When I took my first real IT leadership role, in a truly agile software company, I struggled. I remember coming home to my wife and talking about how difficult it was. I told her that if I survived the transition I was going through, I’d be much better off for it.

My leadership style was key to my struggles. When I took the role, I knew very little about management. I read books, but the majority of how I led was based on how I had been managed. I didn’t have a strong enough understanding of my own values and beliefs to know which things I wanted to copy and which I wanted to leave behind.I ended up adopting a variety of styles that were inconsistent and inauthentic… I was not a great first-time manager.

It was only two serendipitous conversations that exposed me to entirely unknown leadership options.

My journey continued over the next 10+ years, as a tech leader, consultant, and advisor to tech leaders. Every new experience enabled me to reinforce some beliefs and leave behind others. Over the years, I coached many tech leaders through the journey I went on, helping them discover ways to lead and manage that are aligned to their beliefs. The result was improved team and organisational performance. It turns out the combination of technical ability, hard-won knowledge, and caring deeply about people made me surprisingly well-suited to helping others with their own journeys. After seeing the positive impact coaching had on the people I worked with, I chose to do it full-time.

By working with me, you can benefit from the mistakes I made, saving yourself years of pain, stress, poor team performance, and loneliness.