Technical Leadership and Influence

Leading starts well before the title does. These episodes cover influencing technical decisions without authority, the tech lead role, running code review so people still speak to you afterward, mentoring others, and whether to move into management at all.

29 episodes of Soft Skills Engineering, the weekly advice podcast where Dave Smith and Jamison Dance answer software engineers' questions. Every episode is free, and each page below has the listener's question in full.

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Every episode about technical leadership

  1. Episode 519: Why does my team not have a tech lead and rumors!
  2. Episode 509: I hate AI software dev, so should I become a manager and leading, not doing
  3. Episode 497: Patronizing perf reviews and can't get anything done as a tech lead
  4. Episode 451: Un-collaborative architect and who is my boss?
  5. Episode 449: My tech lead ignored my warnings and I don't know what my leadership style is
  6. Episode 428: Interim tech lead and asking for a raise when a peer leaves
  7. Episode 398: Tech lead for contractors and how to detach my ego from my work
  8. Episode 378: Too much leadership and awkward zoom silence
  9. Episode 343: Tech lead/manager and discouraging seniors
  10. Episode 340: Productivity lulls and code review showdown
  11. Episode 310: Flip flop and architecture astronaut
  12. Episode 295: Underleveled at FAANG and lazy tech lead
  13. Episode 279: (Rerun of 220) Premature leadership push and credit and status
  14. Episode 277: Super long code reviews and replacement laptop
  15. Episode 220: Premature leadership push and credit and status
  16. Episode 218: Referral underperforming and take a tech lead role
  17. Episode 206: Micromanaging WFH and vaguely tech lead
  18. Episode 199: Offshore team influence and time zone fun
  19. Episode 174: Bottleneck manager and how to tech lead
  20. Episode 170: Code rage and code review etiquette
  21. Episode 157: How to deal with a consistent low performer and my architect wants me to switch from Ruby to Java
  22. Episode 156: How to move from web development into other software engineering roles and dealing with slow code review processes
  23. Episode 153: Informal Leadership and Dealing With Burnout (rerun of episode 71)
  24. Episode 150: How to fight imposter syndrome as a technical lead and Getting in to meetups
  25. Episode 144: Job hunting while employed and how to start my first technical lead role
  26. Episode 101: Style In Code Reviews and How To Thank My Manager
  27. Episode 84: Shy Developers and Outsourced Architecture
  28. Episode 71: Informal Leadership and Dealing With Burnout
  29. Episode 20: Stories from people who got fired and doing effective code reviews

Other topics

Browse all 527 episodes or ask Dave and Jamison your own question.