You haven’t failed to develop skill or ambition; those are exactly what got you here. What you’re missing is a map for this specific territory, and nobody could have handed you one ahead of time, because every leader has to chart their own.
The terrain shifts with every organization, every team, and every moment in a company’s life, and the maps that worked for someone else won’t work for you.
I work one-on-one with engineering leaders to replace your basic compass with a high-resolution map of the terrain. Together, we’ll develop frameworks and language to understand what’s actually happening in your organization, what’s being asked of you, and how to step into the role without the constant second-guessing.
“ What initially felt overwhelming was soon transformed into calm and a clear direction under his guidance.
This is for you if you need...
- A clear, shared definition of what success in your role actually looks like
- An outside perspective from someone who has been in the rooms you’re in, and can name what you’re experiencing before you can
- Clarity about what’s actually happening versus what feels like it’s happening
- The language and tools to communicate effectively at every level of your organization, including the conversations that feel hardest
- A leadership style that’s authentically yours, rather than borrowed from whatever you think a good leader is supposed to look like
“ Aaron provides a mirror to view your present self, the best version of yourself in the future, and the strategy and success criteria necessary to close the gap.
Work With Aaron
Join the many other incredible people I’ve worked with in finding clarity, direction, confidence, and alignment.Meet Aaron
When my application to the Rhode Island School of Design was rejected, I pivoted to the thing I’d been doing for fun and hadn’t thought of as a career: writing code. I joined an educational startup, stayed through five years of turbulence, and found my footing in an industry I hadn’t planned on.
Along the way, I co-founded a photography instruction business with a close friend and taught on-location workshops across the country. We had to close when the 2008 financial crisis hit, but what stayed with me wasn’t the loss of the business, it was the discovery that teaching people to see differently was one of the most satisfying things I had ever done.
That discovery sat in the background for years while I worked my way through each layer of a software career, from engineer to tech lead to manager to director. As the roles grew larger and more complex, the nature of the work shifted. The problems I spent my time on were less and less about code and more and more about how people communicate, make decisions under pressure, and find their footing when the terrain feels unfamiliar.
The specific moment of recognition came when I read The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier. Reading it, I understood at once that coaching was a real discipline with real techniques, and that I had been attempting it for years without knowing what it was or doing it particularly well. That realization sent me to formal coaching training, to more books, and eventually to building a practice around the work I had already been doing by instinct.
When I’m not coaching, you’ll find me with my son, out with my camera, or flying my drone.
The Curious Leader
Newsletter and podcast for engineering leaders navigating unfamiliar terrain.I’ve coached senior engineering staff at these companies, among others:
