Episodes

  • Setting Up Effective Meetings

    Setting Up Effective Meetings
    Oct 21 2026

    Stop wasting valuable team time on unproductive discussions. In this episode, we kick off a five-part series on setting up meetings that deliver results. Discover the five essential components of an effective setup - from crafting actionable agendas to setting clear success criteria - so you can run focused discussions and reclaim hours for meaningful work.
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    5 mins
  • Managing Overwork Effectively

    Managing Overwork Effectively
    Oct 14 2026

    Learn how to manage overwork through think-plan-execute, prioritization, delegation, calendar management, and team independence. Reclaim your time, reduce stress, protect your health, and deliver results without burning out.
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    28 mins
  • No Upward Feedback

    No Upward Feedback
    Oct 7 2026

    Ever been asked to give "upward feedback" to your boss and wondered if it’s a trap? In this episode, we break down why upward feedback isn't just a waste of time - it can actively damage your career. We examine the root causes behind these requests, from undermanagement to misguided consulting trends, and explore why feedback should flow downstream, not up. Plus, we uncover the truth about "anonymous" workplace surveys and share practical strategies to handle requests for upward feedback safely and effectively.
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    25 mins
  • Micromanagement: The Silent Threat to Engineering Teams

    Micromanagement: The Silent Threat to Engineering Teams
    Sep 4 2025
    Micromanagement is a hidden but damaging force in engineering teams, eroding trust, autonomy, and innovation. In this episode of the Effective Engineering Manager podcast, Slava and Adam explore the roots of micromanagement - poor delegation, fear of failure, and lack of trust - and its consequences for morale, productivity, and retention. They also share strategies for organizations and managers to address micromanagement, from coaching and role adjustments to practical ways of shielding teams from its effects.
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    39 mins
  • Ani Mishra: Effective Cross-functional Collaboration

    Ani Mishra: Effective Cross-functional Collaboration
    Aug 26 2025
    Our guest, Ani Mishra, engineering manager at DoorDash, shares how engineering managers can become true force multipliers by orchestrating cross-functional collaboration. From treating PMs, designers, and data scientists as partners to using proactive communication, escalation, and trust-building, Ani lays out practical ways EMs can align teams, remove bottlenecks, and prepare for an AI-driven future.
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    40 mins
  • Driving Lasting Change in Engineering Organizations with Manju Abraham

    Driving Lasting Change in Engineering Organizations with Manju Abraham
    Aug 17 2025
    Manju Abraham, veteran engineering leader at NetApp, Delphix, and HPE, shares practical lessons on leading lasting change. Manju explains why most transformations fail, how to build trust and safety, and the playbook engineering managers can use to co-create vision, empower champions, and turn change into culture.
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    55 mins
  • Jeremy Franzen: Operations and Engineering

    Jeremy Franzen: Operations and Engineering
    Jun 9 2025
    We are featuring a guest Jeremy Franzen, an Operations expert with over 30 years of experience running Ops at public companies and startups. Jeremy shares his expertise in building strong collaboration between software engineering and operations teams through open communication, shared goals, feedback loops, joint automation and monitoring, shared security practices, knowledge sharing, and coordinated approaches to incident and change management, all tracked by common performance metrics. In the end, Jeremy provides a checklist that our listeners can start using today to build and run quality production environments together with their Operations teams.
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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • Engineering Management and AI – Part 2/3 – Jobs

    Engineering Management and AI – Part 2/3 – Jobs
    Apr 1 2025
    In this second episode of three, we continue with a practical introduction to AI for engineering managers. We share possible impact of AI and Large Language Models, or LLM on the jobs. In the end we provide a checklist for engineering managers to help to stay ahead of the AI curve.
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    35 mins