Coaching Services

I provide advice on various topics, including interviewing, management, organizational structure, leading teams, and career development.

My clients typically are:

  • Executives: CxO.

  • People Managers: VPs Engineering, Heads of Engineering, Engineering Directors, Engineering Managers.

  • Senior Engineers: Principal and Staff Engineers, Software Architects, Team Leads.

  • Teams: complete product or cross-functional teams.

Book Coaching with Milan

Why do you need a Coach?

At the highest levels of many endeavors, whether in music, sports, or public speaking, it's common for performers to have coaches. It's unusual for top-tier performers not to have one. However, in the business world, having a coach is often seen as the exception. Despite the hesitancy, some companies deeply believe in the value of coaching. Some even have coaches on staff to benefit their leadership. However, for many, getting a coach is a personal investment.

Coaches can provide guidance, support, and expertise, helping individuals navigate challenges and achieve their goals, but also some other benefits:

  • Become more self-reliant.

  • Gain more job and life satisfaction.

  • Contribute more effectively to the team and the organization.

  • Take greater responsibility and accountability for actions and commitments.

  • Work more efficiently and productively with others (boss, direct reports, peers).

  • Communicate more effectively.

Coaching benefits

About me

I’m an Engineering Manager, Software Architect, and Consultant with 20 years of professional experience in different domains, including the finance industry, banking, energy sector, transportation, insurance, and telco.

I have worked in different international companies, from developer positions to lead Software Architect positions to Principal Consultant, Head of Engineering, and CTO positions, where I currently work. I have worked in big enterprises, FAANG companies (as a contractor), and startups.

I also have a solid academic background; as a researcher, I have published 20+ papers and book chapters in international conferences and journals (with more than 440+ citations and an h-index 11 on Google Scholar), obtaining a Ph.D. in Computer Sciences.

I’m a certified Erickson International High-Performance and Career Coach, working with people inside and outside my organization. My coaching style is the Challenging Coach style. Even though, as a coach, I need to be neutral, this means I tend to support you via high challenge and support. So, we focus on (new) you in the future.

High-Performance Coaching

I am also a passionate author who helps more than 200,000 engineers, managers, and architects build great careers, products, and teams through various platforms and channels. Currently (January 2024.), I’m in the top 10 on Taplio's list of world influencers on LinkedIn.

The 100 Best LinkedIn Influencers

Average players want to be left alone.
Good players want to be coached.
Great players want the coach to tell them the truth
”.

-- Nick Saban (won more US national college football titles than any other coach)

Personal Mentorship / Coaching

I can provide you with a single hour-long meeting or recurring meeting series (it’s recommended to be a batch of 6 sessions) on the topic(s) of your choice.

Here are some examples of what we can discuss:

Personal/Career

  • Promotion and growth - We can discuss your current position, skills, and next steps. Then, we could work together to plan your next promotion.

  • Career goals—We can discuss your career goals, how they align with yourself, and what the next move in your career would be.

  • Leadership - How to improve your leadership skills.

  • Managing up—How can you manage your boss in a professional relationship that benefits both you and the person you report to?

  • Improve your communication skills - Writing, E-mails, and Presentation skills.

  • Improve your organization skills - How to work on productivity, delegation, and personal efficiency.

  • Identify areas for growth and learn new mental models and tools to access new streams of opportunity and get a return on your investment.

  • Increase confidence in your skills and decision-making abilities.

Organization

  • Setting up systems in your organization - How to install and make systems work for you on different levels.

  • Build specific, actionable skills around team building, technology, and product strategy.

  • Working with different personality types - We can discuss how you can figure out which personality types you have in your team and how you can adapt your communication patterns towards them.

  • Dealing with conflicts—We all know that disagreements will happen. But we can discuss how to handle them in a manner that will bring us positive outcomes.

  • Giving and receiving feedback—Some say feedback is a gift, but sometimes it doesn’t look like that. Depending on the situation, we can discuss the best techniques for giving and receiving feedback.

  • Motivating people—We can discuss how you can encourage your people to contribute more to your team and feel energized to work.

  • Creating a learning organization—In software engineering, learning is essential for everyone to grow (organizations and individuals). We can discuss how you can create a culture in your organization and embrace a growth mindset.

  • Hiring great people - We can discuss hiring great people and keeping your A players.

  • Coaching/mentoring - We can discuss how to develop a coaching habit when working with your people and the benefits of this approach.

Other

  • Increasing your influence in Tech - As a great leader, more is needed if this is only visible in your company. You can spread your influence outside your company, too.

  • Technical topics - Yes, we can discuss technical issues, too. They span architecture, code quality, technical debt, docs, deployments, and more.

  • General mentorship - Mentorship and general leadership advice. You bring the topics, and we talk through them.

Engineering Leader

Process

The process of coaching consists of:

  1. You can contact me using the link below, including your short bio and the coaching topic you want to work on.

  2. When I receive it, I will let you know if we are a good fit for my coaching and the price of the package.

  3. If so, we can organize one free in-take session to check that we can work together.

  4. Then, you buy the package of 6 coaching sessions up-front (check the pricing here per session).

  5. Sessions are 45 minutes, usually at a 2-week pace.

  6. Between each session, I will (optionally) support your growth by giving you some hints relevant to your journey.

Please contact me if you want more info or to book your session 🔗.


Get in touch!