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🐠 Vacation Tests, Short vs Long Term Strategy, Delegation, Zero Surprises, Mob AI, Build or Buy, Workplace Stress: TMW #435

How burnt out do you feel right now?
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Thanks to Albany Growth for sponsoring this issue of Tech Manager Weekly - a ground-breaking search partner for product & software talent.

Hello there, it's Monday again!

I've been thinking a lot about burnout over the weekend, and it occurred to me that while there's definitely been a positive shift in how openly we discuss it and support those struggling with it (including ourselves!), the bulk of the discussion seems to focus on one type of burnout: Burnout that Comes from Being Overloaded. But what about the rest?

  • Under-challenged Burnout: This occurs when employees are bored, lack stimulating work, or feel their skills aren't being utilized. It's often overlooked but can be just as debilitating as overwork.
  • Neglected Burnout: When individuals feel unacknowledged, undervalued, or that their contributions don't matter to the broader organisational goals. This goes beyond just "lack of recognition" to a deeper sense of insignificance.
  • Burnout from "Emotional Labour": The exhaustion and detachment experienced when constantly managing or suppressing your true feelings to meet job demands. This continuous emotional performance depletes your inner resources, leading to cynicism and reduced empathy.
  • What else? Over to you - what other burnout archetypes should we be thinking about?

See you next week!

Andy @ CTO Craft

PS: Don't forget our Deep Dives: Managing Upwards and Sideways event is coming up in just a few weeks - Campus members get in free, but it's open to everyone!

CTO Craft Events

Deep Dives: Managing Upwards and Sideways - July 1 2025
Learn how some of the best leaders build and maintain cross-functional relationships, influence and productivity with an afternoon of high-impact talks with practical, workshop-style elements - giving you tools you can apply immediately.
CTO Craft: Deep Dives
CTO Craft Bytes: Tech on the Radar - Balancing Big Bets with Small Wins | CTO Craft
CTO Craft Bytes returns to London with an evening focused on smart decision-making in a noisy tech landscape. Whether you’re setting a strategy or avoiding the latest hype cycle, this session is designed to help you focus on what truly moves the needle.
CTO Craft
CTO Craft Mixer: Women in Tech Leadership
Join CTO Craft’s monthly online Mixer, exclusively for women in tech leadership. Connect virtually with peers, share experiences, and expand your network in a relaxed, supportive environment.
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Reads of the Week

The 2-Week Vacation Test for Engineers and Managers
Are you sharing knowledge with others or are you a bottleneck? This is what to do to find out!
Engineering LeadershipGregor Ojstersek
The art of authentic feedback
Moving past the script
Incremental forgettingDunya Kirkali

CTO Craft Compensation Report 2025

The CTO Craft Compensation Report 2025 is now live! While the headline numbers tell a compelling story, there’s even more to uncover beneath the surface. To help you get the full picture, we’ve published a series of supporting blog posts that dive deeper into the key themes shaping the future of tech leadership compensation.

Well, let's take a closer look...

  • Why is retention under pressure?
  • How is restructuring shifting leadership roles?
  • What’s changing in salary and equity expectations?

Read the deep-dive analysis of the report's findings in our blog posts here!

If you're interested in sponsoring TMW or any of our events, drop us a line at partners@ctocraft.com.

Leadership, Strategy & Business

Short-term vs Long-term
How to balance investments
Fish Food for ThoughtMike Fisher
The Leadership Shift That Actually Works: From Doing More to Connecting More
The world isn’t just noisy — it’s personal, chaotic, and constantly changing. What if the answer to better leadership isn’t doing more —

Women in TechnologyGrace Gong
Why Delegation Fails – and What to Do About It
Why delegation fails for many founders — and how to fix it. Learn practical tools like Delegation Poker, spot common traps, and start scaling with clarity and trust.
Tobi’s Tidbits of TyrannyTobias Mende
Your Manager Is Not Your Best Friend
As people become managers, it’s quite common for their team members to want to commiserate with them.
Stay SaaSyStay SaaSy
Wardley Maps & Pace Layering for Senior Tech Leads and Engineering Leaders
Intro to both tools, why they exist, how they overlap and pragmatic tips how to use them and when
Alex Ewerlöf NotesAlex Ewerlöf

Culture, People & Teams

Creating a Zero Surprises Culture
A new culture of software reliability
loveholidays techMisha Griffiths
RDEL #95: What does effective coordination look like in distributed software teams?
Distributed teams that pair efficient meetings with clear Slack norms reduce ambiguity, lower message volume, and align faster.
Research-Driven Engineering LeadershipLizzie Matusov
The Anti-Goal Setting Guide: Creating Objectives People Actually Care About
Why does traditional goal setting fail to inspire action? And how can you transform goal setting from a dreaded admin activity to a meaningful and useful process that connects with a person’s natural tendencies and aspitations? Learn three practical approaches to create objectives people genuinely care about pursuing.
Allison McMillan/Tavlin Consulting
Engineering Culture, Trust, and Accountability
I figured I would open with a topic I know and understand well: technical Leadership, building a healthy engineering culture, and the

Better ProgrammingEmily Dresner

Technology, Operations & Delivery

The Work of Building for Other Engineers | Platform & SRE Mindset — Humans in Systems
This post is for anyone building platforms, tools, or systems that others rely on. It’s about the kind of engineering that makes things smoother, safer, and more human. Whether you call it SRE, DevOps, or platform work, the actual job is helping others do their best work with confidence, clarity, an
Humans in SystemsBusra Koken
Mob Agentic Engineering: Riding the AI Wave Together
AI is revolutionizing code generation, but how do we collaborate effectively with AI in a team? Exploring Mob Agentic Engineering and the critical challenge of shared context.
NOD Consulting ArticleNOD Consulting
Build or Buy. Grind or Automate.
One thing I like to ask in diligence is how people in engineering and product judge the value of third-party software purchases. Sometimes these are buy vs. build decisions, but in others an engineer sees an opportunity to save X hours of time per engineer per month for $Y thousand
Jefferson HeardJefferson Heard
Why Systems Fail And What You Can Do About It
Disclaimer: This article reflects our personal views. It is based entirely on publicly available information and is intended for

WSFBArtem

Stress, Wellbeing & Growth

Cognitive Reappraisal: The Art of Seeing Things Differently
Cognitive reappraisal is a way of reinterpreting a situation in order to change its emotional impact. It’s one of the most effective strategies for managing emotions.
Ness LabsAnne-Laure Le Cunff
Employee Stress Is a Business Risk—Not an HR Problem
Workplace stress, on the rise for decades, has been treated by many organizations as a personal issue instead of a business-critical risk that merits executive oversight. This is likely due in part to the fact that companies have not effectively quantified and tracked the cost stress poses to integral business outcomes. Companies can take charge of the avoidable costs of stress by surveying their workforce and mapping the stress they report onto quantifiable outcomes like revenue, customer satisfaction, and performance evaluations. Understanding how fluctuations in stress impact these outcomes can help businesses come up with and initiate targeted solutions to reduce the likelihood of disruption, protect workforce health, and unlock long-term competitive advantage.
Harvard Business ReviewMarion Chomse
Killing the tiny annoyances (in work and life)
Get rid of those tiny daily annoyances that waste your time and energy
Manager.devAnton Zaides
When Can Rejection Help Us Create a Better Life? - Create an Adaptable Life
By the time we start school, most of us have heard the word “no” a lot. Parents tell children not to do unsafe things—a form of rejection. Most of us learn from these rejections and decide what to do next. In school, we experience a ton of rejection. As a short child with zero athletic [
]
Create an Adaptable LifeJohanna

That’s it!

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Have an amazing week!

Andy

Published by:

Andy Skipper