Engineering leaders are constantly fighting fires and rushing between high-priority initiatives. Each day’s new and unending assortment of challenges can easily drive us to feel burned out, and tired of making hard decisions that come with tradeoffs and risks.

Leaders in our industry could learn a thing or two from the way that news editors and journalists tackle breaking news in a fast-paced, hectic newsroom. They spend their careers handling news in real-time, deftly adapting to whatever the day requires. The best ones thrive by cultivating multiple modes of leadership, and managing how they respond in the context of each event.

In this talk, I will share the power of thinking like a journalist and offer a framework to help engineering leaders do so, based on my background as a reporter and editor, and as a leader on high-performing engineering teams at The Washington Post and The Atlantic.

You will leave this talk with knowledge on:

• How to make decisions quickly under pressure 
• How to evaluate unexpected fires and disruptions based on context
• How to identify the right leadership approach for any given situation