Reluctant Leadership - Engineering Manager OS

This Engineering Manager OS is a complete Notion workspace built to help you lead with calm and clarity.

If you’ve ever thought “I was good at engineering, but now I just do meetings and therapy sessions,” this is for you.

You’ll get a structured, realistic system for running 1:1s, tracking priorities, building influence, and staying sane while managing humans.

What’s inside:

🧭 Manager Compass – Your weekly cockpit for priorities, relationships, and reflection
🤝 1:1 Toolkit – Track notes, patterns, and actions across your team
💬 Feedback Frameworks – Templates for clear, low-drama conversations
🗺️ Influence Map – Work out who relies on you (and who you rely on)
🧠 Reflection Journal – Turn chaos into insight
📋 Recipes Library – Checklists for common headaches: new hires, dragging teams, messy projects

Why it matters:

Because management shouldn’t mean losing yourself to meetings and Slack threads.
This OS gives you structure so you can focus on what actually makes teams great: trust, clarity, and progress.

Who it’s for:

• First-time or “accidental” engineering managers
• Tech leads learning to lead
• Experienced managers who want a calmer week
• Anyone tired of pretending to “have it all under control”

About the creator:

Built by Simon Pickles, a reluctant engineering manager who’s led teams at OVO Energy, Improbable, and Foundry. He writes the Reluctant Leadership blog... where the hardest part of tech is people.