Mastering Difficult Conversations With Sarah Clatterbuck, Director of Engineering @ Google #1

The Engineering Leadership Podcast

Difficult conversations for engineering leaders range from telling someone they have lettuce in their teeth to delivering life-changing bad news. Learn to level-up your ability to handle difficult conversations with a few techniques, practice and hopefully a little humor from Sarah Clatterbuck's personal experiences.

SARAH CLATTERBUCK - Director of Engineering, YouTube @ Google (@girodchatterbox)

"Your discomfort is less important than your colleague's embarrassment" - Sarah Clatterbuck

Sarah Clatterbuck joined Google in 2018. She currently leads four teams focused on Alternative Monetization for YouTube Creators. Prior to joining Google, she was a Sr. Director of Engineering at Linkedin focused on Application Infrastructure. She previously held roles at Yahoo! and Apple while progressing in leadership ranks. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of San Francisco and her graduate degree from San Jose State University. She is passionate about getting girls interested in technology and from 2013 until 2018, she served on the board of Girl Scouts of Northern California, leading the board STEM task group.

SHOW NOTES

• Where engineering leaders are woefully ill-prepared. (2:48)
• Level One: Awkward conversations. (4:58)
• The self-talk, script & power-up tips. (6:32)
• Level Two: Addressing Misalignment. (7:54)
• Level Three: The Apology… (10:49)
• Next Level: Delivering Feedback - Sarah’s most effective 3-part script. (15:10)
• The Last Level: The Agonizing Conversation - delivering news with a significant negative impact. (18:06)
• Suggestions to get team members to express themselves when uncomfortable. (22:10)
• How to talk to someone who doesn’t admit to faults, performance problems or passes blame. (23:21)

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