Not all managers are great at mentorship or giving feedback. It’s just a fact.

Your manager might be fantastic in other areas—like clearing roadblocks, building a great team culture, or fighting for your priorities. But when it comes to guiding your career or giving thoughtful feedback, they might drop the ball.

If you’re someone who values mentorship or clear, actionable feedback, this can be really frustrating. It can even make you doubt yourself or feel stuck in your role. But here’s the truth: mentorship and feedback are critical for growth, and you don’t have to depend solely on your manager to get them.

Here’s how to take control of your development when your manager isn’t meeting your mentorship needs.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing challenges at work as opportunities to mess up. I hear this a lot from mentees, especially when they’re dealing with high-pressure situations like production issues. Just the other day, I was chatting with a mentee who told me how stressful she finds production incidents. She said, […]

I used to be very, very… very polite.

In my first year at my job, I decided to invite my mentor and his wife over for dinner.

“Would you and your wife be willing to come over for dinner? If it’s not too much trouble?”

His response? “You make it sound like coming over for dinner is a terrible thing.”

(They did come over, by the way.)

That moment stuck with me. It taught me an important lesson: Your phrasing matters.

Do you struggle with feeling confident in making quick decisions? If so, you’re not alone. Read here for tips to build your confidence as a decision-maker! Being able to make fast and effective decisions is an essential skill in the world of tech. Often, even small decisions can feel like they’re mission-critical. In these moments, […]

“There are lots of ways to help yourself out if you want to be more focused and motivated… and none of them involve calling yourself lazy or beating yourself up, both of which will decrease your motivation and your energy levels.” This is a series of posts about different negative thoughts I have on a […]