What makes a great tech lead? It's not just technical chops—it's the soft skills that scale your impact beyond your own keyboard.

In this episode, I sit down with Anemari Fiser, an engineering leader, O'Reilly author, and coach who's spent over a decade helping engineers make the leap from individual contributor to technical leader. Anemari has led teams at ThoughtWorks through massive transformations (think monolith-to-microservices, datacenter-to-AWS migrations), coached 500+ engineers, and trained 300+ tech leads worldwide.

Her new book, "Leveling Up as a Tech Lead," distills years of hands-on experience into practical frameworks for the hardest role in tech. We explore why so many senior engineers struggle with the transition, how to measure success when you're no longer shipping code, and the collaboration techniques that actually work in real-world teams.

This conversation goes deep on the unglamorous but essential work of technical leadership—from running effective 1-on-1s to delegation that empowers rather than bottlenecks, from defining what success means for you to navigating the brutal tech lead job market.

🔸 KEY TOPICS DISCUSSED

- The journey from software engineer to product director—and what she learned along the way

- Why soft skills, not just technical expertise, determine your impact at scale

- The critical difference between senior engineers and tech leads

- How to transition from "doing the work" to "enabling the work"

- Why your success as a tech lead depends entirely on your team's success

- The accountability framework that drives consistent growth in others

- How to get people out of their comfort zones without breaking trust

- The power of intentional growth vs. accidental learning

- Measuring impact when you're not writing code anymore

- Why 1-on-1s are your secret weapon (and how to run them effectively)

- The delegation playbook that removes pressure while empowering your team

- Networking strategies that actually work in today's tech job market

- How to interview for tech lead roles—and spot the red flags

- The collaboration techniques that scale teams beyond individual heroics

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to Anemari Fiser

00:58 Early Career: From University to First Tech Job

04:09 Balancing Work and University in Romania

09:00 First Job Experiences and Learning to Code

12:02 The Importance of Accountability in Leadership

16:07 Strategies for Encouraging Growth in Others

20:03 Intentional Growth and Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

20:56 Scaling Soft Skills in Tech

23:57 Senior Engineer vs. Tech Lead: What's the Difference?

26:55 Making the Transition from Senior Engineer to Tech Lead

29:40 Expanding Your Team's Impact Beyond Your Own Work

31:01 The Tech Lead Role Across Different Companies

32:32 Balancing Hands-On Technical Work with Leadership

34:29 Defining Success as a Tech Lead

38:10 Measuring Impact and Setting Personal OKRs

42:07 Guiding Junior Engineers: Teaching vs. Enabling

43:51 Job Hunting Strategies in the Current Tech Market

46:10 Why Networking is Your Best Job Search Tool

50:52 Interviewing for Tech Lead Roles: Green Flags and Red Flags

53:28 Key Takeaways from "Leveling Up as a Tech Lead"

📚 RESOURCES MENTIONED

- Anemari's Book: "Leveling Up as a Tech Lead" (O'Reilly) - https://www.amazon.com/[BOOK-LINK]

- Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson

- The Culture Map by Erin Meyer

- The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier

- Continuous Deployment by Valentina Servile

- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

🔗 FOLLOW ANEMARI

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anemari-fiser

- Website: https://anemarifiser.com

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