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A candid reflection on my unplanned path into management, where coaching, real conversations, and clearing roadblocks define my leadership style.
There was no grand plan or “five-year roadmap” to leadership. One day someone said, “Hey, who’s going to manage this growing team?” I asked the question and promptly became the answer. I’ve been doing it ever since.
That’s probably why my approach to management is a lot more like coaching than anything else. I don’t think of people as reporting to me. If someone on the team needs help, I’ll jump in, pair program, walk through examples, or help them work around the roadblocks. My job is to get them unstuck so they can do theirs.
I treat 1:1s like a conversation, not a calendar obligation. Sometimes we dive into issues folks are facing that week. Other times, it’s video games, books we’re reading, or random Slack threads that spiral into a 20-minute chat. There’s no script or agenda. The point is to be approachable.
If someone wants to talk, great. If they don’t, that’s fine too. My goal is for people to feel comfortable sharing what’s actually on their minds, not what they think they’re “supposed” to bring to a manager.
I don’t save feedback for performance reviews. If someone’s repeatedly deploying broken code to production, I’ll use it as a coaching moment and maybe poke fun at them in Slack. It’s not formal, it’s not confrontational, but the message gets through.
Most of the impact I’ve had comes from making people’s lives easier, not from “managing” them. I build tools and systems that eliminate annoying, repetitive stuff so the team can focus on what actually matters. Whether it’s simplifying DevOps, writing reusable scripts, or turning ideas into shareable solutions, I’d rather take on the hard part once and make it easy for everyone else moving forward.
It’s the same thing I did when I first started out building message integration tools, solve a recurring problem once, and suddenly everyone’s moving faster. I’m proud of that kind of work, even if it doesn’t show up on some management scorecard.
Management isn’t easy because people aren’t easy. But when you’re surrounded by top-notch folks, like we are at Leverege, you don’t need to micromanage or over engineer your style. You just need to be available, be real, and make life a little easier for your team. That’s what I aim for.
Am I a manager? Am I a coach? Am I the camp counselor who herds cats? Probably all of the above. But if I’m helping good people do good work and removing friction along the way, I figure I’m doing something right.
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