now a Product Management Lead at Calm, and entrepreneur.

Ömer thinks that when it comes to top-performing employees, mindset overpowers expertise. Yet, he acknowledges that even for folks with a strong growth mindset, it will take a few months to train them and realize their full potential.

In this episode, you will learn more about Ömer's leadership journey, and why he thinks the top performers on teams are made, rather than hired. And how can you as a manager and leader onboard and train new hires so that they become top performers.

Ömer draws on his long years of experience in Getir, Calm and other companies.

Connect with Ömer on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/okaris/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the Al Leadership Coach. Download it

free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

Subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources!

Things you learn in this episode:

• How product-lead growth strategy can help you create a successful business, and build a product that users will truly value

• Why the key to success is not necessarily domain expertise, but learning agility and being comfortable with making mistakes

• The differences between leading a well-established team, or being a leader to build the team and product from scratch

• How to stay connected to your team in a remote setting, and why paying more attention to work-life balance and people’s personal lives is essential

Disclaimer: Due to technical issues, the recording quality in this episode is not as top-notch as we like it to be. We believe the content however is very valuable and hope that you can bear with the from time-to-time challenging audio.

***

Our guest today is Ryan Donovan, an experienced and passionate people leader and CTO of Hootsuite, one of the most popular social media management tools & a high-growth tech company, currently employing over 1000 team members all over the world.

In this episode, Ryan looks back on important leadership moments that defined his career. He reflects on the role of listening as a leader and shares successful tactics he deploys to improve collaboration between engineers, product people, and the rest of the organization.

This episode holds many important & valuable lessons for engineering managers or anyone who is interested in learning what it takes to build successful tech and product teams.

________

Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn or on Twitter @ryan_donovan to continue the conversation.

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it free on the App Store by searching “bunch coach.”

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ or subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources.

________

Things you'll learn in this episode:

- How to build relationships at work that help your team (s) grow

- Best Practices on Managing Product and Tech Debt - Hood open syndrome explained

- Hands-on tips on how to help your team member grow

- How to make sure people are moving into leadership for the right reasons

- How to become a really good listener

Alex Weber is Chief Growth Officer at N26, the unicorn digital bank with an ambition to change the way banking is done around the world. In this episode, Alex reflects on his 6 year journey at N26, and the many lessons he learned while going from an Entrepreneur in Residence at a tiny startup to a C-level executive at a 1500 person company. If you'd like you'd like to learn and grow fast as a leader, get early access to the Bunch AI leadership coach at https://bunch.ai.

Jan Hase started his career as a coder and now finds himself as co-founder and CEO of Wunderflats. His company is on a mission to make housing more accessible and less discriminatory and build a diverse team that serves a diverse market. In this episode on lessons learned, Jan shares the f*ckups and aha moments from building a diverse tech team. Tune in to hear how you can leverage similar tactics to build more diversity into your team, too!

In this week’s episode, our co-founder Anthony chatted with Richard Newman. Richard is the Founder & CEO of Body Talk, the global leader in evidence-based courses on the psychology of communication, helping more than 10,000 organizations and individuals every year to discover the power of storytelling, conflict resolution, and presentation skills. From learning to understand the Tibetan monks to discovering the true power of communication, Richard shared how his company started from a free haircut he got. He also shared why he was resistant to the idea of leadership at first, and how he ultimately learned the 3 pillars of leadership to drive his company forward.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The three areas you need to activate in your audience in order for them to not only listen to your story but act on it

• What children can teach adults about good communication and why you should read your business report like a children's storybook

• How better communication can win you a billion-dollar deal

• Why your ideas don’t speak for themselves - and you have to do it instead

Timeline:

01: 15 - Running the company and leading the company are not the same things

02:20 - The 3 pillars of leadership (vision, mission, values)

10:25 - Teaching how to communicate at the hair salon (power of a haircut)

15:55 - You are born to speak - why everyone can be a good communicator

19:01 - How our innate ability to communicate well is killed over time by others

22:10 - Actionable steps to help communicate as we used to as children

25:05 - Your ideas don’t speak for themselves - you have to do it

28:03 - Content matters less - what matters is how you deliver the information

33:45 - Your job when you tell a story is to get people to take action

46:10 - How better communication can win you a billion dollars - sell your benefits

Connect with Richard:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardnewmanspeaks/

• Follow Body Talk:

  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/ukbodytalk

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/communicationskillstraining/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Jossie Haines is an executive and engineering leadership coach focused on empowering high performing leadership through empathy and compassion. Her mission is to retain women in tech and break the statistic that 56% of women leave tech after 10-20 years by empowering engineering leaders with the effective and fair management practices and principles needed to finally more the needle.

Jossie is an avid public speaker, having given over 100 talks, workshops and podcasts on retaining women in tech, engineering leadership, DEI and various technologies.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What it was like in Silicon Valley of the 90ies and how Zynga casually took on Facebook and built a social network in 2 weeks

• How to ask for feedback so that you get the advice you need to grow

• How inclusion is interlinked with productivity and performance

Connect with Jossie :

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jossiemann/

• Web: https://jossiehaines.com/

--

Get in touch with Jossie for a free coaching session!

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Our guest today is James McClure, ex-Airbnb & Google executive, coach and angel investor, and an overall expert in leadership development.

In this episode, we explored James's journey from selling non-veggie snacks in school when he was younger to his transition from operator to coach. We also discussed the importance of removing bias in the recruiting process, self-coaching, and how to balance parenthood and your career.

Through personal stories, laughs, and decades of experience, James shares his perspective on what leadership truly is, how your leadership journey progresses over time, and how you can adopt a global, open-minded perspective when learning to be a better employee, leader, coach, and person.

Connect with James on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-mcclure-5b6a364/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the Al Leadership Coach. Download it free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ or subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack (https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/) for more frameworks and resources.

Things you learn in this episode:

• What it means to be a true leader

• How leadership progresses with time and experience

• How understanding yourself on a deeper level can lead to more effective coaching of others

• The importance of diversity, keeping an open mind and acknowledging psychological biases in decision-making and perspective-taking

In this week’s episode, our co-founders Darja and Anthony chatted with Scott Markovits. Scott was one of the Founding Team at InVision - one of the first companies to work fully remotely (before either Zoom or Slack were created). Since then Scott has helped tons of other companies scale and succeed in a remote environment, building world-class operational, engagement, and leadership cultures. From learning how to adapt to the ever-changing work culture in tech to introducing the best rituals to connect and strengthen remote teams, Scott shared his key learnings and memorable experiences leading A teams remotely. Scott also discussed his journey at early-stage startups, why product-market fit is overrated, and what your success as a leader really looks like.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The key rituals to keep your distributed teams strong and connected

• How remote work can help you create a better work-life balance and why a 4-day work week is the future

• Why product-market fit is overrated

• Remote vs. Hybrid vs. In-person - where is the future of work, and what companies will succeed in this game long-term

Timecodes:

• 2:30 - what inspired Scott to switch to remote work

• 4:20 - why remote work can help you create a better work-life balance

• 8:25 - the power of off-site in real life for remote teams

• 14:50 - what was it like being part of one of the first companies to go fully remote

• 18:20 - what was remote work like before Slack and Zoom

• 19:40 - remote work is the future, everyone else is playing a short-term game

• 25:30 - where is the future of work

• 31:30 - in the future having an office will be a perk

• 34:00 - how can you succeed as a manager remotely

• 38:10 - rituals to keep your distributed teams strong and connected

• 42:30 - 4 day work week and at least 1 week off per quarter - the secrets to long-term team success

Connect with Scott

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmarkovits/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScottMarkovits

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Connect with Darja:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

• How Stephanie transformed her under-performing team as a first-time manager and gained her team’s trust while helping everyone achieve their goals
• What makes a true leader nowadays, and the super skills that will help you to go from good to great leader
• How to utilize and make the most out of the 30-60-90 plan, and why this good old framework, should be your go-to tool as a first-time manager
• Will we need managers in the coming years at all, and why in the future with AI, you won’t go far without the human skills

• 4:20 - the question you ask someone at the beginning of their leadership journey

• 6:05 - will AI replace managers, will we need managers in the coming years at all?
• 9:00 - in the future with AI, you won’t go far without the human skills
• 14:05 - the simple steps you can take not to feel overwhelmed as a leader
• 18:00 - how to say “no” and decline meetings at work without being rude
• 26:00 - role play: how to help your coachees or mentees apply what they’ve learned in the sessions
• 29:30 - how Stephanie transformed her under-performing team as a first-time manager
• 30:20 - the number one advice to first-time managers: utilize the good old 30-60-90 plan
• 33:30 - a quick practice to free up your schedule
• 37:25 - the 3 main skills you need to train for the future of work
• 42:00 - the competitive advantage of introverted leaders

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/coachsteph2022
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephherre/
• Udemy Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/306090plan-leadership/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Our guest today is Åsa Lidén, ex-Spotify executive, experienced tech leader, and now the COO of Pitch.

In this episode, we explored Åsa's journey from her first leadership experience as a volleyball coach, then starting off as a QA engineer, to pursuing her passion in tech and becoming the VP of engineering at Spotify, ultimately making a career transition and joining Pitch’s Operations team. We also discussed the unique aspects of building and scaling remote-first culture, and what it is truly like to be the female leader in today’s settings while advocating for what you truly believe in.

Through personal stories, tips and tricks on career advancement, and years of leadership experience, Åsa shares her perspective on what it takes to become a successful female leader, how to build a plan when you feel like you don’t have certainty on your goals, what it truly takes to become a leader, and the importance of balancing authenticity, and empathy to build an inclusive culture.

Connect with Åsa on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%C3%A5sa-lid%C3%A9n-b8613b10/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the Al Leadership Coach. Download it free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/ and subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources.

Things you learn in this episode:

• How to land career opportunities that matter

• How to balance being your authentic self at work with cultural differences, creating a mutual understanding

• How to be a good leader even if you are not an expert in the room

• Why the key to being a good leader is extreme ownership and willingness to take responsibility both when things are in and outside of your control

• The importance of courage and taking action to get things done

In this week’s episode, our co-founder Anthony chatted with Chris Schembra. Through stories and lessons learned, Chris shared how he started his career in theater and video production, ultimately discovering the power of gratitude and the role it plays in leadership and building teams. He is the founder and Chief Question Asker of 7:47, an advisory firm that helps companies create meaningful connections through its 7:47 Gratitude Experience, an evidence-based framework that helps leaders build a community and strengthen relationships.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How gratitude can help you get through hard times

• Why community-focused leadership is the key to thriving through uncertain and challenging times

• How Chris went from daily struggle to discovering his true purpose, and how Italian food helped him on that journey

Connect with Chris:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schembra/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cschembra

• Chris's books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Chris-Schembra/author/B083WMTMJF?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Our guest today is Eyal Lasker, the Founder of Flexspace, ex-Product and Growth leader at Uber and WeWork, and an experienced leader building global teams.

In this episode, we explored Eyal's journey from basketball team captain - one of his first exposures to leadership - to top Product Lead at some of the world’s best companies, to now a Founder. We also discussed the essential role of difficult times in a leader’s growth journey, and how building a team differs in remote vs. in-person environments.

Through personal stories, laughs, and diverse experiences, Eyal shares his perspective on the importance of leading by example and sharing the big picture with the team on a continuous basis. As well as how being persistent can help aspiring, first-time founders succeed in the new leadership role!

Connect with Eyal on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eyalasker/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the Al Leadership Coach. Download it

free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

Subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources!

Things you learn in this episode:

• Why true growth happens during challenging times

• How being persistent with your entrepreneurial vision can help you succeed as a leader without authority

• How communication and transparency can help you get through uncertain times

• Why one of the keys to successful leadership is setting an example and focusing on the big picture

In this week’s episode, our co-founders Darja and Anthony chatted with Meri Williams. Meri was the CTO at Monzo - the online bank - before it even became a bank! She led the technology team through a period of immense growth in both the team itself and in the customer base. Now as the CTO at Pleo, Meri is continuing to lead teams through different changes while enabling each team member to reach their full potential. Meri shared her key learnings on what it actually takes to create a healthy, safe, diverse and inclusive work environment, as well as why high-performing teams are the ones who are happy, and feel comfortable in their individual roles. Meri also discussed what she would do differently as a new CTO, some of her best principles for success and why sometimes hotdogs are the only thing you need to make your team happy.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why management (especially in engineering) is a career change, not a promotion, and how can you succeed in it

• What it really takes to build a diverse and inclusive team: 3 questions you should ask yourself

• What is the real difference between being nice vs. kind to your team and the impact it can have

• Why you shouldn’t treat others like you would want to be treated. Rather treat them like they want to be treated

Timecodes:

• 2:30 - the challenges of joining a growing startup as a CTO

• 12:00 - purpose, autonomy, mastery, inclusion: the magic formula for high performance

• 14:00 - the model for DEI: 3 questions you should ask

• 32:00 - why management is a career change, not a promotion and how can you succeed in it

• 41:00 - how to help people feel safe at work, enabling them to reach their potential: be nice AND kind

• 51:00 - how to really be an empathetic person and leader

Connect with Meri:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Geek_Manager

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meriwilliams/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Other helpful resources:

• Learn more about engineering leadership from Lara Hogan: https://larahogan.me/

• Learn more about being an Engineering Manager: https://nickmchardy.com/2019/02/on-being-an-engineering-manager.html

• The home of engineering management: https://leaddev.com/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

This episode’s guest is Sonia Joseph, CTO & co-founder at Alexandria Labs, a web3 library. Sonia is also a machine learning & neuroscience researcher at Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. Sonia and her co-founder are on a mission to bring ebooks to blockchain for readers and authors and we had a super interesting conversation spanning everything from startup life to the future of humanity. Enjoy!

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to keep up to date with an ever faster evolving space around tech overall, and especially web3

• The importance of “exceptional” narratives and how they can help you find your way in your tech career

• What startups and science have in common and how to succeed in both

• Why and how women have a larger decision-making space in society and what the consequences of that are

• Why a library on the blockchain makes perfect sense

Connect with Sonia:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniamjoseph/

• Web: https://www.soniajoseph.ai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/soniajoseph_?lang=en

• Follow Alexandria Labs: https://alexandrialabs.xyz/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Karl Alomar is Managing Partner at M13, a US-based VC that's invested in companies like Lyft, Pinterest, Daily Harvest and Capsule. A 2-time founder himself, Karl has worked with many young tech companies and helped build Digital Ocean from the ground up as COO - ultimately reaching 500+ employees and $200M in revenue.

In this episode, Karl shares stories and learnings from leading companies through 2 different economic crises in 2000 and 2008, and shines some hope and optimism on the current global crisis.

Our guest today is Mathias Meyer, a very successful executive leadership coach that loves to stretch technical founders and CTOs and he is also the co-author of the book “The Intentional Organization.”

In this episode we dove into Mathias’s journey from an impatient engineer to a founder, a CTO and a patient human that leads by influence.

We also discovered how important it is involving engineers early on in the product development process and talked about the right time to do that.

Connect with Mathias on Twitter: @roidrage or Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-meyer-50a753aa/

Check out that Mathias is working on by visiting his new site: https://intentionalorganization.com/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it free here: https://apps.apple.com/app/bunch-daily-leadership-coach/id1500872908

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ or subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources

Things you learn in this episode:

• How to become a patient engineer

• Why seniority diversity on the dev team is important

• What it means to be a high performance team

• How to grow from “what could be possible” to “High performance”

• Why engineers should be involved earlier in the product development process

In this week’s episode, our co-founder Darja chatted with Danielle Leong, currently VP of Engineering at Maca, working on SaaS pricing insights. She started her career as an early engineer at Twilio, after that Danielle became a Director of Engineering, building a tech team to lead the development of mission-critical services at GitHub. She is a passionate learner and loves mentoring others on their journey, she also has her own photography studio where she captures and amplifies diverse and unique voices. Danielle shared her nontypical career journey, and how she balances her technical and creative sides (and how they complement each other). She also shared her take on leading by example, why failing is healthy, and how to actually apply learnings from the past to solve problems in the present. Danielle believes even if you are early on in your career or come from a different background you always have something to bring to the table, you just gotta believe in yourself and be curious!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why technical talent is made, not born, and the two qualities you actually need to succeed on the tech leadership journey

• How to make sense of all the resources out there, adjust them as a template to fit the needs of your team, and then pick out a specific solution

• Why leading by example is not showing what you know but rather stepping up and admitting what you don’t know

• How failing fast and failing often can help you become a better professional and why none of us actually “have it together”

Timecodes:

• 6:00 - why curiosity and drive to learn are the only things you need to succeed in anything

• 8:20 - how to apply learnings from the past, what inspires Danelle today, and what she’s keen on learning more about

• 11:00 - why you gotta fail fast and fail forward, and how failure can positively shape your journey

• 13:50 - none of us “have it together” and even leaders fail

• 16:30 - if people are afraid to admit they don’t know something, you need to lead by example

• 24:28 - Panda Planner method for productivity

• 27:35 - unpopular opinions about engineering management

• 38:00 - no matter what you’re going through, you are not alone, and there are definitely mentors and people out there ready to help

Connect with Danielle:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tsunamino

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielleleong/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Liz Daldalian is Head of Business Operations at Truffle Suite - a 100% remote team building "sweet tools for smart contracts". In this episode, Liz shares practical tips for how to overcome those usual challenges that tend to get amplified when you're running remote: from building trust and connection in the team, to coordinating work, and navigating tough conversations. Running a remote team yourself? Sign up for our weekly briefing email and get short, actionable summaries of the best remote tips: https://bunch.ai/teams-at-work

Our guest today is Jen Phan, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Passionfroot, Angel Investor, ex-Company Builder for Deloitte, and a Content Creator.

In this episode, we explored Jen's leadership and creator journey, from starting her career in venture building to discovering the potential of the creator economy first-hand and using the parks of Berlin as the perfect environment to connect with the future co-founders of Passionfroot.

We also discussed the steps you can take to manage your energy level throughout the day, and balance energy-generating and energy-draining tasks in your day-to-day. Jen also shared insights on how to combine product development with content development to find the audience-market fit for your company to take the lead in the competitive creator economy market.

Things you learn in this episode:

• How to find PMF not only for your product, but also for your team and co-founders

• How putting emphasis on shared values can create a more inclusive work environment and provide a sense of belonging

• Tips and tricks to survive and thrive in insecurity moments

• Why you need to be constantly observing and learning from others to become a better leader yourself

• Leadership tip 101: Take a walk :)

Through unique reflections on her founder journey, and career experiences, Jen shares her vision for creating a strong community at and outside of work, and her take on how to be a role model for your team. We also learned about what excites Jen the most these days - making an impact on the macro level by building a product that will empower creators around the world.

Connect with Jen on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferphn/

Check out Jen’s startup Passionfroot: https://www.passionfroot.xyz/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the Al Leadership Coach. Download it free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

Subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources!

In this episode we sit down with Noor van Boven, investor, global people executive, and co-founder at Invested. She has worked and led people teams at Soundcloud, N26, and Deloitte, and is also a board member to numerous startups. With Noor, we reflect on high-context culture and how to design a context for your team to perform autonomously at their highest level. Plus, she told us her strategy for setting expectations and has some great advice for giving feedback in a way that helps your team learn and thrive.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to set “guard rails” so that your team can operate with autonomy, which leads to more efficiency and less confusion.

• The best way to frame feedback so you can support your report’s perspective while staying realistic about the solution and what can and can’t be changed.

• How to define and align with your organization’s cultural dynamics, so that you and your team can have the strongest impact.

We really benefited from hearing Noor’s expert perspective on keeping goals crystal clear and realistic, balanced with her advice to be kind, do your best, and learn from your mistakes. We hope this inspires you too!

Connect with Noor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noorvanboven/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it

free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

Subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources!

Today we chatted with Constanze Buchheim, founder of the executive search consultancy i-potentials. For 15 years, she has been building and transforming teams in the German and European Startup ecosystem. She’s been named one of the 50 most influential women in German business by the Boston Consulting Group and Manager Magazin, and in 2020 was selected by Focus magazine as one of the 100 Women of the Year.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to manage the difference between expectations and consistently delight your customers and your team

• Tips on exploring your own goals, motivations, and roadblocks so that you can be more authentic and transparent with your team

• What are Specialists, Managers, and Leaders, what’s the difference and how each of them contributes to a successful organization

Connect with Constanze:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/constanzebuchheim/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CBuchheim

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it free on the App Store

Our guest today is Ellen Wong, an expert in managing people and the Director of Engineering at Calm.

In this episode, we explored Ellen’s management path from senior engineer to managing director. We also discussed what it really means to lead by influence—something people talk about a lot but don’t really explain.

Ellen breaks down several of her recommendations to leading folks senior to her, how she builds trust with a new team, and what leading by influence means to her.

________

Connect with Ellen on LinkedIn to discuss her ideas further.

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it free on the App Store by searching “bunch coach.”

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ or subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources.

________

Things you learn in this episode:

- What it means to truly lead by influence

- How to lead people more senior than you

- Using vulnerability to inspire others

- How to enable and empower others to lead, too!

In today’s episode, our co-founder Anthony chatted with Alvar Lumberg. Alvar was one of the Founding Engineering Team leaders at Wise (formely TransferWise), now he is an investor, and the CTO, and co-founder at Grünfin. Alvar shared how he uses coaching to help engineering and first-time managers succeed in their roles. He also discussed what makes leading an engineering team and succeeding as a manager at the same time a tough balance to achieve. From learning how to navigate the transition from individual contributor to manager, to understanding how the definition of leadership has changed over time, and what does it take to be a successful leader today. Alvar also shared his top book recommendations, what he is still trying to grow in and why it is essential to understand emerging technologies to plan ahead.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How you can be a leader even if your job title doesn’t necessarily imply it

• Being an engineering lead at a big company vs. a startup - tricks, tips, and best strategies to succeed

• Why it is important for leaders to take a step back, and revisit the broader picture regularly

• What are the biggest challenges engineering managers face today, and how you can overcome those

• Best practices to discovering your unique leadership style as a new manager

Timecodes:

• 1:10 - how and where Alvar’s journey began

• 6:40 - why passion was the key to kick-starting Alvar’s career and setting him up for success

• 11:25 - what was it like joining an early-stage startup as an engineering lead

• 16:00 - Alvar’s leadership style and what would he advise to first time managers

• 17:00 - your job as a leader is not to tell people what to do, it’s to align on goals and support them with achieving those

• 21:30 - leadership through coaching - how does Alvar lead his teams

• 26:50 - the biggest challenge engineering leaders and managers face today

• 29:20 - why you need to understand emerging technologies to be able to plan ahead

• 30:05 - Alvar’s books recommendations

• 33:50 - what it truly means to be a leader and a role model (hint: it’s not about your title)

• 35:10 - how would Alvar define leadership

• 36:00 - what Alvar is still trying to grow in

• 40:00 - what would Alvar advise to his younger self and all first time managers out there

Connect with Alvar:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/alvarlumberg

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvarlumberg/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

We are back! Our guest today is Pat Kua, a CTO/Tech advisor, Coach and Mentor, who worked for companies like Thoughtworks, N26, and is on a mission to accelerate the growth of technical leaders through coaching, mentoring, and training.

In this episode, we dove into what makes the leap into management so challenging for engineers and what they can do to succeed. Pat also shared tons of useful insights around anti-patterns that hold engineering leaders back and how to tackle those.

We also discovered how tech leaders are the shepherds of systems thinking in organizations and how to ship quality at speed while scaling.

Connect with Pat on Twitter: @patkua or check out his website https://www.patkua.com/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it free here: https://apps.apple.com/app/bunch-daily-leadership-coach/id1500872908

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ or subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources

Things you learn in this episode:

• How to succeed as a new engineer manager

• The anti-patterns that prevent leaders engineers to grow

• What to avoid when transitioning to management

• Why engineers are the shepherds of systems thinking in organizations

• The importance of quality when scaling

In this week’s episode, we chatted with Louie Bacaj, who shared his journey from starting his career as an engineer in big tech to ultimately becoming an engineering leader at companies like Jet, Walmart, and Bank of America, where he has built teams and lead teams through massive growth, crisis, and various transitions.

Transitioning from the corporate world, Louie is now pursuing his passion as an entrepreneur, building Nines, and a creator, mentoring companies and individuals, and helping engineers navigate and succeed in their careers.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How a learner mindset can enable you to pursue any passion despite the risks

• What could be the future of big tech and what are the skills you need to acquire to succeed in it

• Why Louie made the decision to leave the big tech and become an entrepreneur, and a creator (and how he overcame the imposter syndrome on his journey)

• The principles of building lasting team relationships based on trust and transparency

• 3:00 - What inspired Louie’s transition from the corporate big tech world to entrepreneurship and creatorship

• 5:40 - Skills Louie had to learn as an engineer and engineering leader

• 6:00 - How does it feel to walk away from big money to chase your dreams as an entrepreneur

• 8:05 - Louie’s current projects and how he deals with imposter syndrome along the way

• 11:00 - What’s important for tech leaders now

• 14:15 - Why evolving technology caused trouble for big tech

• 16:30 - How to constantly stay in demand as an engineer

• 21:00 - Skills/traits people need to develop to succeed in the tech leadership roles

• 25:00 - How to grow in your career by always keeping the learner mindset

• 28:00 - How to stay on top of the relevant tech trends

Connect with Louie:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiebacaj/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LBacaj

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

This week we chatted with Steve Tauber. Steve is a CTO in residence at madewithlove, where he has worked with more than 45 startups, helping them establish scale-proof processes, and build strong, high-performing teams.

Steve also recently co-authored a book called “Freerange Management” that helps leaders create an environment where people are truly happy and free to do their best work.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Steve’s new book on free-range management, and what free-range chickens and engineering teams have in common

• Why leaders need to step back to allow their teams to step up

• What to look for in candidates to create knowledge-first organizations

• What you need on your roadmap to succeed in 2023

2:35 - What is a CTO in residence

9:50 - What are knowledge-first organizations and why they are relevant today

14:35 - Steve’s new book and its value for engineering leaders

25:10 - Double diamond design framework for problem-solving

29:00 - Accountability in free-range management

30:55 - How to celebrate failures and learn from them

38:00 - The toughest moments in Steve’s career and how we overcame them

41:30 - How getting enough sleep can help you solve problems faster

44:45 - Why you shouldn’t read any of the popular industry books

Connect with Steve:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetauber/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SteveTauber

• Steve's book: https://freerange.management/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Our guest today is Kate Leo, a consultant & coach for product teams at both disruptive startups and Fortune 500 companies whose 25 year career has included product leadership roles at Yahoo and Moo.com. She’s also written a book on hiring product managers based on “EQ”.

In this episode, we dive deep into Kate’s journey from a product manager, to head of product, to a consultant and then a coach, and the most important lessons she learned along the way.

She shares her thoughts on the importance of understanding the emotional and human side of work, recognizing and overcoming imposter syndrome, and how to approach “change” in a team or across an entire organization by identifying “micro risks”.

Connect with Kate on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateleto/ or on Twitter: @kleto

Want to become a better leader in 2 minutes a day? Download BUNCH: The AI leadership coach. Find it for free on the App Store by searching “bunch coach”.

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_hq or subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources.

Things you’ll learn in this episode:

• How to identify and overcome your “limiting beliefs”

• A systematic approach to creating change with mini-experiments

• The meaning of ‘human skills’ why they’re more important than technical skills

Our guest today is Olivier Bonnet—though he’ll also accept “Oliver”—currently CTO of BlaBlaCar in Paris. Getting his hands dirty with engineering work first and then moving onto leadership roles, Olivier jumped into his tech career at Apple and then spent 12 years there in the US soaking up some of the world’s best engineering secrets.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What’s it's like to work in high-performance tech environments in both the US and Europe

• How to walk the talk every day, as a leader

• How to grow and lead a 200+ people engineering team

Connect with Olivier:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/obonnet/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

In this episode we sat down with Christain Rebernik, a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, mentor, and father of 3. Christian is the former CEO and Co-Founder at Vivy, former CTO and MD at N26, former CTO at Parship, and created award-winning apps like ShareTheMeal for the UN World Food Programme. His current mission is to educate and empower the changemakers of tomorrow as CEO and Co-Founder at Germany’s first virtual university, Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why Christian as an engineer hated Sales at the start of his journey and why he loves it now (and how it creates value)

• How Christian dealt with failure in his career and what encouraged him to keep going (and how you can do the same)

• Why Christian believes he was not a good leader at first and what he has learned and improved on since

• His biggest success secret and what love’s gotta do with it!

Connect with Christian:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crebernik/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/crebernik7791

Follow Tomorrow University:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/tomorrowuniversity/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

As Founder of House of Wise, CMO of Teal, and mother to 3, Amanda Goetz knows how to get sh*t done. Thankfully, she shares just how to do that with us all in this episode where we celebrate female entrepreneurship and discuss work done right.

Check out The Code of the Extraordinary mind - recommended by Amanda: https://www.vishen.com/codex

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandagoetz/

Become a better leading in 2 min a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it free here: http://bit.ly/teamsatworkpodcast

Follow BUNCH on twitter @bunch_HQ or subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources.

Our guest today is Anand Safi. He started his career as an engineer with a strong interest in leadership, then found opportunities to learn and contribute as a coach and mentor at MentorCruise, Plato, BestPracticer, and First Round Fast Track. Over the past ten years, he has worked at eBay, Intent, Insurity, and is an executive contributor to Brainz Magazine. He is now Director of Engineering at Mark43. In this episode, we talk about Anand’s leadership journey from individual contributor to manager and coach.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What makes a team sustainable, and how to manage your time so that you can be both productive and available.

• How to get buy-in from your team and stakeholders by approaching presentations as conversations.

• Why it’s important to stay vulnerable and open when starting a new role, even when you feel like you have to impress and strive for perfection… and how to do it!

We found it really inspiring to hear how Anand has balanced his deep interest in leadership with a realistic perspective about what’s actually possible in the day-to-day. He’s got some great advice for keeping track of the big picture, avoiding burnout, and supporting your team for sustainable success by always being just one Slack message away.

Connect with Anand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandsafi/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it

free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

Subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources!

In this episode we sat down with Julius Bachmann, a founder coach whose mission is to make the future of venture more human. He started his career as an investor, then founded a personal growth startup, and now provides a holistic support structure for founders, entrepreneurs and leaders. He shared insights and actionable advice about setting up the building blocks of optimal performance, taking the next tiny step to accomplishing your goals, and guiding your team (esp. co-founder team) out of a conflict.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to balance rational, emotional, and body-level intelligence to support optimal performance, and two easy exercises you can do any time.

• How to break down your 3-month goals into weekly and daily actions, and the motivating questions that will help you take the next step.

• How to get back to a good routine after it slipped, when you know exactly what to do but can’t make yourself do it.

Connect with Julius:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmbachmann/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmbachmann

Get early access to Journey:

• Web: https://www.jrny.coach/

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

In this chat we interviewed Kieran Flanagan, Senior Vice President of Marketing at HubSpot. He is an experienced startup advisor and investor, and has spent the past decade building and leading marketing teams. He also has his own podcast, the GrowthTLDR, and has shared tons of actionable advice on how to build and scale effective teams with us.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The difference between a good leader and a good manager, and the ingredients for inspiring your team while giving them the operational support they need.

• How to leverage growth at any stage by balancing three types of roles: builders, creators and operators.

• What everyone can learn from product managers about identifying problems and motivating teams to solve them.

• How to hire for core skills, mindset, and coachability, and the 100-day onboarding plan to give your new team members clarity, accountability, and purpose.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieranjflanagan/

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it

free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1500872908?pt=121075759&ct=Teams%20At%20Work%20Podcast&mt=8

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

Subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources!

In this week’s episode, our co-founders Darja and Anthony chatted with Raz Shuty, Senior Director of Engineering at Delivery Hero with over 12 years of experience leading technology teams. Raz shared why he hated the role of a manager at first, and how he struggled to fit in, what he learned about leadership from his father, a chef and why the first manager he ever had is a role model when it comes to management. In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why becoming a manager in engineering means a negative return on investment on the craft that brought you to the role

• Why Raz hated his first engineering manager job, quit, and how he ultimately found his role and got to enjoy it

• How working in sprints can suck, and what you can do to find a framework that will work best for your team and your goals

• The limitations of remote work and why there is an upside to working in an office

Timecodes:

• 2:06 - how being a Senior Director of Engineering can be a nightmare

• 9:40 - why you should not become a manager

• 12:30 - did Raz ever regret becoming an engineering manager

• 16:00 - go-to tools and hacks to stay productive as a manager

• 19:50 - how to determine your mission for the week and prioritize effectively

• 25:05 - what is the primary difference between managing individual contributors vs. other managers

• 33:30 - the benefits and the struggles of remote work through the lens of an engineering leader

• 48:00 - growth is not a numbers game, sometimes it’s about doing as much as you can with what you have in the moment

• 50:30 - creating a fun environment is an underrated part of management that can actually result in better team engagement

• 53:00 - why Raz despises sprints as a work framework for engineering teams

Connect with Raz:

• Blog: somehowimanage.blog

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raz-schweiger-shuty-86299814/

• Podcast: techpointcharlie.blog

Connect with Anthony:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyreo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyareo

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Our guest today is Steve Schlafman, an expert in leadership development and the Founder and Coach at High Output.

In this episode, we explored Steve’s decision to leave behind his newly raised $7.5 million angel fund to take a step back and focus on the things that truly matter. We zoomed in on the importance of taking breaks to recharge our batteries and the long-term benefit of doing so.

Steve gives actionable advice on how to strengthen the co-founder relationship and the role of impeccable agreements on being able to fully reveal yourself and being comfortable sharing your experiences.

________

Connect with Steve on LinkedIn or on Twitter @schlaf to continue the conversation.

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it free on the App Store by searching “bunch coach.”

Follow BUNCH on Twitter: @bunch_HQ or subscribe to our newsletter The Weekly Briefing on Substack for more frameworks and resources

________

Things you'll learn in this episode:

- How to leave behind what doesn’t feel right

- Using daily architectures to structure your day and include downtime

- The importance of investing in your co-founder relationship

- How to navigate the VC <> founder relationship versus the Coach <> founder relationship

In this episode we chatted with Ozioma Egwuonwu, the founder of BurnBright International LLC. Ozioma works with Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations, and business owners, to help them transform their businesses and make them future-proof with key frameworks like Visionary Future-Making.

She is Expert Faculty at Singularity University, graduated from the Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell, and even developed a Masters-level course taught at Columbia University. Ozioma has been featured on NBC, in The Guardian, and has spoken at SXSW, ADWEEK, the Websummit, and more.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to use the Visionary Future-Making framework to access high-order vision and bring it forward into reality.

• The importance of storytelling in solving problems and inspiring your team, your customers… and yourself!

• What different generations need from the workplace, and how that is pushing organizations to find more impactful, forward-thinking solutions for everyone.

Timecodes:

0:45 Conditions and ingredients for transformation

3:40 The Transformation Economy, The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore

6:30 Singularity University, David Roberts

8:50 The future and context of work

19:00 The Visionary Future-Making framework

25:20 Generations in the workplace

31:40 Ozioma’s background

36:30 Overcoming challenges

42:05 Advice for her younger self

Connect with Ozioma:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozioma/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/culturalmaven

• Substack: https://ozioma.substack.com

Connect with Darja:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darjagutnick

• Substack: https://weeklybriefing.substack.com/

Follow Bunch:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunchai/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bunch_HQ

Become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with BUNCH, the AI Leadership Coach. Download it for FREE on the App Store

Together with Mark Frein, the former CPO at InVision and now COO at Bunch, the host Darja Gutnick (Co-founder and CEO at Bunch) uncovers behaviors that makes leaders successful in 2019.

You'll hear about:

• what makes leaders successful today in comparison to previous decade

• how do millennial leaders differ

• which behaviors make leaders successful in the fast-paced, ever-changing technology sector

• which leadership behaviors matter in distributed companies and teams

• advice on how to become an effective leader

Find out more about how to help your team perform and build a strong, cohesive culture at: https://bunch.ai

Raffaela Rein, the founder of WildWildVentures, Vitalute, and CareerFoundry, was named amongst the Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes.

Things you learn in this episode:

• Why building a culture entirely free of management does not necessarily create the best outcomes

• How to build team culture the design way

• How to create a cohesive culture in remote-first teams

Find out more about how to help your team perform and build a strong, cohesive culture at: https://bunch.ai

Dizzy Smith, VP Engineering of Packet, shares his amazing insights from his 15+ year career in engineering about culture building, communication structures and diverse leadership in distributed teams.

Things you learn in this episode:

• How to ensure that your team feels engaged and included

• How to use different modalities in a remote team

• How to set up a structure of communication to ensure great collaboration

• Why empathy is key for high-performance distributed teams

• How to build a diverse organization by picking a diverse leadership team

• How to decide between an engineering specialist or management role

Find out more about how to help your team perform and build a strong, cohesive culture at: https://bunch.ai

Episode links:

• Interesting read about engineering management: https://leadingsnowflakes.com/

• Get in touch with Dizzy Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dizzyd/