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🥐 Working with CEOs, Staying Technical, Matrix Leadership, Ownership, Cutting Quality, AI-Induced Burnout: TMW #490

Nominations for the CTO Craft 100 awards are officially open!
This week's TMW is sponsored by Vanta - the world's #1 trust management platform that helps companies automate compliance, manage risk, and continuously prove security trust.

Hello, hello, hello, welcome to the week!

Nominations for the CTO Craft 100 awards

Behind every successful business and thriving tech team is a network of human support. As a community, we know that peer-to-peer guidance is what truly sustains us through the highs and lows of tech leadership.

Now is your chance to shine a light on those invaluable connections. Nominations for the CTO Craft 100 are officially open! Let's celebrate the exceptional leaders who don't just drive innovation, but actively lift up, mentor, and champion their peers.

Who makes a difference in your engineering world? We want to hear about them!

Nominations Now Open: CTO Craft 100 - 2026 | CTO Craft
We’re excited to announce that nominations are now open for the Global CTO 100 - a brand new initiative from CTO Craft that celebrates the technology and engineering leaders defining the future of our industry.
CTO CraftMatt Hunt

That's it, let's look at some links....

Andy @ CTO Craft

Ps. If you're in an engineering leadership role, you absolutely need to be on top of the latest data on compensation and long-term incentives - have a look at our recent Compensation Report for all the latest insights.

Compensation Survey Report 2026 | CTO Craft
Welcome to the 2026 CTO Compensation Report, presented by CTO Craft and Albany.
CTO CraftMatt Hunt

CTO Craft Con - Dates for Your Diary

CTO Craft Con: Europe 2026
Join CTO Craft Con Europe 2026 in Amsterdam - an intimate, community-centered gathering for engineering leaders to connect, learn through insightful sessions, and build real peer relationships in a supportive environment.
CTO Craft Con: Europe 2026
CTO Craft Con: Fintech
Join CTO Craft Con: Fintech in London - an intimate, community-centered gathering for engineering leaders to connect, learn through insightful sessions, and build real peer relationships in a supportive environment.
CTO Craft Con: Fintech
CTO Craft | Conversations Roadshow
Each gathering follows the same small-group, peer-led format, but every event is shaped by its local context. Attendees, facilitators, and discussion topics differ from city to city, reflecting the challenges and opportunities CTOs are experiencing in that region.
Conversations Roadshow
SPONSORED
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Two GRC Engineering nerds walk into a virtual event... 

GRC's reputation is shifting, and GRC Engineering is at the forefront.

Ayoub Fandi, GRC Engineer at Lovable, and Justin Pagano, Sr. Director of GRC Engineering at Vanta, have a lot to say about Legacy GRC and what comes next. Consider this your front row seat to the official mic drop moment.

Join this virtual event to learn:

  • GRC Engineering vs Legacy GRC
  • Why GRC Engineering goes beyond compliance automation
  • Practical ways to start automating, with lessons from Lovable and Vanta
Register to save your spot

CTO Craft Events Coming Up

See the whole calendar here - not in your city yet? Drop us a line!

Reads of the Week

Working with the CEO – Puppies, Flowers, Rainbows and Kittens
kevin
A return to two-pizza culture
What made the Quick desktop team successful is the same thing that has always produced the best work I’ve seen at Amazon: a small group of people who trusted each other, owned the problem end-to-end, and acted on their conviction.
All Things DistributedDr Werner Vogels - https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/

Leadership, Strategy & Business

How to Stay Technical as a Manager in AI era?
Should managers code? My take: not to ship, but to stay technical. A practical AI framework for staying close to your team’s stack without losing your calendar
Engineering Leader's Playbook ⚡️Karol Wójciszko
What the best matrix leaders do differently: seven research-grounded behaviours
Only 7% of senior executives rate themselves effective at cross-boundary collaboration. What the best matrix leaders do differently, and why it has nothing to do with working harder.
Andi Roberts - Executive Coach | Leadership Trainer | FacilitatorAndi Roberts
Leadership Superpower: Delegation
It was the start of year.
Jamie Smith WebbJamie Smith Webb
Executive anxiety: Roadmaps as Security Blankets | ProdPad
Your CEO asks for dates, but what they need is confidence. Learn why roadmaps become security blankets, and what to give instead.
ProdPadJanna Bastow

Culture, People & Teams

How tech workers are feeling in 2026: a workforce splitting in two
Results from our second annual tech worker sentiment survey
Lenny's NewsletterNoam Segal and Lenny Rachitsky
When Nothing Happens
Why bad behavior often goes unpunished, and what changes when it finally doesn’t
Fish Food for ThoughtMike Fisher
The Mario Meeting
Review season. You start your career thinking the review is the most important milestone of the year, but as an individual, you only see part of the picture.
Rands in ReposeName *
Ownership
Thoughts on ownership I sent to the Amp team in internal note
Register SpillThorsten Ball

Technology, Operations & Delivery

The software engineering war
Most of us picked a side and won’t budge. Which one are you on?
Manager.dev
Stop being embarrassed by quality
Cutting scope is a decision you defend. Cutting quality is one you hide.
Garry Shutler
Lucas’ Laws of Project Management
Hot takes and cold truths on software, startups, and the lies we tell ourselves.
Lucas F. CostaLucas F. Costa
Redundancy architecture: what the Visa 2018 Outage teaches about grey failures
Postmortem Files #2: The Leadership Audit
The Leadership AuditKratika Jain

Stress, Wellbeing & Growth

The “Just One More Prompt” Loop: The Neurobiology of AI-Induced Burnout
It’s 2:00 AM. The bug has been circling for three hours. You know you should sleep, but your hands…
DEV CommunityKhali Sollis
TBM 429: How To Thrive At Work When You Think Too Much
This post is important.
The Beautiful MessJohn Cutler
The Women Who Over Perform Are the First to Burn Out
Why the women working hardest are the first to break, and the six reasons it’s not your fault.
Code Like A GirlAlicja Bialek
Overcome the Disease to Please - Leadership Freak
Wanting approval is normal. Depending on it limits leadership. Psychologist Harriet Braiker says the disease to please is compulsively saying “yes” when you want to say “no.” Leaders do things others don’t like. You can’t please all the people even some of the time. How to overcome people-pleasing…
Leadership FreakDan Rockwell

That’s it!

If you’d like to be considered for the free CTO Craft Community, fill in your details here, and we’ll be in touch!

Campus by CTO Craft: The Go-to Resource for Senior Technology Leaders
Created for CTOs, by CTOs: A transformative learning community for senior technology leaders in startups and scale-ups
CTO Craft Campus

Interested in sponsoring TMW or any of our events? Check out some stats here

Please do remember to share this link if you know of anyone who’d like to receive TMW: https://techmanagerweekly.com

Have an amazing week!

Andy

Published by:

Andy Skipper