Writing

Essays on leadership.

Hard-won lessons from 35 years in tech — on the transition from expert to leader, building cultures that last, and the things nobody teaches you when you get promoted.

Featured Essay

Leadership·April 7, 2026·5 min read

The Hire Was Right

The best hire you ever made is now your biggest problem. Not because they changed. Because the company did.

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Leadership·April 2, 2026·5 min read

Present But Gone

They show up every day. They do the work. But you can feel that something is missing. This is not a performance problem.

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Leadership·March 25, 2026·4 min read

What My Kids Learned From Me

I never sat them down and taught them these things. I was too busy working. But somehow, in the margins of all that bustle, they were watching.

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Leadership·March 24, 2026·3 min read

The Remote Culture Problem

You built the culture in the office. You are not sure it survived the distance.

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Leadership·March 1, 2026·7 min read

From Expert to Leader: What Nobody Tells You

You were promoted because you were the best at what you did. Then everything changed - and nobody warned you it would feel like this.

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Leadership·February 25, 2026·3 min read

The Character of a Leader

Real leaders don't need to tell you they are leaders. You know it by watching how they move through difficult decisions.

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Leadership·February 22, 2026·5 min read

The Mentor Who Changed Everything

He said it simply, almost offhand. 'Technical skills can open doors, but people skills keep them open.' I nodded. I thought I knew better. I was wrong.

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Leadership·February 15, 2026·6 min read

The Hands-On Manager Trap

Promoting your best technical expert into a player-coach role feels efficient. It isn't. It's a slow sentence for their career and your culture.

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Published Elsewhere

IndustryWeek

"To Fix Quality, You Must First Fix Culture"

Quality isn't a department — it's what happens when your culture is healthy. Sustainable improvement is impossible without addressing what's underneath.

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ASQ
Quality
Progress

"Metamorphosis of a Manager"

The shift from command-and-control oversight to coaching-oriented leadership. What it really takes to evolve from manager to leader.

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