Pillar
Leadership
Working principles, decision frameworks, and reflections from leading teams and technology systems.
AI-Assisted Software Engineering: The Changing Nature of Developer Work, Wellbeing, Identity and Long-Term Capability
AI coding assistants are shifting engineering work from creation to supervision, and the productivity story is far less settled than most organisations assume, with real stakes for capability, wellbeing, and identity.
Read the essayHuman-Directed Work in an AI-Accelerated Workplace
The question for leaders is no longer whether people work alongside AI, but who sets the direction for what it accelerates. Machines can supply the leverage, provided people keep authority over what is worth doing.
Read the essayThe Contextual Anchor: Reimagining Leadership Purpose in the Era of AI Coding Agents
As AI agents take on more of the mechanics of coding, purpose becomes the anchor that helps engineers judge whether an AI-assisted solution is actually good, but it only works alongside autonomy, mastery, and psychological safety, not in place of them.
Read the essayThe Myth of the Heroic Developer
Saving the day is sometimes necessary. Building an organisation that needs saving every month is a leadership failure, and the hero is usually the last person to blame for it.
Read the essay