Just a quick remindet that this budgeting part 2 workshop is this week - Thursday, May 14th at 5pm PT.

Yesterday I and an opportunity to meet AMD CTO in person fir the first time and had a small q&a session with my team. What was extraordinary was his clarity on our vision and conviction in our ability to execute on this vision. We asked him some really hard questions, and without a single blink he pulled up his phone and showed us photos from customer deployment sights, standing next to equipment he was envisioning years back. (I am purposely showing this in broad terms, NDA and all). I don't think he has vastly better skills than my direct manager, but his clarity and conviction was infectious. I was left with a feeling that this is what made him a CTO. Which leaves me with a question- how can we practice this on daily basis with our teams?

Thank you @Aina Alive and @Lliam Magee for joining this month introspective. I find them super useful, especially since each time we talk about problems, we learn form each other how to solve them. I am grateful for your participation because it gives me a forum where I can share and recieve. Next one will be at the end of May.

I had my first 1:1 with my new manager today, it was only 30 minutes, a pretty simple meeting, but an important one. I asked him for his vision for Technical Program Managers at our company. Got an answer, and while it wasn't super clear yet, it gave me enough to see where things might go. What I noticed, though, is that a vision at the strategic level needs some anchor in day-to-day actions, otherwise it stays just words, and it is hard to put into action. Still early days and only a first meeting, so that's ok. I also left him with one request: frequent feedback. He's an executive, and feedback from that level gives me a direct line to what the company actually needs and expects; that's not a small thing. What do you ask in a first 1:1 with someone new above you?

Had a frustrating day today. Wrote a few messages I really wanted to send but I didn't send them. Not because I was being smart about it. It's just because I know by now that writing while annoyed is usually a bad idea. What comes out is not really what I mean, it's just what I feel at that moment. I waited a bit, re-read them. After some editing I shiped them and probably with better result. Self-awareness is one of those leadership traits that sounds soft until you see what happens without it. Do you have a rule you follow when you're about to send something you might regret?