Ethan Evans VP

If you take the time to read just one thing from me this month, read this. Once you read it, be sure to follow Lenny Rachitsky. His newsletter covers deep product marketing and business topics. He spends a massive amount of time researching and perfecting each article, supported behind the scenes by both artists and copy editors to make each piece as strong as possible.

A great manager can navigate diverse employee needs. This is often known as range, but I think of it as “chameleon” leadership. Here’s how to apply it to your team: First, recognize why this is the most efficient way to lead your team. If you expect a team of 5, 10, or 30 individual contributors to bend to your preferred management style, you will get suboptimal results at best and a burned-out team at worst. It is much more effective for you to develop a “chameleon” style of leadership. You will be one person adapting as opposed to asking your whole team to adapt and always creating tension. Second, understand what work styles you have on your team. “Micromanagement” has a negative connotation, but some people need or even want to be guided closely. Others want soft nudges, and still others want complete freedom. To be an effective manager, you have to understand each of your team members and learn which management style they prefer. Ask them directly, but also observe their reactions and attitudes to different scenarios. Third, interrogate your own default leadership style. As a young manager I tended towards micromanagement, and I had to think about what pushed me towards that style. Once I understood my motivations for micromanaging, it became much easier to moderate that tendency and adopt other management styles for those who needed it. A “chameleon” leader is one who can adapt themselves to the situation and “blend” into what their employees need. Calling someone a “chameleon” often has a negative connotation, meaning they don’t have their own personality. To me, however, it means more that they are able to adapt themselves to the needs of the situation, just as a chameleon changes their color to hunt or hide from predators. The challenge of chameleon leadership, of course, is striking the balance between adapting to each employee and maintaining a cohesive culture and vision for the team. Managers reading this- How do you approach that challenge?

Career and work are importantly but never let time off expire! Take your summer vacation, as you will never get your youth or young kids back. I never let vacation at any workplace expire, but now I travel about five months a year. The way I see it, I worked 60 hours a week for 27 years, or about 13 extra years of work time compared to a 40 hour week. On average, Americans retire at 62. I retired at 50. But with 13 extra years of work time, I actually retired at about the average age. So, now I’m making up for all those extra hours. Half an extra year off = half a year of travel each year. The photos are me hiking in the Dolomites of Italy, followed by a rest day in Bolzano… my view as I write this post. There are many paths to work/ life balance. My path has been to prioritize work for a long time so that now I can prioritize relaxation and travel. There are other ways. Pick yours and plan for it. You can have most things… but often not all at once.

Prioritize your learning! Have more influence and impact at your company by attending “Cracking the C-Suite” coming up Oct 18-19, 2025. Ethan Evans and I would love for you to join us! We bring alive four executive leadership focus areas for you: Strategic Influence, Scale Culture, Develop Talent, and Executive Presence. Particularly, in this class, we will tackle AI ADOPTION as a strategic imperative, and how all these focus areas contribute to your role as a change agent. You will not only hear real-work examples from Ethan and me; you will also learn from 50 of your Director/VP peers. So far for our Oct 18-19 cohort, we have leaders from all over the world joining us; from companies like Amazon, Apple, Capital One, Disney, Intuit, Lenovo, and Roblox as well as many SMBs. Here's what one leader said about their experience in March 2025: “The real value lies in how seamlessly theory translates into real-world application, making it one of the most impactful learning experiences for leaders striving for excellence.” Register now: https://lnkd.in/gZGVccdA and leverage a 10% discount til Aug 24. ----- Want to chat more about a leadership dilemma or have questions about the course? Set it up: https://lnkd.in/gvaJrMVY

Rising to a senior level in leadership, particularly in high tech, requires very different skills. What if that changeis not for you? Marshall Goldsmith correctly wrote, "What Got You Here Won't Get You There," the reference book on how leaders hit a wall and need to learn new skills to keep growing. A good friend and colleague of mine asks the question, "what if that is not a fit for you?" His point is that whether by ability or temperament, needing to pivot from primarily technical expertise to significantly more interpersonal and relationship skills is a big, painful, and unwelcome stretch for many people in these companies and fields. In his own words: "Here is the framing that resonate with me: in tech world above a certain level (L6, L7 - Senior Manager) the skills that are valued change dramatically." "Instead of valuing technical skills, market strategies and user empathy, the skill set will change to something closer to acting and salesmanship. This skill set may not be for everyone: plenty of people with tech and PM skill may not be motivated to get there and that's ok... but if you want to get ahead, you need these skills." "You should also realize that if you look and think differently from those who are currently at this level, you're at a disadvantage both in terms of persuasion and just feeling super-lonely among them... be ready for it... you'll need to try to look the same at least in some aspect or you'll fail." "Also prepare that the team game against competition suddenly becomes an individual hunger games against others in the org.... alliances are important but fragile and not to be taken seriously." "And finally all these other skills you thought were important?" "You'll find that many people at higher level don't really have them and they have got there through using these new skills to you and are much more prepared for them. This is a game of skill but different skill... not for everyone!" "And BTW... large tech companies won't just let you stay at L6, L7 if you don't want to go further and change the game... you may be able to stay there but get ready for the costs of that (no public recognition of growth, harder to rise up with a partner manager who goes further, etc)." My friend cautions that my posts often assume that people both want to go into higher leadership and that they *can* make this shift to new skills. His tone may sound darker than my usual optimism, but he points out that I have survivorship bias. I fit in well in the leadership world, eagerly studying and learning the new skills. Having made my career as an executive, naturally the same path seems easier to me than it did to him. As a result, I can push people towards it while he validly cautions them to consider the costs. Our message together? Know the change you will need to make. Then be OK either with making it or with pivoting to something that fits you. Both are valid choices. Is your current path a fit or a struggle?

We've got some EthanGPT power users. Get your 24/7 personalized executive career coach to level up and make no BS career breakthroughs. Give it a try here: https://lnkd.in/gsy6Gxxe PS, checkout the getting started resource guide to maximize your usage.

A BIG problem is coming for leaders seeking promotion, but there is GOOD NEWS for individual contributors. Here is what I see and what you can do about it: What I see is that AI-based efficiency and economic pressure are limiting headcount growth. This creates a challenge for leadership promotions because they have long relied on headcount as a big factor in role definition. While decision-making skill and impact should be the metrics, it's just much easier to count people. So, if teams aren’t growing, leaders will be less likely to get promoted. However, leadership complexity is going to grow. Leaders may not be managing more people, but when 10 engineers can do the work of 50 because of AI, the leader will need to be able to keep up with a more rapid pace of change. But because people change their beliefs and patterns slowly, companies are still going to see 10-person teams as a first-level management job without realizing the difference. Most companies will only change with time and pain. Until then, leadership promotions will stall. Your main options for leadership growth are thus: a) Leave and "promote yourself" in a startup structure b) Wait for others to do (a), leaving their teams and scope to you. This will allow you to “increase your headcount" and thus be promotion-eligible. Now for the good news: Individual contributors do not have this problem. AI will put some individuals completely out of work, but it will also make a class of work so efficient that fewer people are needed. Economic theory indicates that some will lose their jobs in this scenario while others see their wages drop. But, AI may also give rise to the "Super-IC" - the individual who can now produce what 2, 5, or 10 people did before. Those who develop the right skills to become "Super-ICs" will then produce 5 or 10 times as much value. While the company will keep most of that (capitalism), the Super-IC will be in a position to demand promotion to "Staff" or "Principal" levels and receive the related pay. The big difference between the IC’s situation and that of the manager is that we are used to measuring and rewarding ICs based on total work output and impact. When this output and impact increase, so will the rewards given to the ICs. Nothing about the human "mental model" of valuing star performers has to change for this to happen. This is different than how we value managers, which has long used number of people as a proxy for seniority and value. So, ICs stand to gain more easily from AI-based efficiency than middle managers. Don't like this vision? The good news is that needs we cannot see right now will be discovered and emerge. The work we can share is inventing our way into a better future. What other paths do you see for career growth in the future economy? Want help navigating this changing world? My best known course can help: https://buff.ly/eqcp0Jq

5-step recipe for rapid career growth (most people get stuck at 4 & 5): 1/ Absolutely relentless hard work (tablestakes) 2/ Stellar ownership and delivery (act like you own the business) 3/ Non-stop self-advocacy (push for bigger opportunities) 4/ Willing to make deals to grow when asked to take on something big (e.g. I will over deliver but I want X in return) 5/ Confident enough to repeatedly leave good jobs for bigger opportunities (never be static nor satisfied) Nailing 1-3 will get you a great career (maybe extraordinary with some luck). But being bold with 4-5 will create career inflection points.

Your manager already has you in a mental bucket: rockstar, reliable role player, or benchwarmer. If you fall in the bottom buckets, make these 2 adjustments immediately: 1/ Send a short weekly update (Thursday afternoon to give yourself a Friday buffer) with 4 bullet points: - What you accomplished this week - What's coming next - Risks/blockers you are managing - End with an ask: "What's one thing I can help you with?" 2/ Avoid nasty surprises. No manager likes surprises (particularly bad news). This ties to the point above, raise risks early and with a proposed solution. You either get a "Yes go ahead" or "Thanks for surfacing, here's what to consider and look into" — either way, you get a helpful response. Impressions are sticky. Work hard early to get on a positive note.

Be honest - are you more stressed since AI became available? I am, and I bet you may be too. But there is hope if we shift how we see and use GenAI tools. AI threatens our jobs. If we cannot become better by using it, then others who are better will exceed or replace us. That includes me as a coach and teacher, and probably includes you too. That's stressful! Part of the way out of this trap is to use AI for more than just "productivity gains," which is a trap. My corporate career began and ended before GenAI was available, so my pursuit of vision, influence, and efficacy required large amounts of time spent writing, planning, and responding to emails. I spent a lot of time making sure I appeared “on top of things” so that my efficacy would be recognized. It worked, but it was exhausting. It was reactive. Executives today can use a number of AI tools to help them get the same results as me with a lot less effort. However, this doesn’t necessarily make things easier. While more tech is available to help them out, there is also a lot more competition. If it is easier to “be on top of things,” more people will achieve it. The perceived efficacy and efficiency of everyone has the potential to increase dramatically. The other challenge is that these uses of GenAI don’t fundamentally address the need to be “reactive.” They help you react faster, but you will be racing against everyone else’s supercharged reactions as well. The “winners” in this new world of executive leadership will be the ones who master the other two pieces: vision and influence. Those with the clearest visions and the strongest influence will emerge as the leaders in a world where everyone is hyper effective. The good news is that these elements can be augmented with GenAI as well. You can become a clearer, more influential leader if you use AI to be proactive instead of simply using it to have faster reactions. Manmohan (Man-Mo-Hun) Sharma has written an incredible guest article for the newsletter that teaches us how to do this. It includes examples from his own career as well as direct prompts that we all can use to improve the way we use AI to augment our leadership. He breaks his process prompts down into 4 “Mindset Shifts” to gain a leadership advantage: 1) Stop Summarizing, Start Synthesizing 2) Stop Brainstorming, Start Sparring 3) Stop Drafting, Start Structuring 4) Stop Solving Puzzles, Start Solving Problems To get Manmohan’s stories, advice, and exact prompts to make these 4 shifts, read today’s newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gA7PDx9f It is clear, thorough, creative, and concise. I highly recommend it. Readers- Any other tips for AI-Augmented Leadership?