EPISODE SUMMARY

This week I got to speak with Achilles & Paris, LLC's CEO, and Coach Laran Evans. Laran, a veteran in the industry has taken his experience across small scrappy startups to large silicon valley megacorps. to start coaching "experts" on how to become better leaders and mentors. In this episode, we walk through Laran's career journey and dive deep into what makes a great leader. Listen this week to get some insights on how to continue growing past that "Senior" title and get better at working with the people around you.

EPISODE NOTES

Topics covered in this week's episode:

• Management, relationships, and navigating people as a software engineer.
• Is a degree in CS Worth it?
• How can a company/team/engineer start planning releases further out in advance?
• What was your experience stepping into management/leadership for the first time?

"I didn't feel the same competence managing people as I did when I was building systems"

• what does it take to effectively "navigate people politics" as a software engineer?
• leveraging the opportunity potential in today's technological landscape

"how do we help the people with technical skills better leverage technical skills to really innovate"

• "DISC" - a behavior methodology. Adapt behaviors based on communication style.
• pace and priority, the keys to how things get done.
• The Platinum Rule: Treat others as they want to be treated.
• How to become an effective leader. Leadership as a parallel skillset.
• Common behavioral patterns that limit or inhibit engineer's growth

"If you don't know where you're going, any old road will do"

Three biggest takeaways

1. Empathy for others, being flexible, and understanding where others are coming from
2. Never stop learning! Figure out what learning looks like for you.
3. "if you don't know where you're headed any old road will do". Have a plan.

Featuring

Laran Evans — Twitter, Github, Linkedin, Website
Andrew Locke — Twitter, GitHub, LinkedIn, Medium

Links
* Ask me anything - If you have any questions, let me know! I'll do an episode where I answer your questions. * Sign up to be on the podcast * Get coaching - Achilles and Paris