ExceptionalLeader

When I was in high school, I read Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism was fascinating to me. Although it struck me as painfully negative, there were parts that resonated. To this day, I recall a discussion about people being “doomed to make choices.” An interpretation of Sartre’s “L’homme est condamné à être libre.” People: … Read more

What comes to mind when you hear the term “CI”? Is it Continuous Integration? That’s cool. However, today, I want to talk about the other CI–Continuous Improvement. Many Engineering Leaders used to spend countless hours learning new programming languages, frameworks, and methodologies. This consistent learning was expected of ICs. Then, you became a leader, and … Read more

You have probably heard countless times, “Bring solutions, not problems.” However, there are several downsides to this approach that you may not be aware of. Downsides❌ Not Every Problem Has An Easy Solution — Self explanatory⏱️ Delay Problem Solving — Team members wait to surface issues until they’re full-blown crises.🫣 Hides Critical Issues — Can … Read more

You have been doing a good job navigating.⛵️🧭 There’s a lot going on. 🗑🔥️ Keep Your Head Up. 🎶🎶 💎 Exceptional Leader Practice:⭐ Celebrate Yourself⭐ Little Wins Are Still Wins⭐ Your Best Is Enough⭐️ Keep Growing & Going⭐️ IMPORTANT: Check On Your Team & Colleagues — this time of year can be both joyful and … Read more

One of the most effective ways to inspire, build trust, and influence your team is to lead by example. Leading by Example is modeling the behavior, work ethic, and values you want your team to adopt, ensuring your actions speak louder than your words–because they do. 💡 Here’s what Leading by Example looks like —↳️ … Read more

The #1 predictor of whether an organization will scale successfully is a Growth Mindset. ✅ With a Growth Mindset, leaders believe that they have the ability to develop their skills–so they practice, study, and adopt new technologies. ✅ With a Growth Mindset, leaders view success as achievable through dedication–so they play with confidence, taking strategic … Read more

As an Engineering Leader, it’s expected that you’ve honed your self-development skills. You’ve taught yourself programming languages, frameworks, and various tools. In fact, you’ve even tried to teach yourself leadership. However, delivery dates were missed, team members clashed, and poor quality led to production crashes. C-suite executives have leveraged coaching for decades. They have benefited … Read more

To build high-impact, resilient, and engaged teams, engineers and engineering leaders need leadership training. According to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, engineers need lifelong learning experiences to build and sustain core competencies, and leadership is no exception. In fact, a recent survey by the Engineering Management Institute found that nearly half of engineers rank … Read more

Hope you enjoyed the long weekend. Keep in mind your team is coming back from a long weekend. Ensure you welcome them back like a good cup of coffee. ☕️ Avoid welcoming them back like a cold plunge. 🥶 Trust, the work will be there on Monday afternoon and the rest of the week. 💎 … Read more

Many people incorporate gratitude into their leadership for the benefits. 💡 Benefits🗝️ Enhances Employee Engagement & Satisfaction🗝️ Increases Trust & Collaboration🗝️ Increases Productivity🗝️ Fosters a Growth Mindset However, in a very real way, this approach to demonstrating gratitude is transactional–the antithesis to gratitude itself. Therefore, if you’re practicing gratitude and are still not experiencing the … Read more

FriendlyReminder… This week’s Exceptional Leader assignment was to cancel any and all meetings on Wednesday that end after 11am. Or, just clear the day entirely. 😊 (Here’s the original post: ) How did it go? Let me know in the comments. Exceptional Leaders plan well so their team can enjoy the, hopefully, short week. 💎 … Read more

Harmony is a music concept that’s the combination of different notes played or sung at the same time to create chords and other harmonic sounds. In Leadership, Harmony represents the collaboration between people, as with a high-impact team that works and delivers well together. What contributes to a team’s harmony? Leaders who demonstrate the following: … Read more

Feeling behind the AI curve as an Engineering Leader? Join us on Friday, December 12th at 1:00 PM PT to gain the confidence you need to incorporate AI effectively! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to Grow, Know, & Flow! Leave equipped to create a clear AI adoption strategy, elevate your team’s AI engagement, and … Read more

I agree with this statement 💯% I took a class from a leader who expressed that, as leaders, we’re evaluated based on our team. Hence, we need to have good to great team members. It also means we need to promptly address the team members who may not be meeting expectations. I agree with that … Read more

FriendlyReminder… 📚 Exceptional Leader Assignment: Cancel any and all meetings on Wednesday that end after 11am. Or, just clear the day entirely. 😊 💎 Exceptional Leader Practice:⭐ Clear the Calendar⭐ Cancel Meetings⭐ Wish Everyone Well⭐️ IMPORTANT: Check On Your Team & Colleagues — this time of year can be both joyful and challenging. 🙏🏾 You … Read more

A client asked, “What do I talk about in 1:1s”? Great question. Many Engineering Leaders miss the opportunity to reap the benefits of holding productive 1:1s. This typically happens for two reasons. 1. Unsure about what to talk about, like my client. 2. Unaware of the “why” of 1:1s. The why can be elusive because … Read more

That’s all. 💡 Benefits of Gratitude:🗝️ Cultivates a More Positive Work Environment🗝️ Motivates and Builds More Collaborative Teams🗝️ An Improved Sense of Wellbeing🗝️ Increases Self-Control and Regulation 💎 Exceptional Leader Practice:⭐ Express Gratitude Year-Round⭐ Acknowledge Your Team (in their preferred manner)⭐ Keep a Gratitude Journal⭐ Make Time to Reflect⭐️ BONUS: This time of year can … Read more

This week’s Exceptional Leader assignment was to calculate your actual remaining work weeks and review the feasibility of completing year-end deliverables–better to communicate changes sooner rather than later. (Here’s the original post: ) How did it go? Let me know in the comments. Keep in mind, there’s only seven weeks left in 2025. That’s all, … Read more

Good old target fixation isn’t so good. When on a motorcycle, this happens when the rider fixates on the hazard (what could go wrong), instead of looking safely through the bend (what could go right). See, a motorcycle tends to go where you’re looking, so look where you want to go. In Engineering Leadership, target … Read more

Data-driven Leadership is typically viewed as positive. It focuses on quantitative information, objective performance assessments, and improved decision-making. However, data alone, or even as the centerpiece, has its downsides. 🚫 Data-Driven Leadership Downsides↳ Glean Incorrect Insights (conflate causation and correlation and overemphasize specific results)↳ Limited Perspective (data is a point, not the full picture)↳ Cost … Read more

What’s your favorite thing about engineering leadership, Joy? Well, one of my favorite things is–developing leaders. As someone who loves to see people move forward in their careers, developing leaders is very rewarding. Additionally, one of the traits of successful leaders is the ability to develop others around them. Yet, many leaders pay little if … Read more

Seven weeks left in 2025. That’s all, folks. Out of those seven weeks, there are actually four working weeks. Even though this time of year happens every year, many people still look at the calendar and see seven weeks remaining to get X, Y, or Z delivered. FYI – I didn’t even mention PTO. 📚 … Read more

As we kick off another week, plan it out. You might be thinking, “I already plan my week, Joy.” Good job. This time, only add things to your list that you’ll complete–not start–complete. This week, keep it simple and strive for completion–done is better than started. 💎 Exceptional Leader Practice:⭐ Your Complete List⭐ Prioritize List … Read more

I was on a call the other day with several engineers–junior to staff, and someone expressed that there are 5% good managers and 95% others. I would like to say that I was surprised by the sentiment, but I’m not. In fact, that’s why I decided to start advising and coaching Engineering Leaders. Engineering Leaders, … Read more

This week’s Exceptional Leader assignment was to reflect on your “tried-and-true” approaches and what “new” ones you can try instead. (Here’s the original post: ) How did it go? Let me know in the comments. Keep in mind, the failure rate for Organizational Transformation is approximately 70%. Embracing change can be difficult. However, Exceptional Leaders … Read more

Leaders, if you’re also a Hiring Manager, structure interviews to assess the candidate’s discernment skills for all levels and especially for senior+ engineers. Tech Skills are important. However, it’s a given that senior engineers know how to write code. What’s not a given is how they will approach the problem, design the solution, choose the … Read more

I see that statement in your posts. What does it mean, Joy? Great question. Thanks for asking. Many people believe leadership is external. The focus is on outside activities such as directing teams, presenting at meetings, and being the boss. However, leadership is internal. People lead based on who they are. Therefore, Exceptional Leaders develop … Read more

As you complete performance reviews for your team members, with each review, pause and pose the following questions. 🗝️ How did my leadership contribute to my team member’s overall success?🗝️ How did my leadership undermine/adversely affect my team member’s overall success?🗝️ What growth opportunities did I provide to my team member?🗝️ What are three ways … Read more

The failure rate for Organizational Transformation is approximately 70%. Many leaders default to familiar methods regardless of their efficacy. Why?↳ They stick with what’s comfortable↳ They feel the most capable↳ They associate repeated exposure with positivity However, that approach can be detrimental to Organizational Transformation. Organizational Transformation requires several components. For instance, empowering and motivating … Read more

✨If you think no one cares about you, I do. You got this! ♻️ Feel free to repost with your community.🔔 Follow Joy and Mosaic Presence, Inc. for more. 💎 Leadership is an inside-out game. For even more Exceptional Leader Practices, join our mailing list. Who do you know that’s ready to inspire consistent high … Read more

“I’m an artist and code is my medium.” — Joy Dixon Engineering Leaders benefit greatly from utilizing their creativity. Those who utilize their creativity have the ability to solve problems, generate ideas, collaborate collectively, and drive innovation. Creative leadership is a competitive advantage. It helps leaders think beyond conventional solutions. Embracing constraints unlocks creativity through … Read more

This week’s Exceptional Leader assignment was to utilize discernment, verify, and double-check the information you share out and take in. (Here’s the original post: ) How did it go? Let me know in the comments. Keep in mind, AI hallucinations have a significant cost, with a 2024 study citing $67.4 billion in business losses due … Read more

I think confrontation is healthy, because it clears the air very quickly. — Bill Parcells Leaders must be willing to have difficult conversations. 🚫 Many leaders avoid difficult conversations for various reasons↳ Personal Discomfort / Fear of Conflict↳ Misguided “Peacekeeping” / Think It’s Unkind↳ Unpredictability / Uncertain Outcome ❌ Cost of not having difficult conversations↳ … Read more

I was attending a leadership development workshop where we did a values exercise. The kind where you pick 10 values, then prioritize them until there are only three remaining. One of my top three values was, and still is, Authenticity. How I show up in the world is of the utmost importance to me. That’s … Read more

Had an awesome team member. He was a frontend wonder. He was collaborative, diligent, reliable, and always willing to take on new challenges. Truly, he was a 10/10! One day during our 1:1, he delicately mentioned he had been looking for a new role. When I asked him about his motivation, he indicated he wanted … Read more

People readily admit that AI suffers from hallucinations. However, people shy away from or vehemently deny admitting that other people suffer from hallucinations. Let’s level-set on the definition. AI hallucinations are when Generative AI produces false, misleading, or nonsensical information while confidently presenting it as fact. What does that look like, Joy? Have you ever … Read more

People love to talk about or just drop the word strategy in sentences. There’s a belief, as well as research that confirms people who utilize the word are perceived as more competent. However, before we talk strategy, we need to talk business. Before we talk business, we need to talk leadership. Before we talk leadership, … Read more

Giving credit where it’s due is about recognizing your team’s contributions. However, it’s not only about your team, but also about you. Acknowledging, or not, your team’s contributions speaks volumes about your leadership ability. 🎯 Giving Credit Truths↳ The Team Does the Work (therefore, earned the credit)↳ The Team’s Success Reflects the Leader’s Ability to … Read more

This week’s Exceptional Leader assignment was to clarify WHAT you’d like to accomplish before the year wraps up. (Here’s the original post: ) How did it go? Did you make some time to sit and write your responses? Even better, have you written your responses and created a plan? Even better still, have you written … Read more

If you’re not into sports, that’s totally cool. However, I encourage you to read this post. I personally love sports and have modeled my leadership style based on my two favorite legendary sports coaches: Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma. Here are some of the lessons I learned from them. 🗝️ Create a Winning Culture↳ Both … Read more

Oftentimes, leaders believe that leadership is loud, boisterous, and commanding. However, there’s a more efficient and successful way to lead–Quiet Leadership. Quiet Leadership is about leading calmly, thoughtfully, and creating stability. It focuses on collaboration and communication instead of control. In fact, Quiet Leaders embody traits that make them highly effective. Quiet Leader Traits🗝️ Empathy↳ … Read more

Few people are ever truly listened to. One of the greatest gifts a leader can give their team is to actually listen and hear what they are saying. Leaders who listen well create company cultures where people feel respected, valued, and engaged. They build trust, resolve conflicts, and enhance their decision-making and problem-solving abilities. Given … Read more

As the end of the year nears, you may hear the phrase, “Finish Strong,” a lot. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the phrase. However, it’s missing a key aspect–finish what? The phrase assumes you know what to finish. Do you? If your GetTo and WantTo lists are as long as mine, that phrase may feel … Read more

I have a client who recently got a new manager. My client is used to getting a new manager. In fact, they, like many team members, have had a new manager every 18-24 months–that’s a future post. Unfortunately, this new manager started their first 90 days disrupting the team, project timelines, and cross-team relationships in … Read more

I typically avoid universals like, always, never, etc. However, in this case, it is what it is. Ungrateful leaders are never great. I’m certain many of you have heard of the benefits of gratitude, so I’m going to skip that in this post and focus on the signs of Ungrateful Leaders. Here’s a starter list:⛔️ … Read more

This week’s Exceptional Leader assignment was to respond to the following question: As the seasons change, be willing to change too. Take a minute to identify where Fallingback could move your leadership forward. (Here’s the original post: ) How did it go? Did you make some time to sit and write your responses? Even better, … Read more

“A conductor should guide rather than command.” –Riccardo Muti, Conductor Music, with its ability to inspire, unify, and communicate without words, offers invaluable lessons in emotional intelligence, timing, collaboration, and adaptability—qualities that define effective leadership. 🎶 Emotional IntelligenceMusic, a vehicle for emotional expression, communicates emotions without words, teaching musicians to convey feelings through melody and … Read more

It’s about creating an environment where your team feels safe enough to give you theirs Leadership has many facets. An important one is to create an environment where the team voices half-finished thoughts, openly challenges the status quo, shares feedback, and works through disagreements together-—knowing that leaders value honesty, candor, and truth-telling. Here are 7 … Read more

People: How do you build such high-performing teams that are collaborative, great with stakeholders, poised in the midst of a production issue, and who over-deliver? Joy (Me 😊): I cast a wide net, look for qualities instead of types, and pose meaningful questions. 🗝️ Cast A Wide NetI appreciate my Recruiting partners. AND, I don’t … Read more

Time to Fall Back 🍁 🕖 We set our clocks back an hour in about two weeks.😭 (I need all of this time to prepare.😄) Let’s talk about falling back and how it relates to leadership. Here are three key areas of fallingback. 🗝️ Falling BehindDo you feel like you just can’t keep up with … Read more

“I’d like to work on managing up,” my client expressed. Communication is key. 💡 Communicate Proactively↳ Avoid making your manager chase information. 💡 Communicate Information with Context↳ Frame the information in a way that speaks to your manager’s concerns and priorities. 💡 Understand What Your Manager Cares About↳ Align with Their Goals↳ Know When to … Read more

The benefits of Gratitude have been well-researched and well-documented. Gratitude Benefits↳ Improves Performance↳ Increases Engagement↳ Strengthens Team Connection For appreciation to be effective, it must be perceived as authentic. To be received, it must be personalized. That said, the #1 element of effective appreciation is… 💡 Praise People, Not Productivity. Effective appreciation must be based … Read more

This week’s Exceptional Leader assignment was to respond to the following question: 🤔 What will you miss out on if, in a year from now, nothing has changed? (Here’s the original post: ) How did it go? Did you make some time to sit and write your responses? Even better, have you written your responses … Read more

Plan Your Engineering Teams Like A Group Ride 🏍️ Building teams is a fundamental leadership task. Plan the structure, culture, and processes for dynamic and high-performing teams. 💎 Exceptional Leader Practice:⭐ Plan Your Teams⭐ Two Senior Leaders per Team⭐ Team Size: 5-7⭐ Work Variation⭐ Cultivate Collaboration⭐️ Communication is Key You got this! ♻️ Feel free … Read more

Many leaders have been exposed to the J. Jonah Jamesons of the world. The ones that come off as bad-tempered, bossy, demanding, loud, and rather bitter. Their “leadership” is squarely based on authority, often emphasizing compliance and obedience to established protocols and procedures. However, leading effectively is not about authority or wielding power. It’s actually … Read more

Here’s this week’s Exceptional Leader assignment. Respond to the following question:🤔 What will you miss out on if, in a year from now, nothing has changed? When answering the above question, identify and write out the downsides. Identifying potential downsides is not about being negative. Nor is it about being realistic. It’s about setting yourself … Read more

Welcome to a new week, Everyone! (I’m a Sunday Starter) It’s not just a new week, it’s also a new day, and a new moment. However, interestingly enough, we humans find ourselves not embracing the new but clinging to the past. As if everything was better then. I’ll let you fill in what “everything” means … Read more

Feedback is an essential part of effective leadership. However, many leaders struggle to deliver it. Leaders cite being conflict-averse as a reason why they dodge giving feedback. Conflict-aversion stems from a fear of upsetting others, rejection, and abandonment. Leaders who avoid important conversations typically face greater long-term difficulties. ⚠️ Lessens Respect & Self-Esteem⚠️ Undermines Trust … Read more

📚 Player-Coach: A member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. 📚 Players’ Coach: A coach who has been on the field/court and can diagnose situations from what they see on the field/court, and can incorporate it with their experience. Over the past few years, I’ve seen more job descriptions … Read more

Too often, I see leaders taking their cues from other leaders. Even if the leader they’re imitating is one they don’t admire or even respect. I ask myself why? What makes people strive to do what others have done poorly? Let’s pause for a little story about Joy. When I was young, probably around four, … Read more

How many interviews does it take to get to an offer? That question may be too big to answer, so let’s narrow the scope a bit. Leaders, how many interviews do you hold per candidate? I’ve seen anywhere between five and eight rounds of interviews, which can amount to seven to 15 team members’ time. … Read more

People: How do you do all the things, Joy? You keep track of teams, projects, and people. What time management system are you using? Joy (Me 😊): It’s not about time, it’s about intention. People: What? Joy: I lead from my intentions. Leading from my intentions is about sifting. 📚Sifting definition: The process of examining … Read more

Delegation is an essential leadership skill. However, many leaders grapple with its implementation. However, there are several reasons why leaders may avoid delegating work, such as…~ “I’m not sure anyone on my team can do this work as well as I can.”~ “It will take longer to explain how to do this than to just … Read more

I have a client who is an accomplished software engineer with 10+ years of experience. They’ve worked at household name companies, worked on highly-visible projects, and have received several recognitions. Recently, they moved into their first engineering management role. They had been in the role for over a year, and things appeared to be going … Read more

Recognition drives performance, engagement, and morale. Here are the impact team members:~ 4x more likely to be engaged in their work~ 18x more likely to produce great work~ 5x more likely to be connected to company culture~ 63% more likely to stay at their jobs As a result, recognition is essential at all levels of … Read more

As we wrap up the week, checking in on your assignment. Were you able to make time to breathe deeply, take a walk, or listen to music? It’s cool if you did the assignment. It’s cool if you didn’t do the assignment. What’s important is taking the time to reflect. Reflect on your week. Here … Read more

I don’t know about you, but I love when things go as planned. Buttoned up. On-time. Bug-free. However, you and I know that it doesn’t work like that on more occasions than we can count. Sometimes sideways just appears to be the order of the day, week, and month. My greatest lessons and learnings in … Read more

The level of uncertainty, inhumanity, and complexity in the world right now is impacting your team. In fact, it may be impacting you as well. This impact can show up in many ways:↳ Delayed Delivery↳ Disengagement↳ Out-of-Offices↳ Conflicts↳ Indecision/Risk-aversion Remaining silent or solely focusing on work tasks will not alleviate the feelings of anxietythat may … Read more

What’s your proudest moment as an engineering leader, Joy? Well, it may not be #1, but it’s definitely top 3. I had a Team Member who was a really great software engineer. Time and again, they came up with innovative solutions to problems. When they solved a problem, they’d do a write-up to share. They’d … Read more

Under Pressure 🎶 Many engineering leaders are being asked to…↳ Do more with less↳ Deliver quicker with less clarity↳ Decide with less information Oh yeah, also, ensure quality, evaluate AI tools, handle pentesting, and the list goes on. Many might think it’s the number of items on our lists that causes stress. Or, how we … Read more

Ask for what you need. I had a client who wanted to work on responding during meetings. They described themselves as someone who prefers to think about a topic before responding. They had concerns about how they were being perceived because there were people in the meeting who responded during the meetings regardless of their … Read more

Have you heard of Appreciation Leadership? Appreciation Leadership consists of demonstrating appreciation — recognizing team members, celebrating wins, and showing gratitude. With appreciation, your team’s performance levels up, their engagement increases, and their sense of ownership and accountability multiplies. Here are some additional reasons to implement Appreciation Leadership: 💎 Exceptional Leader Practice:Add in Appreciation.⭐️ Acknowledge … Read more

Do you have a team or a group of individuals? ↳ A themed name does not make a team↳ A product area does not make a team↳ A Slack channel does not make a team So what does make a team?⭐️ Good communication⭐️ Individual talent⭐️ Trust Sounds good, Joy. How do you build a team?💎 … Read more

Aren’t you going to miss writing code? That was the question my skip-level asked me when I applied for an engineering leadership position. I started writing code in the sixth grade. My teacher encouraged my parents to buy me a Commodore 64. At the time of the question, I had been writing code for 30+ … Read more