You’ve tried the “other” methods and training,
And didn’t get the results…
And after all that, how confident are you in your ability to influence and lead people?
Hi, I’m doug!
I help engineering leaders increase their impact by showing
them how to influence, motivate, and inspire all types of
people in any situation - professionally and personally
In 2013 at the age of 28, I was promoted to engineering manager
of a 5 person team.
By 2021, I transformed it into a 40 person industry-leading department.
I was originally promoted because I was a top performing engineer, but leadership requires a whole different skill set
that most engineers are never taught.
As an engineering manager, your biggest challenges and time sucks are typically related to:
Keeping your team focused, engaged, and productive
Effectively communicating to every level of your organization - from entry level to executive
Navigating office politics, resolving conflicts, and solving “people problems”
Getting clear, complete, and correct information handoffs from external departments
Convincing your boss to understand, support, and approve your big ideas
Navigating these situations requires more than logic, facts, and objective analysis.
You need to know how to motivate others to make decisions that work in your favor.
But how confident are you in your ability to influence people?
Meanwhile, I was surrounded by bad managers, and saw the negative impact they had on
people’s confidence, career, growth, and self-esteem.
I knew I didn’t want to be that type of leader,
- but without any positive role models to learn from, I had to figure out everything out on my own.
I read countless books and signed up for a few pricey courses on how to influence, motivate, and inspire people,
- but the “one size fits all” style of training didn’t work for my logical brain.
The general ideas all made sense, but I struggled to find practical ways to
apply the strategies and techniques to real life situation,
- until I realized the disconnect…
Traditional leadership training programs
tell you WHAT to do in specific situations,
and assume you’re naturally outgoing and people-oriented
- but this doesn’t work for engineers…
We need to understand HOW and WHY something works,
before we can absorb, adapt, and
apply it in ways that work for us.
After ditching the traditional methods,
I developed my own leadership framework around understanding human behavior and psychology - so that I could:
Influence without having authority
Understand and deal with all types of people
Motivate people’s behavior and decision-making
Adapt your communication style to match your audience
Deliver constructive feedback that inspires positive changes
Handle difficult people and emotional conversations
Gain buy-in and win people to your way of thinking