New Manager Conversations with Fexingo: First 90 Days, Managing Former Peers, and Leadership Basics

Episode 107 of New Manager Conversations explores a skill almost nobody teaches: how to accept feedback as a new boss. Lucas and Luna break down the specific psychological triggers that make direct reports hesitate to critique their manager, and why the classic 'feedback is a gift' advice backfires. They unpack a real example from a first-time engineering manager at a midsize SaaS company who lear...

Episode 106 of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo tackles the most daunting moment of the first 90 days: the first difficult performance conversation. Lucas and Luna break down a real-world case — a new manager named Priya who must address declining output from a ten-year veteran named Raj. They walk through the five-minute prep framework, the conversation structure that reduces defensiveness,...

Episode 105 of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo tackles a milestone most first-time leaders dread: planning and running a team offsite. Lucas and Luna walk through a real-world case — a new manager at a mid-sized B2B SaaS company, six months into the role, taking eight direct reports to a one-day offsite. They break down the pre-work (setting a clear purpose, gathering input without over-eng...

Episode 104 of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo tackles the single most underused tool in a new manager's toolkit: the weekly one-on-one. Lucas and Luna break down why most one-on-ones are a waste of time—and how to fix them. They walk through a concrete structure from manager coaching veteran Kim Scott, including the 'state of the union opener,' the five-minute rule for listening, and the o...

Episode 103 of New Manager Conversations tackles one of the hardest and least-taught skills for first-time leaders: resolving conflict with peers in other departments. Lucas and Luna break down a real scenario—a new product manager clashing with engineering over deadlines—and walk through three specific moves: separating positional from personal stakes, finding the shared metric, and escalating wi...

Episode 102 of New Manager Conversations tackles one of the hardest tests for a first-time manager: leading a team through a reorganisation. Lucas walks through a real scenario based on a mid-size tech company where a new manager named Priya was told her five-person team would be absorbed into a larger group, with two roles eliminated. Lucas and Luna break down the concrete moves Priya made in her...

New manager imposter syndrome is a hidden career trap. Lucas unpacks a 2024 study from Catalyst showing 67% of first-time managers report feeling like a fraud, and why it hits hardest during the first 90 days. He and Luna walk through the specific moments that trigger it: hiring someone older than you, giving feedback to a former peer, and sitting in your first budget meeting. They discuss a pract...

Episode 100: Luna and Lucas tackle a challenge every new manager faces: who do you turn to for honest, unbiased advice when you can't go to your boss or your old peers? They explore the concept of a 'personal board of directors' — a small, handpicked group of mentors and peers from inside and outside your organisation. Lucas shares the story of a first-time manager at a mid-sized tech firm who, af...

Episode 99 of New Manager Conversations tackles one of the hardest transitions: going from peer to boss and needing to set boundaries with people who were once your equals. Lucas and Luna break down the specific moment when a new manager has to say 'I can't be in that group chat anymore' or 'I need you to come to me with problems, not just vent.' Using the real example of a marketing team lead who...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the trickiest challenges for new managers: office politics. Using the example of a first-time manager at a mid-sized tech firm who inherited a team with a powerful informal leader, they explore how to map influence networks, build alliances with peers, and protect your team without getting tangled in drama. Lucas shares a specific framework — the 'thre...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the toughest challenges for new managers: a team member who actively resists a necessary change. They break down a real scenario from a mid-sized SaaS company where a senior engineer refused to adopt a new sprint process, costing the team time and morale. Lucas shares a three-step framework he learned from an internal coach at Atlassian: diagnose the s...

In this episode of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore a fresh angle on the first 90 days: managing your energy, not just your calendar. Most new-manager advice focuses on time-blocking and to-do lists. But as Lucas explains, a new manager's real bottleneck is often their own depleted reserves — especially when you're managing former peers and absorbing the team's anxiet...

In this episode of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna tackle a surprisingly tough skill for new leaders: asking for help. Drawing on research from Harvard Business Review showing that 87% of first-time managers avoid asking for support in their first six months out of fear of appearing incompetent, they break down why this instinct backfires. Lucas shares a concrete case from a...

In episode 94 of New Manager Conversations, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the trickiest leadership challenges: taking ownership of a problem or project without steamrolling your team or micromanaging. Using a real-world example from a mid-size SaaS company where a newly promoted engineering manager inherited a failing product launch, they break down the difference between ownership and overreach. L...

This episode tackles one of the trickiest transitions in management: becoming the boss of people who used to be your peers. Lucas and Luna walk through a real scenario from a software engineer named Priya who was promoted to team lead at a mid-size SaaS company. They break down why the first team meeting after promotion sets the tone, how to have the 'new rules' conversation one-on-one with each f...

In this episode of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the hardest situations for a first-time leader: walking into a team that doesn't trust you yet. They break down a specific case from a software engineering team where the new manager inherited a group that had been burned by three previous bosses in two years. Lucas shares the concrete playbook that turned thin...

This episode of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo tackles one of the hardest leadership skills: delivering criticism that actually helps people improve without making them defensive. Lucas and Luna anchor the discussion around a real-world case: a new manager named Priya who needs to tell a talented but underperforming designer named Marcus that his recent work is off the mark. They walk thro...

Episode 90 of New Manager Conversations tackles one of the trickiest leadership challenges: coaching a direct report who is ambitious, competent, and openly gunning for your role. Lucas and Luna break down a real scenario — a senior analyst named Priya who outperforms her peers, asks pointed questions in all-hands meetings, and has told her skip-level she wants to be a director in two years. They...

In this episode of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the hardest transitions for a first-time manager: letting go of the work you used to do yourself. They break down the 3-level delegation framework from Tessa West's Jerks at Work, using a real example of a marketing manager moving from execution to oversight. Lucas explains the common trap of 'delegating and di...

In Episode 88 of New Manager Conversations, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the trickiest transitions in leadership: going from peer to boss. They break down the specific case of a new manager at a mid-sized marketing agency who inherited three former teammates on her first day. Lucas shares the three-conversation framework — expectations reset, role clarity, and feedback charter — that helped her av...

Episode 87 of New Manager Conversations tackles one of the hardest leadership challenges: coaching a team member who is clearly underperforming. Lucas walks through a specific case study from a retail operations team at a mid-sized company, breaking down the three-stage coaching framework he used as a new manager himself. Luna pushes back on common pitfalls like waiting too long or sugarcoating fe...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore one of the hardest skills for new managers: saying no to requests from their own team. Using a real case from a mid-size SaaS company where a team lead had to decline a data access request, they break down a four-step framework—pause, clarify, explain, offer an alternative. They discuss why no is not a rejection but a redirection, and how saying no protects...

Episode 85 of New Manager Conversations tackles the team retrospective — a meeting many new leaders avoid because they fear criticism or blame. Lucas and Luna walk through a real example from a mid-sized tech startup where a first-time manager used a structured retrospective to surface a recurring deployment delay, and turned it into a team-driven solution. They discuss the three-part format (what...

New managers often swing between being too vague and too controlling. In this episode, Lucas and Luna dissect the 'task brief' method used by engineering teams at Basecamp and how it applies to any role. They walk through a concrete example: a marketing manager assigning a competitive analysis report. Lucas explains the five elements of a clear brief: context, desired outcome, constraints, resourc...

Every new manager eventually makes a mistake that erodes trust—whether it's a poorly handled meeting, a hasty decision, or forgetting to loop in a key stakeholder. In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack a real case: a first-time manager at a mid-size SaaS company who publicly dismissed a team member's idea in a sprint review, then had to rebuild credibility. They walk through the specific repair s...