Scaling your impact: How to mentor and develop your tech team

[00:00] Welcome and Introduction to the Tech Leaders Livestream

Andrew Murphy: Good afternoon if you're in Melbourne. Good morning if you're in Brisbane. And whatever time you are, welcome to another Tech Leaders livestream. This is the place where I like to share my mentors and my coaches with you—the people I go to when I need help. If it’s your first time, I’m Andrew Murphy, founder and head geek at Tech Leaders Launchpad. These are regular livestreams to talk about topics of technology leadership.

You may be like me: you’ve moved into leadership without being given the skills or training you need to succeed. I was that person many years ago. I spent 15 years trying to be a better leader, and now I want to share my experiences and mentors with you.

Our topic today is exactly that—scaling your impact: how can you mentor, coach, and develop people in your team? With me, I’ve got two excellent people. First, Loren—do you want to tell us who you are, where you’re coming in from, and what you do?

[06:32] Guest Introductions

Larene Le Gassick: Absolutely. Hi everyone. Thanks, Andrew. Hi, I am Loren. I’m currently Team Engineering Lead of the accessibility team at Canva. I’m a relatively new, I guess, “official” manager—maybe about 18 months’ experience—but I have a varied background. Trained as a Mechatronic Engineer, did some AI/ML academic research, been a consultant at ThoughtWorks as a software engineer and delivery lead, did a stint at freelance engineering and accessibility consulting. I’ve given mentoring talks at conferences on how to give and receive feedback and I’m a huge fan of feedback culture—learned at ThoughtWorks, read books like “Radical Candor” and a bunch of engineering management books and podcasts. I’ve run meetups for women in tech and helped with a CTO school meetup for the last eight or nine years. So, some things to hopefully share about today’s topic.

Andrew Murphy: Brilliant. Thanks, Loren! We’ll need a list of your resources. Let’s get a resources list at some point. Also with us today is Dr. Dan Prager. Dan, do you want to tell us a little about yourself?

Daniel Prager: Sure, thanks for having me. My current role is as Director of Coaching & Learning at Everest Engineering. I’m here at Everest HQ in sunny Melbourne, broadcasting live—hopefully my colleagues in the background aren’t too loud! Once upon a time, I was a mathematician and scientist, but I got out of academia and have had a varied career around software development, leadership, agile coaching, and other forms of facilitation. I’m influenced by martial arts and like to bring that to my workshop approach, even when remote like today.

[09:20] Format, Interactivity, and Icebreaker: Favorite Tech Gadget (Non-Computer)

Andrew Murphy: Thanks, Dan. In a month or so, you and I are going to talk about embodied leadership one-on-one, which will end the calendar year. If it’s your first time here, these streams are interactive—please ask questions in chat, and we’ll bring them up as topics. Our goal is to have you actively learn from our experiences.

Let’s start with a fun icebreaker—what’s your favourite tech gadget that isn’t your computer? I’ll give mine first: I have a solar-powered chicken coop automation. When my wife wanted chickens, neither of us wanted to get up at 5am to open the door, so I built an automated coop with solar panels and a Raspberry Pi that opens and closes with the sun schedule. Loren, what’s yours?

Larene Le Gassick: Mine is probably a reflection of my hobbies—making pancakes. My favourite gadget is actually a temperature-measuring infrared heat gun. I have three pans going at once, all different temperatures. After messing up many pancakes, I found measuring with the heat gun helps get them cooked consistently. It’s been a great hack for consistent pancakes!

Andrew Murphy: That’s so nerdy and I love it. I think I need one myself! Dan, what about you?

Daniel Prager: I’m not using it at the moment, but after a couple of heart surgeries, my recovery required keeping my heart rate under 130. I got a Fitbit with heart rate measurement for exercise. I learned to correlate what my body was telling me with biofeedback. I’m a fan of biofeedback devices—open to brainwave recommendations from the chat!

[13:15] Audience Comments and Transition to Main Topic

Andrew Murphy: I love the idea of using tech to understand your body. We’ve got Shreya saying “good idea, going to buy one” (Loren’s infrared thermometer). Another audience member asked about my chickens going clubbing—none yet, but I’d be a responsible parent! We have a light bulb voice-controlled with Arduino—do I want to ask what you have to say to turn it on or off? Not sure that’s safe for work!

Let’s move on to the main topic: scaling our impact. If we’re talking about mentoring and coaching, what does that mean? Why do we do this? Dan, I know you could talk for hours, but let's keep it brief.

[14:49] Defining Mentoring and Coaching

Daniel Prager: Mentoring and coaching are both about helping others. Borrowing from a definition I’ve heard you use, Andrew: mentoring is when the mentor takes the lead—telling stories or advice from their experience. Coaching is when the coachee takes the lead: the coach holds space for them to come up with their own solutions, using skills like listening and asking helpful questions. The two blur: if someone’s inexperienced, mentoring helps; if you want them to build capacity, a coaching stance is helpful. There are metaphors—if you’ve been in activities like sports or music, you’ve had good and bad coaches, and can draw lessons from those experiences.

Andrew Murphy: I like those definitions! Loren, anything you want to add?

Larene Le Gassick: Not much—I agree with Dan. Recently I learned mentoring is more about sharing experiences than giving advice. “When I went through this, this is what I did,” to give more data. Coaching, especially at Canva, is about supporting our coachees (what other companies call direct reports). Mentoring is just one part of the job. Adapting your style to each individual is key—everyone needs something different.

[18:43] The Purpose of Coaching and Mentoring; Conflicts in Leadership Approach

Andrew Murphy: It’s tough to adapt when you’re used to one style. I’ve debated the conflict between authentic leadership (“being yourself”) and adapting your style to fit others—are those in conflict? There are rarely clear answers in leadership. For me, the reason for coaching and mentoring is to scale your impact—for the team to solve bigger problems themselves rather than you stepping in. Next question: How do we measure the success of coaching and mentoring? Loren, you mentioned your journey in our pre-brief. Can you take us through that?

[20:49] Measuring Success in Coaching & Mentoring

Larene Le Gassick: Great question. For me, there’s short-term and long-term success. Long-term, it’s seeing where people you’ve helped end up in their careers. Short-term, I ask: are they enjoying work? Are they happy? Are they doing what they want? Are there problems causing them difficulty? Are they meeting their own goals? I also like to challenge stereotypical tech career ambition and help people clarify what they really want—even if it’s not about climbing the ladder. But really, effectiveness and happiness are what I try to measure.

Daniel Prager: I agree—a real impact is seen longer term and can be unexpected. In the short term, external measures help—set up scales: if you want to get better at code reviews, imagine what 10/10 looks like, rate yourself, and work toward improvement. Sometimes there are OKRs or KPIs. Also, don’t forget the “negative space”: sometimes impediment removal is as important as positive development.

Larene Le Gassick: And, as Dan mentioned, impact is about helping them have the impact they want and supporting them through that.

[25:43] Taking Feedback from Mentees and the “XY Problem”

Andrew Murphy: That segues into Omar's point about getting feedback from mentees. People often have a clear goal at the start, and helping them reach that is important. Sometimes, though, there’s an “XY problem”—they think they want something, but actually need something else. As a coach, part of your job is helping them realize what they really want. So you have to take their feedback with a pinch of salt. Often they know, but sometimes they don’t.

A comment from Lloyd: When mentoring, it’s “what I’ve done”; in coaching, it’s “what you will do.” That’s close to how I think—mentoring requires relevant past experience; with coaching, you don’t have to. New question from Andrew: What are examples of mentoring/coaching difficult team members, and how did you overcome it? Loren?

[27:31] Handling “Difficult” Team Members

Larene Le Gassick: I can probably think of difficult situations more than difficult people, but I’ll think about that one a bit more. Dan, do you have anything front of mind?

Daniel Prager: I’m having flashbacks! But Andrew (Gorgeous—please correct me!) can you clarify what you mean by “difficult”? Who’s saying they’re difficult—them, their manager, colleagues, or you?

Andrew Murphy: Great point, Dan. Let’s put a pin in that while Andrew clarifies, and go to another pre-prepared question: what are common mistakes first-time leaders make with coaching and mentoring? How do you avoid them?

[28:58] Common Mistakes First-Time Leaders Make

Daniel Prager: As a first-time manager, you’ve usually been rewarded for expertise—it’s tempting to advise or tell, rather than seeing your team as people on their own journey. The best advice? Be curious, listen first. Two ears, one mouth! Develop your listening skills, ask clarifying questions—notice how much you’re talking and how it’s landing.

Larene Le Gassick: Listening is #1! It’s tempting to dominate one-on-ones or give your own perspective, especially as a former senior engineer. Get used to not talking and letting your coachee fill the space with their own thoughts.

Andrew Murphy: The power of coaching is asking questions that change minds—if someone comes to their own realization, it’s much more powerful.

Larene Le Gassick: And don’t be too ready to jump in. Give people time—let them think rather than giving answers straight away.

[32:29] Coaching by Pairing, Collaboration, and Listening Skills

Daniel Prager: Back at uni I ran drop-in math tutorials—I didn’t prepare answers, I’d just sit down and solve things with students. This became a pairing activity: they saw how to collaboratively solve problems with someone more experienced. There’s a lot we can do in knowledge work by encouraging peer-to-peer coaching and collaboration—pairing, mobbing, etc.

If you want to get really good at listening, check Nancy Kline’s “Time to Think”—that approach was profound for me.

Larene Le Gassick: Asking questions and encouraging people to work things out themselves is good, but doesn’t fit every experience level. Adapt your style: with junior engineers, sometimes you show the answer; with experienced people, you just give hints or prompt their own thinking.

[35:31] Manipulation vs. Influence; Intentions in Coaching

Andrew Murphy: On “manipulation”—some in tech feel weird about changing someone’s mind or influencing their thinking. When I teach communication/influence, I get asked, “aren’t you just teaching us to manipulate?” My answer: it comes down to intent. If you’re trying to help and can look in the mirror and know it’s for their benefit, it’s not manipulation—it’s helping or persuading. If you’re uneasy, ask yourself if your intent is genuinely for their best interest.

[37:05] Coaching “Difficult” People and Navigating Conflict

Daniel Prager: To come back to Andrew’s earlier question about “difficult” team members—often, when someone seems difficult, there’s underlying conflict. In facilitation, learning to surface and work through conflict is key. If there’s passive-aggressiveness or “undiscussables,” it’s about building psychological safety and getting issues into the open so you can start as adults to resolve things. Sometimes, coaching should shift gears to explicit conflict facilitation.

[39:15] Healthy vs. Unhealthy Conflict; Audience Question about Remote Junior Dev Learning

Andrew Murphy: Not all conflict is bad. The difference between healthy and unhealthy conflict comes down to psychological safety, assuming positive intent, and aligned goals.

Question from John: Paired programming and side-by-side learning seemed easier in-person; remote junior devs miss out on that serendipitous learning. How do we mitigate that, Larene?

[40:29] Fostering Learning and Pairing Remotely

Larene Le Gassick: I feel the same as John. Encouraging a pairing culture helps, but introduce it slowly, especially with remote reticence. I pair with my coachees ad hoc—if a bug comes up, I’ll ask to look at it together, which helps me learn too. Encourage folks to do Zoom calls or huddles for debugging or problem-solving. It doesn’t have to be formal “pairing”; informal chances to work together in real time help a lot. My team isn’t currently strict on pairing but still performs well—it’s an evolving dynamic.

Daniel Prager: I agree—the loss of serendipitous learning is a huge challenge. Making pairing part of the culture gets over the permission hurdle. If not, manager or leads can model it, especially during debugging. Scheduling time for group mobbing/pairing during sprints helps; adjust the amount based on team needs. Emotional barriers—like “I don’t want to bother seniors”—are real. Culturally designing rituals helps. At Everest, we’re remote first but value occasional in-office sessions for collaboration. Be intentional about opportunities for organic learning.

Andrew Murphy: I want to reinforce that point—especially for juniors, it’s hard to ask for help remotely. Tools like Gathertown help—being able to “walk over” to someone for chat lowers the barrier. But that only works with overlapping time zones. I’ve told juniors to bother people after 30 minutes of being stuck, but not everyone follows that. It’s a cultural as well as logistical issue.

[48:11] Encouraging a Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset in Teams

Andrew Murphy: Owen asks: suggestions for encouraging team members to develop more skills, especially if they have a fixed mindset or don't feel the need to learn new things, even though their role requires it? There was just a discussion about this in the CTO School Slack, Loren and I are both organizers. Dan, thoughts?

Daniel Prager: Yes, and acknowledging the irony of us giving advice! There are fun exercises like grid activities—list out the team/project skills needed, have people self-rate (1–3 scale), see where gaps or single points of failure exist, and have people volunteer to grow into areas that excite them. This is helpful short-term (“skills we need now as a team”) and long-term (career building).

David Clutterbuck’s framework is also helpful: team learning should focus on “how do we stay ahead of the curve.” Mixing extrinsic motivation (what the team or role needs) and intrinsic motivation (what people want to learn) even for those less naturally motivated, can help.

Andrew Murphy: I agree! When delivering training, I always ask what extrinsic motivators exist. Many are intrinsically motivated, but sometimes you have to tie learning to career frameworks, promotions, or performance. If they see how learning benefits them, they’re more likely to engage. Loren?

Larene Le Gassick: I’m lucky not to have fixed mindset reports lately; most are learning-focused. One-on-ones are where growth conversations happen. Make sure those are structured and reflective. Growth can be small or granular—give feedback, suggest a course, or have a “deep dive” day on a specific topic (like accessibility). Sometimes appearing “fixed mindset” is just wanting to grow at a different speed or in a different direction, which is fine as long as it benefits the team. Help people learn together, and give direct training if that’s the nudge they need.

[55:38] Structuring and Prioritizing Learning Time vs. Outside Pressures

Andrew Murphy: Sometimes being prescriptive helps—it's easier for people to get started if you just suggest a specific course, not “pick anything.” Peter comments: buy-in increases if people understand how learning helps their career and the team’s objectives. If people want promotion or a new role, make the learning path clear.

Peter asks about remote work: we covered this in a previous livestream, with John Sherwood and Nicola Nye, which is available on Tech Leaders Launchpad events.

Let’s wrap up with the last question: how can we find time for learning amid delivery and outside pressures? This will be interesting, as Canva (SaaS) and Everest (consultancy) have different perspectives. Dan?

Daniel Prager: It’s harder in a consultancy—clients can be demanding. But you must build in learning time! A former colleague managed three hours of learning each day, split between project-specific and other topics. So, you need to defend a percentage of your time for learning. For juniors, it’s particularly hard—structure helps. Ideally, an hour a day is good, but urgent work can soak it up—if it’s always soaked, you need to realign priorities. For clients, pitch this as a win-win: learning helps the team, keeps people motivated and skilled, and uplifts the client’s team too.

Larene Le Gassick: From my (previous) consultancy days, we had “back to home” learning days on Fridays, between clients, for learning. In product companies like Canva, there’s usually more buffer to prioritize learning: if you learn more, you ship faster. That can mean structured “deep dives” for team learning, or letting people be more autonomous with courses and self-development. It’s a responsibility and conversation, but largely left to individuals to balance personal development and team needs.

[63:00] Wrap-up and What’s Next

Andrew Murphy: I can’t believe the hour is up so quickly. Thank you, Loren and Dan, for joining. Your experience and wisdom are invaluable! The next event is on the 24th November: John Sherwood returns with Susan Brander (CTO at Collider)—we’ll talk about balancing autonomy and process. Thank you to everyone for joining and for your questions! We’ll follow up asynchronously for unanswered questions. See you next time!

Daniel Prager: Thanks everyone. Thanks, Loren, thanks, Andrew.

Larene Le Gassick: Thanks everyone. Have a good one. Happy Friday!