Engineering Leadership in Turbulent Times • Sarah Wells, Pat Kua & Daniel Terhorst-North • GOTO 2025

This conversation was recorded at GOTO Copenhagen 2025. #GOTOcon #GOTOcph
https://gotocph.com

Sarah Wells - Independent Consultant & Author of "Enabling Microservice Success"
Patrick Kua - Founder of the Tech Lead Academy @thekua 
Daniel Terhorst-North - Originator of Behavior Driven Development (BDD) & Principal at Dan North & Associates @daniel-terhorst-north 

RESOURCES
Sarah
https://bsky.app/profile/sarahjwells.bsky.social
https://linkedin.com/in/sarahjwells1
https://www.sarahwells.dev

Patrick
https://hachyderm.io/@patkua
https://twitter.com/patkua
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patkua
https://github.com/thekua
https://patkua.com

Daniel
https://bsky.app/profile/tastapod.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tastapod
https://github.com/tastapod
https://mastodon.social/@tastapod
http://dannorth.net/blog

DESCRIPTION
Engineering leadership becomes significantly more complex in times of uncertainty. This conversation highlights how leaders must shift from rigid plans to adaptable thinking—balancing delivery, team well-being, and long-term direction while navigating constant change.

A key takeaway is that great leadership isn’t about having all the answers, but about creating clarity, trust, and resilience within teams. The speakers emphasize communication, context-awareness, and empowering engineers as the foundation for thriving—even when everything feels unstable.

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
05:07 Technical leadership
08:00 The role of trust in teams
11:15 Building resilient teams
22:06 What great leaders do differently
30:05 What to do about product owners?
36:43 Supporting teams through change
43:00 How to make change stick
47:47 Takeaways
49:09 Outro

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Sarah Wells • Enabling Microservice Success • https://amzn.to/4aa8xrv
Patrick Kua • Talking with Tech Leads • https://amzn.to/3ECO3xB
Patrick Kua • The Retrospective Handbook • https://amzn.to/4jpxxQN
Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons & Patrick Kua • Building Evolutionary Architectures • https://amzn.to/42qXJV2
Mary Lynn Manns & Linda Rising • Fearless Change • https://amzn.to/49uuune
Mary Lynn Manns & Linda Rising • More Fearless Change • https://amzn.to/4tX6GAR

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#TechLeads #Teams #Culture #CompanyCulture #TeamCulture #Leadership #TechLeadership #TechnicalAlignment #TechChange  #SarahWells #PatrickKua #DanNorth #DanielTerhorstNorth #TodayInTech

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