#243 – May 25, 2025
and how great managers make them want to stay
Why people really quit — and how great managers make them want to stay
6 minutes by Kim Scott
Employees often quit due to either micromanagers who excessively control work or absentee managers who provide minimal involvement. She offers a framework for identifying management styles and suggests that effective managers should actively partner with employees, set reasonable goals, listen attentively, and regularly seek feedback to ensure they're providing the right level of support rather than being too controlling or too distant.
How to Migrate Your WPF Components to .NET MAUI
sponsored by Progress Telerik
Looking to modernize your WPF apps? Discover how to seamlessly migrate your WPF components to .NET MAUI with Telerik’s expert guide. Learn best practices, avoid common pitfalls, and future-proof your desktop applications for cross-platform success.
Optimizing personal productivity with AI: A leader’s guide
7 minutes by Barry O’Reilly
Barry summarizes how AI can transform leadership productivity by shifting from reactive work to strategic thinking. He shares his personal journey from burnout to creating an AI-powered productivity system, highlighting key principles: focusing on tasks rather than tools, treating AI as a junior team member, and designing clear strategies before automating.
How confidence is self-fulfilling in high-stakes conversations
6 minutes by Yue Zhao
Yue highlights how confidence significantly impacts executive presentations. When the same manager pitched identical ideas with different approaches the outcomes varied dramatically. Yue argues that confidence is self-fulfilling: prepared, confident presenters earn trust and face less scrutiny, while nervousness triggers deeper probing from executives. Key preparation strategies include understanding your audience, planning your presentation flow, sending pre-reads, bringing subject matter experts, and managing your own anxiety before high-stakes meetings.
A Pyramid-shaped career
4 minutes by Jack Danger
Jack discusses how chasing high-status roles early in one's career can be limiting, creating fear of taking "step down" positions that might actually offer better growth. He contrasts "tower-shaped" careers with "pyramid-shaped" careers that build a broad foundation of skills across different functions. The most successful candidates focus on continuous learning rather than title accumulation, with those who can move fluidly between technical and management roles being particularly valuable in the current economic climate.
Private Equity 101 for the tech industry
10 minutes by João Alves
In article João demystifies private equity: what it is, why it favors SaaS businesses, and how the private equity playbook transforms companies—often through cost-cutting, leadership changes, and a shift toward profitability and cash flow. It also offers practical advice for navigating post-acquisition changes, highlighting how tech professionals can adapt and thrive in a private equity-owned environment.
Why tool sprawl is killing your API strategy
sponsored by Postman
Security risks. Governance gaps. Slower teams. Postman’s Spec Hub + BYOK encryption can tackle it all—on one secure platform. If you’re leading API strategy at scale, this is the blog to read. Get the full breakdown.
And the most popular article from the last issue was: