2024 in Review ✍🏻 Drawn to Leadership
What energized me in 2024
2024 just flew by. And like many others here, I've been inspired by AI tools to create summaries of my digital content. I found them very helpful in reflecting on the year. So here is my personal commentary on those reflections - what energized me in 2024.
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The Numbers 📊
I was shocked to realise that I only published 1(!) sketchnote. On the other hand, I doubled down on my LinkedIn content. Almost 2000 new people joined my LinkedIn network. My content was viewed almost half a million times. And I got more than 6.5k interactions. Not bad for a hobby 📈
Top 3 posts this year:
- 📚 3 books, 3 career paths for engineers
- 😱 I gave a talk at a tech conference - and no one listened
- 📣 Under-promise, over-deliver, over-communicate
I call it a hobby because I enjoy writing about my experiences as an engineering manager. And it's become a creative outlet for me - challenging enough to be interesting. But not so time-consuming that I couldn't do it on the side.
Best of all, I have met so many great people through LinkedIn. Many of whom I was able to meet in real life - either as part of our Build & Lead community, at work or on a Zoom call.
This is really the power of LinkedIn, to bring like-minded people together. Thanks to all of you and I hope to meet many more of you next year.
The Sketchnotes 📝
As mentioned above: there was not much activity in 2024. But I'm glad that I wrote about Simon Wardley's concept Explorers, Villagers, and Town Planners. It made me understand why some working environments resonate with me and others don't.
Simon Wardley recognised that there are three essential mindsets at work. He called them Explorers, Villagers and Town Planners (formerly Pioneers, Settlers and Town Planners). The sketchnote summarises Wardley's concept. And I offer two ways to apply the concept to your work environment.
For good measure, I'm listing all my published sketchnotes here:
I promise more sketchnotes in 2025 🤞
The Highlights ✨
🏗️ Co-founding Build & Lead: Tech Leaders Berlin with Jeremy and Mario
I have talked before about the power of networking with like-minded people on LinkedIn. I have met many of them in person this year as part of our Build & Lead community.
Whether it's AI, developer productivity or product management, we've found interactive formats for CTOs and technical leaders to meet and share ideas. A community built for the community. Without the sales pitches. But with workshop-style experiences.
And we are just getting started - we already have great ideas for next year. Sign up to our event calendar to get notified when we announce new dates.
🪶 Deepening facilitation practices at On
Brenée Brown once said that another name for a leader is a facilitator. The word facilitation comes from the Latin word for 'easy'. Making it easy to work together.
2024 was the year in which I introduced many more workshop and facilitation practices into my work as a Head of Engineering. And I think it's a real game changer in a growing team. Especially in a consensus-driven company like On.
I was especially happy to have Andreas at my side to bounce ideas off of for workshops. And to support me with his facilitation skills when I wanted to join workshops as a participant.
🗣️ Speaking about facilitative leadership at CTO Craft
It's been a while since I've spoken at a conference - so I was delighted that my talk at the inaugural CTO Craft Con Berlin went down so well.
Facilitation really is a superpower for engineering leaders. And the talk allowed me to raise my game with storytelling and interactive presentation formats.
I look forward to speak again at CTO Craft Con London next year. And, with Brendan, I'll be happy to continue organising networking opportunities at their CTO Craft Mixer events.
🏃 Running my first timed half marathon in 1:42:56
2024 is the year I got serious about training. Because sometimes you need to get away from the meetings altogether. I'm writing this between a swim this morning and a strength training session this afternoon.
I've already committed to the Berlin Marathon and a first triathlon in 2025. I have a three year goal and a five year goal - more on that next year!
Having learned that a healthy impatience with bad meetings is my superpower, I'm more energized than ever to keep challenging how we lead in tech. See you at the starting line – whether that's at a workshop, a conference, or maybe even a triathlon 🚀
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