Tech Leader Toolbox - Where Strategic meets Tactical

Being a tech leader means balancing vision, strategy, and innovation—yet too often, the administrative burden of the role becomes a persistent obstacle, especially for those who found themselves thrust into leadership accidentally or reluctantly. If you're a technical expert navigating the transition into leadership, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by information overload, endless meetings, follow-ups, and scattered responsibilities.

In this practical, immediately applicable full day workshop, Michael introduces the Digital Knowledge Management (DKM) Tech Leader Toolbox—a proven approach to taming the chaos and reclaiming your clarity, productivity, and sanity. Leveraging Tiago Forte's “Building a Second Brain” methodology combined with powerful tools like Logseq, you'll learn structured workflows to capture, organize, distill, and effortlessly retrieve critical information exactly when you need it.

You'll discover how to streamline meeting notes, simplify administrative tasks, track decisions and outcomes, hold your self and your team accountable, and build your personal leadership knowledge base. With these tools and techniques, you'll not only master the administrative aspects of your role but transform them into a powerful advantage. Join us and take control of your leadership journey today!

From Coder to Catalyst: Mastering Tech Leadership at Every Level

Step beyond technical excellence and into transformative leadership. This immersive, no-slides workshop will walk you through the three pivotal shifts in technical leadership—from solving problems, to managing programs, to developing people.

Expect real-world stories, practical models, and powerful group discussions—not theory or fluff. Whether you’re growing into leadership or leading a team of leaders, you’ll leave with clear strategies to expand your impact.

What You'll Explore:

1. How technical mastery can become a leadership liability—and what to do about it
2. The real reason letting go doesn’t work (and what comes next)
3. Why influence beats control (but still requires structure
4. How to foster ownership without losing alignment
5. What to do when “do it right” and “do it fast” are both true

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As leaders rise, the work shifts from problems to product to people. But most technical leaders aren’t prepared for this change—and end up stuck in the weeds or overwhelmed by complexity. This workshop helps you recognize those transition points and navigate them with confidence and clarity.

You’ll also have a chance to step back and reflect on your own leadership journey—what’s working, what’s in the way, and where to go next. It’s not about fixing broken leaders. It’s about unlocking the next version of you.

Tech Leadership in the Time of AI

The typical path to senior tech leadership involves learning the
tools, tips, tricks, and artistry of using technology to further an
organization's business goals while satisfying the needs of its
customers. The collective experience of a leadership team benefits the
entire organization by providing them the vision and capacity to make
decisions in the face of technical and business change.

AI has emerged like a rocketship of disruption across our industry and
around the world. It has undermined the foundations on which this
collective wisdom has been forged with both promises of inconceivable
productivity and the fears of wide-scale obsolescence. The problem is
exacerbated by the wholesale failure of tech journalism to hold AI
companies and their advocates accountable for the wild claims they
have put out into the world.

This day-long workshop will help technology leaders evolve their thinking
to absorb these new realities into their collective wisdom. With a grounded
position on the realities of both the promises and pitfalls, I believe I can help
shape this discussion by facilitating discussion around the following topics.

• AI Reality Check
• The 21st Century Corporation
• How Your Vision of AI Shapes the Role It Will Take
• Making the Case for Adoption via Business Alignment
• Tech Trends Influenced By and Influencing AI
• The Role of Chief AI Officer
• The Path from Automation to Autonomy
• Augmenting Employees vs Replacing Them
• Extracting the Value of Institutional Memory
• Adopting Agents with Agency
• The Future of Work and Education
• The Security of AI Systems
• AI Legal Risks and Protections
• Ethics of Adoption
• Proactive AI Governance
• Measuring Success
• The Impact on Decision Making
• Preparing for What Is Next

Come have a deep, rich, and valuable discussion about AI that isn’t couched in greed
and fear. We will give you the tools to evaluate and select AI strategies that are reasonable,
profitable, lower risk, and based in reality.

Staying Grounded in the Chaos: The 4 Skills Every Tech Leader Needs

Leadership isn’t just about making the right calls — it’s about staying steady while everything around you moves fast. From managing tension in meetings, juggling shifting priorities, and fielding last-minute requests, to navigating unclear direction or supporting a stressed-out team, software leaders are constantly pulled in multiple directions. That’s where FLOW comes in: a practical, four-part skillset designed to help you handle pressure, stay grounded in uncertainty, and show up with clarity when it matters most.

You’ll learn how to Focus with Breath, Let It Go, Own Your Part, and Weave FLOW into Your Day through real-world leadership scenarios and peer-to-peer practice designed to reflect the complexity of actual moments you face. These aren't abstract ideas — they’re trainable skills you can use right away to lead with more clarity, presence, and effectiveness. If you’ve been running on adrenaline, reacting on autopilot, or just trying to hold it all together, this workshop will help you become a more nimble, flexible leader who gets the job done — with a whole lot less effort and a lot more ease.