Diane Scarborough has been an interim CHRO role numerous times. We talked about how she thinks about change, how she quickly gains context, and her secret to creating trust and psychological safety. This conversation is a masterclass in how to have influence without positional authority.

Marty Haught who founded Haught Codeworks sold the business and is currently Director of Engineering at HashiCorp. We talked about the reason he wanted to be an employee again, what the transition was like, and what he’s learned about navigating organizational culture as a leader.

There’s this idea that only someone who has been in an IC role can serve as a leader for others in this area. I don’t necessarily think that’s true. I was happy to meet Jessica Darensbourg, Director of Engineering at Mailchimp who disproves this stereotype. We talked about how she got into leading engineers, how her background is an asset and the best skill she brings to her role.

IBK Ajila, Director, Engineering Leadership Development, Shopify shared how he shifted his career after feeling like he needed a break. We talked about the clues he was nearing burnout, how he turned his break into a career pivot and how he uses his coaching experience in his role.

I met Lauren Nagel, VP of Product at Stackhawk at their offsite where I facilitated a session for their leadership team. I was lucky to sit next to her at dinner where I got to learn more about her. I’d been wanting to feature more product leaders on the series and was happy she said yes. Our conversation covered her leadership journey, why she took the role at Stackhawk and her advice to other product leaders feeling the weight of responsibility.

I’ve worked with LeadDev for several years as the host of Bookmarked which interviews authors and as a workshop facilitator. This gave me a front-row seat to watch the company handle the sudden shift in the market after the world shut down in March 2020. I’m thrilled LeadDev CEO Ruth Yarnit was willing to share her story with me. We talked about Ruth’s unexpected path to CEO, how she thinks about the balance between being internal and external facing, and her advice for other leaders facing a sudden market shift.

I talked with Ellen Chisa about her startup leadership experiences and how she moved to being a partner at investment firm boldstart Ventures which invests in pre-product founders. Though this challenge is slightly different from others, I wanted to cover it because we don’t talk enough about the transition from a leadership role, especially one like CEO. I think you’ll find Ellen wise and her story enlightening.

John Samuel, the CEO of Ablr happens to be blind. We talked about how he struggled to advocate for himself despite having an MBA and career success, how he went from thinking his career was over to becoming a CEO, what keeps him up at night, and his mission to help companies prioritize disability inclusion. He has a book coming out in November, I can’t wait to read it.

Natasha Vernier is the CEO of Cable. During our conversation, we talked about leaders' role as stress absorbers, the difference between being a leader and a CEO/founder, and what it’s like starting a family and founding a company…at the same time.

Aline Lerner founded Interviewing.io to fix software engineering hiring. Like many businesses, the company found itself facing a steep revenue cliff in 2020 during the heart of the pandemic. We talked about leading the team through a downturn, feeling like a wartime CEO, and raising a Series A while pregnant.

Being a leader, especially one of a startup can be more than a full time job. What happens when stressful things happen in your personal life? I talked with Kirk Fernandes, Co-Founder of Merit about how he handled this when three members of his family got sick. Our conversation covered why he started Merit, what he learned about asking for help, the importance of self-talk and why he recommends therapy to everyone.

Christie Williams, VP of Customer Success at Softdocs has been the first people person at several companies. Our conversation covered her motivation for doing people work, what it’s like being the first people leader on the team, how she thinks about the technology stack that runs the company, and her advice for other people leaders who are the first.

Michael Stahnke took his first role as a VP of Platform at CircleCI. After building relationships and trust over eight years at his previous company, Puppet he found the transition jarring. We talked about why he took the role, what he found most difficult, and how he built trust with different parts of the org — the engineers, his engineering peers, and the rest of the exec team.

Tramale Turner is the CTO of TaxBit. We talked about how growing up in Detroit influenced his career, investing in himself, and why he decided to join TaxBit as the CTO.

Jessica Zwaan and I both made the leap from people to COO so it was wonderful to talk with someone else who’s made this transition. We spoke about why People leaders can make great COOs, the multi-faceted role of COO, the risks execs have to take, what it was like bringing the Whereby team along after a pivot, and treating your culture like a subscription product.

From getting a Ph.D. in economic geography to becoming CEO of a startup as a non-founder, Henrik Mattsson has had a fascinating journey. We spoke about how his life changed in the span of an hour, handling change, shifting company culture after taking the role, and his philosophy of distributed leadership.

In this conversation with Vaidehi Joshi we covered how she became a manager, how she’s battled with perfectionism and over-committing, how she burnt out and eventually came back to a leadership role.