Berlin

November 4 & 5, 2024

New York

September 4 & 5, 2024

Leadership

Leadership

Leading high-performing engineering organizations

Adapting your leadership for a downturn

Leading through a downturn requires a different approach. Here’s how to realign your leadership to suit this new set of challenges.

How to lead individuals with advanced technical expertise

If you’re a manager of individual contributor’s who have more years of experience on you, you may be confused on how best to lead them.

How can I rebuild a struggling team’s confidence and trust?

When there’s friction in the team you’re managing, morale, performance, and trust all take a hit. How can you rectify the situation?

How to lead senior engineers as a new manager

If you’ve just entered a management role, cultivating your relationship with the senior engineers on your team may be a daunting prospect. Here are a few ways to get that relationship off to a good start.

Reasons to step into a leadership role (and the reasons not to)

Thinking of becoming an engineering leader? Let Pat Kua help you with the first step of the journey.

4 mental models for more effective engineering leadership

On our Leadership playlist

What we talk about when we talk about leadership

Exploring key leadership themes from years in tech, this talk offers guidance and practical strategies to help engineers become the leaders they want to be.

From engineer to executive: Leading the shift and inspiring business-minded tech teams

Explore the journey from engineering leader to CTO, with insights on bridging technology and business strategy, leading with influence, and fostering business-minded tech teams.

Content sponsored by Apollo

Elevating your leadership skills during tough times

What skills do you need to be a great leader during economic uncertainty?

Hywel carver

AI and tech leadership

Hywel Carver talks AI and tech leadership.

Content sponsored by Swarmia

Post-ZIRP engineering leadership

This talk explores the evolution of the engineering leadership role from the growth-focused 2010s to today’s environment of increased scrutiny and accountability.

festival of engineering leadership

London • June 16 & 17, 2025

More about Engineering Management

Top Leadership videos

  • Engineering transparency

    In this talk, I explain why it’s valuable to show our work as Staff engineers. I offer concrete ways to behave transparently and give examples of how each has helped me and my colleagues.

  • Defining expectations of Staff Engineers

    Defining expectations of Staff Engineers

    This presentation is mainly targeted for Staff Engineers who work on defining their own roles and responsibilities. Writing a Staff Engineer Guide, and agreeing on the expectations between the engineering and the management, is a great way to learn about your organization.

  • Scaling your influence when you can only be in one place at once

    Scaling your influence when you can only be in one place at once

    Michael Tweed will cover a case study of the problem “how do we ensure all our teams are meeting code quality standards”, looking at approaches that are likely to (and have!) failed, vs. those which are much more likely to lead to results and long-lasting buy-in.

  • Setting goals as a staff+ engineer

    Setting goals as a staff+ engineer

    Sabrina Leandro shares how to define your development journey as a staff+ engineer, figuring out what you should be working on, how to set your goals, and how to you define your backlog of work. You’ll also learn how to track your progress so you can keep growing as an engineering leader in the individual contributor track.

  • Scaling your influence through documentation

    Scaling your influence through documentation

    James Ford reflects on his two year journey as a Staff Engineer and how a mix of documentation and working groups has been a surprisingly effective strategy for influencing the opinions of the individual engineers as well as the non-technical stakeholders.

  • Solving the puzzle of Staff+ time management

    Solving the puzzle of staff+ time management

    Blanca Garcia Gil looks at how the expectations of your role imply changes in how you manage your time, strategies to avoid feeling like you are being stretched in multiple directions, understanding how you work best, and identifying which strategies apply to you.

  • Riding the rollercoaster of emotions

    Riding the rollercoaster of emotions

    Gabriel Michels covers key topics such as understanding and managing emotions, reflecting on them, developing emotional intelligence, and being in control of our thoughts.

  • Lena Reinhard

    Doing the right thing, better: How to lead with efficiency in mind

    Lena Reinhard will help you change the way you think and operate, and will help you be the leader that your business and your team needs during this time of uncertainty.