Leadership - Alex Ponomarev

A hiker on a cliff overlooking a valley.

20 Nov 2024 · 8 min read

How To Strategize As An Engineering Manager And Actually Get Results

Imagine you’re a hiker and mountain climber. You plan on marching through the wilderness to reach one of the many peaks in front of you. Once you decide on

A closeup of a person's shiny business shoes standing on red carpet.

18 Nov 2024 · 7 min read

4 Simple Steps To Start Off On The Right Foot With Your New Team

They determine your success - so, don't wait.

A person in a red jacket looking up at the north star.

13 Nov 2024 · 6 min read

Want To Know What’s Expected Of You? Talk To Your Manager

Don't wait. Your success depends on it.

Two silhouetted people sitting across from one another against a reddish orange background.

11 Nov 2024 · 8 min read

I've Lost Faith In Regular Coaching (But There’s A Better Alternative)

Trying to approach engineers like a regular coach just isn't going to work.

5 Nov 2023 · 5 min read

The Key to Your Purpose as an Engineering Manager: Andy Grove’s Formula

When I just started in the role of an engineering manager, I was struggling to transition from coding myself to supporting my team. It felt impossible to know for sure

29 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Lou Holtz’s “Do Right” Playbook for Engineering Leaders

Legendary football coach Lou Holtz, who, among other achievements, led the Notre Dame team to a national championship, is known for his simple yet wise “Do Right” leadership philosophy with

9 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Control Freak's Guide to Empowering Your Team

During my first years as a CTO, I was a control freak. I wanted to be involved in every engineering decision — from reviewing pull requests to picking out frameworks. I

8 Oct 2023 · 5 min read

The Stressful Leap from Engineer to CTO

You know who the best managers are? They’re the great individual contributors who never, ever want to be a manager, but decide they want to be a manager, because

12 Nov 2019 · 4 min read

Three Tips For Organizing A Productive All-Hands Meeting

I’m part of a remote team. Rather than collect everybody for a virtual meeting when somebody has a question, we have a policy to communicate non-urgent requests to each

8 Nov 2018 · 4 min read

How do you lead a development team without any technical expertise?

The incompetent manager According to Laurence Peter research made in 1969, every employee is promoted until she reaches her level of incompetence. In other words, if someone is good at

6 Nov 2018 · 4 min read

Managing the risk of indispensable employees

Imagine that your airplane is landing and something goes wrong with one of its hydraulic systems — a wing is not moving or landing gear is not operating correctly. It'

2 Nov 2018 · 4 min read

How to be liked and respected as a leader

One of the most common questions people who just stepped into a manager’s role have is how do they know that team likes them. It’s usually not only

25 Oct 2018 · 4 min read

Abundance and scarcity mindset

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is a self-help business book written by Stephen Covey in 1989. I’m pretty sure that you’ve heard about it and

21 Oct 2018 · 4 min read

Pulling it off on your own as a solo founder

In theory, a co-founder doubles your skill set and productivity. As solo founders, we often feel the pressure from partners or investors who perceive us as a risky bet and

20 Oct 2018 · 5 min read

Dealing with conflict in a development team

It’s hard to create a strong and professional team and lead it to success. But it’s even harder to keep everyone in the team from tearing each other

16 Oct 2018 · 4 min read

How to delegate and avoid miscommunication

Delegation is often understood as a way of avoiding the unwanted work by letting someone else do it. In reality, delegation is not only one of the main tools in