iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Some interesting discussion about DISC assessments and whether they are of value in tailoring communication to individuals. Are any of you using this? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DISC_as... #sydtechleaders

Two men sitting with microphones in front of an audience at a tech event

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Gabriel is giving some really practical tips about leading with empathy, not just with direct reports but also with peers and people above you in the org chart. #sydtechleaders

A man presenting at a tech event. The slide reads:
OUTSIDE
"That deadline is unrealistic."
WHAT
"We're tracking three weeks behind."
THEIR WHY
"You need this in November. Here's what fits in that date, here's what doesn't, and here's the one thing that would change it."

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Marcus Aurelius never wrote a leadership book. He kept a private notebook about how to be less of an asshole tomorrow. 😂😂😂 #sydtechleaders

A man presenting at a tech event. The slide reads:
PART 3 • WHY ME
Marcus Aurelius never wrote a leadership book.
He kept a private notebook about how to be less of an asshole tomorrow.
Lead yourself first. Then them.

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

People are literally going “MMMM HMMMMM” and nodding. Lots of agreement here: Every "don't worry about it" is a withdrawal from someone else's career, to pay for your comfort. Don’t be “nice.” #sydtechleaders

A man presenting at a tech meetup. The slide says:
Every "don't worry about it" is a withdrawal from someone else's career, to pay for your comfort.

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Being nice is a leadership trap. It prevents you from conveying the information you need to, and for the employee from getting feedback they need. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The biggest challenge with leadership is that rarely do we get any training for it. It’s not like a technical skill where you can pick it up on your own by watching YouTube! #sydtechleaders

A man presenting at a Tech meetup. The slide says:
Six weeks into the job.
The 1:1 is already in your calendar.
You have moved it three times.

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Next up is Gabriel Wainmann, talking about the conversation every engineering manager avoids. #sydtechleaders

A man presenting at a tech meetup. The slide says:
Start With Their Why
The conversation every engineering manager avoids

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Do you want to be right? Or do you want a result? The best approach is always to aim for a Win-Win scenario if you can. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The Drama Triangle. (I think we’ve all experienced people who live here.) #sydtechleaders

A triangle with the vertices labeled Persecutor, Victim, and rescuer

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Things are getting very deep! We are learning about transactional analysis. We hold onto these ego states (Parent/Adult/Child) and they influence how we approach difficult conversations. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transac... #sydtechleaders

A slide that says:
TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Eric Berne,
1958
Parent / Adult / Child

A slide showing several conversational models with arrows crossing each other

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

First speaker is Sam Elderfield from ScaleUp Recruitment, talking about handling some difficult C-level conversations, and the lessons he took from it. #sydtechleaders

A man presenting at a tech meetup. The slide says: Two CEOs. Same call.

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Great emcee work from @gilmae.bsky.social , who did not want to be photographed tonight 😜 #sydtechleaders

A guy presenting at a lectern at a tech event

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Plenty of folks looking for jobs and hiring tonight at #sydtechleaders!

A woman holding a microphone at a Tech meetup

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

And that’s it! See you all next month… (maybe?)

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Final speaker is Dan, who will be doing a live (non-deterministic!) demo! Could a nefarious agent use prompt injection to break into your app? 😱 #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Next up is Hemanth talking about harness engineering. Can AI really increase your team throughput? #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Next up is Atlassian’s own Rodolfo sharing lessons learned from evolving Forge Storage. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Next up is Jade, showing us how to teach our AI agents to reverse park. 🚗 #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I heard Molly speak last year, and one tip she shared really stuck with my: you “took a redundancy.” You didn’t “get made redundant.” One is active, and one is something that happened to you. Reframe your story to be ACTIVE. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Final speaker for this session is Molly sharing a common worry - how to negotiate a redundancy. 😱 #sydtechleaders

A slide that says
SCENE:
YOU HAVE A
SUDDEN MEETING INVITE FROM HR.
OTHERS IN YOUR TEAM DO TOO.
THERE IS NO AGENDA.

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Next up is Leigh, visiting from down south! She’s here to talk about AI governance. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

First speaker of the night is Ben, taking about leadership blind spots. #sydtechleaders

A man on stage at a tech event with a slide that says leadership blind spots

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

The official part of the festivities has begun! We have NINE lightning talk speakers tonight. ⚡️ #sydtechleaders

A man in a red shirt talking into a microphone

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

There’s a sense of excitement as Jack wrangles cats (and speakers) for tonight’s lightning talks! #sydtechleaders

A big group of men and women standing together before a tech event

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

And now it’s time for our patented #sydtechleaders Q&A panel! We’ve already had questions about distinguishing good vs bad productivity; how to respond when you ask someone if they’re okay and they say “no”; how to respond when the request is for YOU to do something differently…

A man and a woman seated in front of an audience at a meetup

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Ultimately avoiding burnout is not about minimising stress; it’s about figuring out how to recover in a way that allows you to get stronger (like an athlete). That’s how you stay in the game long term. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

It’s not always easy for people to ascertain how they feel (if they have trauma, if they are neurodivergent, etc). It’s important to keep in mind when having conversations about stress and mental health. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

So what is effective recovery? Move (rather than exercise), create (and play), connect (with people and places and yourself), reflect, rest… and repeat. #sydtechleaders

A man presenting at a tech event with a slide illustrating ineffective and effective ways to recover from stress

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Everybody knows how to talk about stress; what they struggle with is effective recovery. Drinking too much, doomscrolling, signing up to expensive gym memberships you won’t use… these are not great ways to recover. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Bodies don’t differentiate between paid and unpaid work. Stress in your personal life contributes too. You do your best to manage it, but the tank never manages to get topped up. With burnout, you’re always drawing down. #sydtechleaders

A man speaking at a tech meetup in front of a slide. The slide has a graph of “managing stress” with a line that follows a sine curve slowly trending downwards.

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Our second speaker for the night is Navin Keswani talking about burnout - a topic really important to most of us in the room. The pandemic hit many in tech hard. #sydtechleaders

A man speaking at a lectern at a tech meetup with a slide that says:
Beat
burnout
Find
Alourishing

A man speaking at a lectern in front of a tech meetup with a slide with a parody of the “This is fine” meme. A man in a burning room sits in front of a laptop and says “This is fine,” and someone on the laptop says “You’re on mute.”

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

To have meaningful mental health conversations, you need to make sure you’re in the right space yourself. Then ALEC - Ask RUOK?; Listen; Encourage action; and Check-In. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

This year, over half of Australians say that rising cost of living is having a big impact on their mental health. This is very real, and there’s probably someone you know who is not okay. #sydtechleaders #ruok

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Our workplaces don’t always lend themselves to kindness. We have to make the effort to pause and remember to see our teammates as human beings, check in with them, and really listen. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Tonight’s talks are obviously going to be a bit more personal than usual, so social media posting will be restricted to high level topics. ❤️ #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Our first speaker is Saliya Kutungu-Moran talking about leading with kindness and creating space for mental health conversations. She’s an RUOK ambassador with lots of experience in tech, and we’re so glad she’s here. #sydtechleaders

An African woman speaking in front of a lectern with a slide that says:
Leading with Kindness:
Creating Space for
Meaningful mental health
Conversations

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Reminder that we are still looking for Lightning talk speakers for our Nov. 6 meetup. Great for first timers, and we’ll even give you some mentoring if you like! #sydtechleaders

A woman speaking at a lectern at a tech meetup

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Tonight’s STL is kicking off at Atlassian! Nice big crowd for an important topic - mental health. Thanks as always to Atlassian for hosting! #sydtechleaders

A woman speaking at a lectern at a meetup

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Engineers like to focus on their little patch of the code base and getting it just right, but leaders need to remind them of the bigger picture. And sometimes you have to make a trade-off, and it just sucks. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Right into the AI questions! Jeroen thinks that smaller teams might struggle to take advantage of agentic coding assistants because they will quickly run out of the expertise to review all the suggestions appropriately. #sydtechleaders

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Really the goal for teams that want to tackle tech debt is to ESTABLISH TRUST. You want leaders to let you do this again! #sydtechleaders

A slide that says:
Aim for trust
"That was really worth while! We trust you can do this again"

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

And at the end of that project, you need to validate the impact and tell the story of the improvement. Data and graphs can really make that story clear (if they are accurate!). #sydtechleaders

Two men presenting at a tech event. The slide says:

Validate Impact
Progress against baseline

What moved?
Something to speak to
How much?
Images over words
What did we learn?
Target next hypothesis

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

When you get the refactor project approved, don’t rush to get started too quickly. You need to establish some metrics and a baseline to show the improvement! #sydtechleaders

A slide that says:
Measure it
No baseline, no goal

Rough numbers
Something to speak t
Visual sizing
Images over words
Forecast
Target hypothesis

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

The lead engineer needs to be able to SELL the tech debt problem to the manager. Some suggestions are hiring challenges, velocity and cycle time, risk of vulnerabilities and incidents… #sydtechleaders

A slide that says:
I'm telling you, we have a problem!
Hiring challenges
That technology is so old that we cannot scale the team
VULNs and incidents
That library is abandoned and not supported anymore
Velocity and cycle time
The process to deploy that service requires careful manual orchestration
"Rule of two"
There are 4 different in-memory stores adapters

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

“I’m telling y manager that this code is 💩 but they won’t even listen!”

A man role playing a developer, while another man playing a manager holds a sign that says “Who gives a crap?”

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Sydney Tech Leaders @sydtechleaders.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Final talk - Alberto and Fernando from Atlassian talking about how to actually deal with the tech debt that’s been accumulating. Apparently there will be role play!

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