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

Episode 32 of New Manager Conversations tackles a delicate challenge: giving honest, constructive feedback to senior stakeholders who outrank you. Lucas and Luna walk through a specific case — a first-time engineering manager who needs to tell the VP of Product that her aggressive roadmap is hurting team velocity. They break down the preparation, the framing, and the follow-up, with concrete phras...

In this episode of New Manager Conversations, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the hardest first-year challenges: addressing a direct report's underperformance when you inherited a struggling team member. Instead of jumping to performance improvement plans, they explore a three-step diagnostic framework that separates skill gaps from motivation gaps from environment gaps. Using a concrete example of a...

Lucas and Luna walk through the mechanics of a first skip-level meeting for a new manager — why it matters, how to prepare, what questions to ask, and how to avoid the common pitfalls of triangulation or putting direct reports on the spot. Using a concrete example of a new manager at a mid-sized B2B SaaS company, they break down the three-part agenda: building trust, understanding team dynamics, a...

Episode 29 of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo tackles one of the most common yet undiscussed pitfalls for first-time leaders: scope creep. Lucas and Luna walk through a real scenario from a mid-size SaaS company where a new manager's team got buried under cross-functional requests. They break down why saying 'yes' feels like the safe move early on, and how a simple decision framework — the...

In Episode 28 of New Manager Conversations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna break down the mechanics of a new manager's first one-on-one meeting with a direct report. They walk through a real example involving a marketing coordinator named Priya and her new manager, Jason. The hosts discuss why the first one-on-one sets the tone for the entire relationship, how to structure the conversation—starting w...

In this episode of New Manager Conversations, Lucas and Luna tackle a delicate challenge many new managers face: managing their star players without letting them run the show. Lucas walks through a real case from a health-tech startup where a top-performing engineer started overruling sprint priorities, and the new manager had to step in without losing the employee's trust. They discuss the differ...

As a new manager, delegating tasks can feel like you're offloading work or losing control. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the psychological barriers to delegation and offer practical techniques to do it well—without guilt. They discuss the 'task audit' method, the '80% ready' rule for letting go, and how to distinguish delegation from dumping. Real examples from a marketing team and a sof...

Episode 25 of New Manager Conversations tackles one of the toughest tests for a first-time manager: leading a team through a company reorg. Lucas walks through a real case study of a marketing manager at a mid-size SaaS company whose team was restructured three months into her role. He breaks down the three biggest mistakes new managers make when the org chart changes — freezing under uncertainty,...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the hardest skills for new managers: delivering negative feedback to a team member without destroying their motivation. They break down the specific case of a product manager named Priya who had to correct a senior engineer's recurring missed deadlines. Lucas explains the 'SBI' framework—Situation, Behavior, Impact—and walks through exactly how a manag...

Episode 23 of New Manager Conversations tackles one of the toughest transitions in management: suddenly overseeing someone who was your equal. Lucas and Luna dive into the real mechanics, using a concrete example. They break down the first crucial conversation, how to reset expectations without damaging the relationship, and why ignoring the elephant in the room makes everything worse. If you've r...

Episode 22 of New Manager Conversations dives into the delicate art of early wins. Lucas and Luna examine a real case: a first-time marketing manager who landed a 15% engagement lift in her first six weeks — only to have her boss treat it as the new baseline. They break down the difference between credible momentum and the overcommitment spiral, drawing on behavioral science around anchoring and t...

Episode 21 of New Manager Conversations tackles one of the trickiest early leadership skills: helping your team prioritize when everything feels urgent. Lucas and Luna dig into the 'priority debt' trap — where new managers pile on tasks without clear sequencing, leading to burnout and half-finished work. They break down a real framework from a product leader at a mid-sized SaaS company who uses a...

In episode 20 of New Manager Conversations, hosts Lucas and Luna tackle a topic every first-time leader dreads: mediating conflict between two direct reports. Using a real-world case from a mid-size tech company where a senior engineer and a product designer clashed over ownership of a feature spec, Lucas breaks down the specific steps a new manager took to de-escalate the situation without pickin...

Episode 19 of New Manager Conversations tackles a hidden challenge for first-time leaders: impostor syndrome — not just their own, but their team's. Lucas and Luna explore how new managers can recognize when a direct report is secretly feeling like a fraud, and what to do about it. They zero in on a specific case: a senior analyst named Priya who consistently delivers strong work but refuses to ta...

Episode 18 of New Manager Conversations tackles a sensitive but increasingly common challenge: what to do when a direct report is clearly burned out. Lucas and Luna explore a 2025 study from the Workforce Institute at UKG, which found that 43% of employees say their manager had a significant impact on their burnout level — but only 23% felt comfortable raising it. They walk through a specific case...

New managers often feel pressure to have all the answers. But what happens when you make a mistake in front of your team—or give bad guidance? In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore why owning errors builds more trust than projecting certainty. They break down a specific case: a first-time engineering manager at a mid-size SaaS company who misdiagnosed a sprint bottleneck, blamed the wrong proces...

In this episode of New Manager Conversations, Lucas and Luna explore why running a team retrospective is a low-risk, high-impact move for first-time managers. They walk through a real example from a 12-person marketing team at a mid-sized B2B SaaS company where the new manager, Priya, facilitated her first retrospective eight weeks in. Lucas breaks down the three-part structure—start, stop, contin...

In this episode of New Manager Conversations, Lucas and Luna explore why new managers fall into the trap of being the team's go-to problem solver—and how to break the cycle. They break down the 'hero manager' pattern using a concrete case from a mid-sized SaaS company where a newly promoted director was fielding 40+ Slack DMs a day trying to unblock her team. Lucas shares research from a 2025 McKi...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how first-time managers can sharpen their decision-making when the stakes feel high and time is short. They drill into the 'OODA loop' framework—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—developed by military strategist John Boyd, and discuss why new managers often get stuck in the 'Orient' phase, overanalyzing instead of acting. Using a concrete example from a marketing...

Episode 13 of New Manager Conversations tackles a topic every new leader faces but few talk about: office politics. Lucas and Luna break down why influence isn't about scheming but about understanding how decisions actually get made. They focus on a concrete case: a new product manager at a mid-sized tech firm who needs buy-in from engineering, sales, and legal to launch a feature — but has no for...

Lucas and Luna explore the shift from problem-solver to coach that trips up many new managers. Using the case of a former software engineer turned team lead at a mid-size tech company, they break down the 'question-first' approach, the three types of questions every manager should ask, and why solving your team's problems actually slows them down. The episode includes practical examples of redirec...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the challenges new managers face when leading a hybrid team. They focus on a 2023 Microsoft study showing that hybrid employees trust their manager 20% less than in-office peers. The hosts discuss practical tactics: deliberate over-communication, scheduling regular 1-1s, and creating virtual water-cooler moments. They also examine a Buffer case study on tran...

In episode 10 of New Manager Conversations, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the hardest first-year leadership challenges: giving constructive feedback to a direct report who is underperforming. Using the real-world example of a new manager at a mid-size SaaS company who had to address a senior engineer's missed deadlines and sloppy code, they walk through specific phrases, timing, and follow-up steps...

Lucas and Luna tackle a common but tricky challenge for new managers: dealing with a boss who hovers and second-guesses every decision. Using the real-world case of a new regional manager at a midsize logistics firm, they explore why micromanagement often flares when you step into a leadership role, how to distinguish helpful oversight from damaging control, and the specific conversation structure...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how new managers can quickly read and shape team dynamics during their first 90 days, focusing on a real-world example from a mid-sized tech company where a new manager named Priya inherited a team split by unspoken tension. They discuss specific tactics like the 'conversation map' exercise, tracking meeting participation, and using one-on-ones to surface hi...