The 2026 Reset Challenge officially kicks off tomorrow! If you’re signed up, Day 1’s email will be in your inbox at 6am ET. If you’re not signed up, you still have time! 👉 modernleader.is/reset

First and final race before surgery next week!

Happy Mayor Mamdani day to those who celebrate

Officially 7 days until surgery! 1 week! Time has flown by

It may technically be a holiday tomorrow, but Modern Leader All Access members will still get their January leadership playbook! Get yours (and past playbooks) by signing up for All Access: modernleader.is/upgrade

Seeing folks interact with and share my content makes me so incredibly happy 🥹

There is a 100% chance someone thinks I’m an asshole for not accepting their LinkedIn invitation. I’m honestly just too tired to go through them. This is why I end up bulk accepting and then feeling a different kind of regret.

My free 2026 Reset Challenge kicks off in just 1 week! You'll get a short prompt each day for 3 weeks, helping you to identify a pattern to change and create a plan. Hundreds of ICs and EMs have already signed up. I can't wait to go through this challenge together. Join: www.modernleader.is/reset

Can't wait to talk to my therapist about this tomorrow

Well it only took a few years, but I finally got around to migrating my domains off Squarespace after the Google Domains acquisition

Every 6 months I build a new event registration page for a nonprofit. Every 6 months I forget all the steps I need to take. Last year I refactored everything (with the help of AI) and wrote a readme + scripts to automate as much as possible. What took me 3+ hours before is now a 15-minute task 🥹

"Planning becomes a stand-in for motion, even though it doesn’t actually relieve anything. It just keeps the mind occupied enough to avoid sitting with the unease underneath." New on After Burnout: The week where time stops making sense afterburnout.co/p/the-week-w...

❓I’m thinking about adding a new section to my newsletter for The Modern Leader showcasing some Engineering Manager roles I come across. Useful or noisy?

(Checking my notifications this morning) Dad: Merry Xmas Text group: Merry Christmas love you all! Chase: Your statement is available

2 weeks until surgery ❤️ Made the payment in full yesterday so I’m locked in. Now to buy all of the necessities for home.

Officially off work for the next 5 days. How many new side projects should I start? 3? 6? 2 new domains?

10 performance reviews down, 5 to go! I suppose I should take a coffee break ☕

Thank you for supporting me on another great year of writing The Modern Leader 💌 Today's newsletter is the last for the year. See you on Jan 1 for the All Access members download, Jan 5 for the start of the Reset Challenge, and Jan 6 for regular programming! www.modernleader.is/p/2025-wrap-up

I feel like I need to make a donation to an environmental impact fund 😬

this is my 2026 vision board

ICYMI: New post for After Burnout on how I'm approaching goal setting differently in 2026

signing on to work today when most people took the full 2 weeks off

Breaking: Web scraper with more money mad at web scraper with less money blog.google/technology/s...

Where did “no fluff” even come from? Like why is AI so insistent on writing it?

My favorite part of the end of the year is realizing that nothing I thought I would care about going into 2025 actually made my top list of things I ended up caring about. It doesn’t matter what goals I set for 2026. The year will have me on its own timeline.

Starting my new career as a photographer. Thank you for your support

My ED dietitian has SO much patience with me while we continue to rewire my brain when it comes to food. The holidays are always a hard time for me for many reasons (food, family, lipedema diagnosis) but my dietitian is magic when it comes to patiently calling me on my shit when I start spiraling.

✨ Enshittification ✨

It's amazing how many things I suddenly need to do before I can start writing (14) performance reviews. I'm magically so busy!

Exciting news: I’m running a free 15-day Manager Reset Challenge for senior ICs + managers starting Jan 5! 🎉 One short prompt each weekday to reset how you communicate, delegate, prioritize, and lead in 2026. Join here 👉 modernleader.is/reset

3 weeks until surgery #1 of 3! 🎉

One day I'm going to write another book, but I feel like there are already so many leadership books

Sometimes nothing is “wrong” at work. The company changed. You changed. The fit didn’t get renegotiated. Wrote about this today, especially relevant as review season approaches. www.modernleader.is/p/why-cultur...

I would like to have a very stern discussion with whoever decided to book several meetings on the final week of work for 2026 (it's me, I would like to have a discussion with myself)

New post for After Burnout: On unlearning the myth of total control afterburnout.co/p/on-unlearn...

getting into the holiday spirit (seasonal depression)

(Sitting in the car with my husband and MIL in calm silence) MIL: What is a Rick Roll?

Officially done with speaking engagements for 2025. Next speaking engagement is... not scheduled, because I'm taking some time off speaking. See you at a conference sometime in 2026. Maybe.

I've been getting a lot of new followers lately and I have no idea why or where they're coming from or if they're real humans

As an experienced Engineering Manager, I've learned that the size of the company played a part in how much code I wrote. In smaller companies, I was a "Player/Coach". However, in larger companies with more processes, I wrote less code. www.modernleader.is/p/should-ems... #Leadership @kvlly.com

Some spice for your Tuesday morning: should EMs be coding at work? It's actually a complicated question. I write about it in this week's Modern Leader article. www.modernleader.is/p/should-ems...

Can't believe I'm closing in on 100 sign-ups already 🥹 So excited to go through this challenge with all of you!

Exciting news: I’m running a free 15-day Manager Reset Challenge for senior ICs + managers starting Jan 5! 🎉 One short prompt each weekday to reset how you communicate, delegate, prioritize, and lead in 2026. Join here 👉 modernleader.is/reset

Tuesday's newsletter is going to be a good one 👀 Get it: www.modernleader.is

www.modernleader.is/reset sneak peek ahead of next week’s announcement 👀

Thinking about running a daily challenge in early 2026 as a "manager reset" for EMs through my newsletter. I think it could be a good "look back to look ahead" moment to help folks figure out what they should focus on for the next year. 1 email a day for 15 biz days with a small challenge for each.

Surprise! It's a bonus Thursday article www.modernleader.is/p/curiosity

One more read from me today: I'm once again finding the joy in being bad at something 💌 afterburnout.co/p/the-surpri...

Every Tuesday when I send a newsletter I play the game of "will I lose more subscribers than I gain today" Thankfully people are generally sticking around so I hope that means you're liking the newsletter if you're subscribed

Managers: the best move when someone brings you a problem isn’t to jump in and fix it. Ask this instead: “What would you like to do about it, and how can I best support you?” It builds ownership, cuts dependency, and keeps you out of the weeds. Read more: www.modernleader.is/p/the-questi...