Leadership on Og Maciel's Journal

Not a Pitch

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Not a Pitch

The Best Teams Form Around Truth, Not Persuasion

Not a Pitch

It was February 2019 when I was offered the opportunity to become Director of Quality Engineering for the organization where I worked—a role I had spent nearly eight years working toward. It should have felt triumphant. Instead, it felt complicated.

At the time, Quality Engineering was a pillar of its own, separate from Software Engineering, which had its own pillars, directors, senior directors, and vice presidents. The Quality Engineering organization stood alone, and I was one of four or five directors. Above us was a Senior Director—soon to become a Vice President—overseeing a team of roughly 1,300–1,400 software quality engineers.

Tracing the Edges of My Ikigai: What I'm Good At

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tracing the Edges of My Ikigai: What I’m Good At

Lessons from feedback, fire drills, and the quiet work of helping people find clarity

What I’m Good At

I’m officially done with work for the year.

This past Friday wrapped things up cleanly—no loose ends, no unfinished tasks—and I now have two full weeks ahead of me. Some of that time comes from the usual year-end shutdown, some from time off I’d accumulated. All of it feels intentionally quiet.

The Gift You Don't Open Right Away

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Gift You Don’t Open Right Away

Finding the truth inside hard feedback

I’ve noticed a slight increase in the number of people reaching out to me for “one last call” before the end of the year. It wouldn’t quite qualify as a surge, but it’s definitely a shift—not just in volume, but in who is reaching out and why.

My calendar is usually full of the expected things: project meetings, team conversations, or discussions with people interested in using the work we’re building. That’s normal. But lately, more people have been asking to talk about something else entirely.

The Role I Wanted—and the One I Left

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Role I Wanted—and the One I Left

This is a cartoonized rendering of a real photograph. All names and identifying details on the shirts have been removed to respect the privacy of the individuals involved.

It was July 16th, 2019. In the photo above, I’m standing with the quality engineering managers who reported to me at the time. Together, we represented what I believed—earnestly—to be the future of quality engineering at the company.

The Quiet Side of Management

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Quiet Side of Management

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

April 22nd, 2016.

This was the first time in my career, as a manager of software engineers, that I had to let someone go. Not that I hadn’t dealt with performance issues before—there had been engineers and associates who struggled, and a few who ultimately decided to leave rather than continue on a performance improvement plan—but this was the first time I actually had to make the call to terminate someone’s employment.

Crawl, Walk, Run—Rest

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday was a day of quiet time and reflection for me—a forced slowdown after my body decided it had had enough of my constant multitasking and ignored warnings. This entire year has been a relentless stretch of challenges and tight deadlines. Every time someone said it would be impossible to complete a project by a certain date, my response was always the same: hold my beer. Yes, the chaos was self-inflicted. I own that. But what can I say—I have an almost reckless amount of belief in what can be achieved when a group of capable, autonomous engineers who trust each other come together around a shared purpose.

My Origin Story: Baptism by Fire

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by Hannah Gibbs on Unsplash

When I walked into Synaptic Pharmaceuticals for my first official software developer job interview, I had never written a line of professional code. I had no GitHub profile (it didn’t even exist yet), no computer science degree, and just a vague idea of what a design pattern was.

But I had something far more dangerous: momentum and an unlimited supply of hubris.

A few weeks earlier, I had built a working software system from scratch in a pharmaceutical lab despite having zero formal training. If I could do that, what couldn’t I do?

If You Want to Grow, Get on the Bull

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash

I can’t remember exactly when I first heard the advice about taking ownership of your own career and destiny instead of leaving it up to chance. Maybe it came from a book, maybe a talk—I can’t remember. But I do know the exact day when it finally hit me.

It was around 2008, during a really hard phase at work. Back then, I blamed all my career woes on external forces—unsupportive teammates, bad leadership decisions, bad luck. None of it was ever my fault, of course. I was convinced I was doing everything right and the universe was conspiring against me.

Week in Review - Week 42 of 2025

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Some weeks test your patience. Others your stamina. This week? It tested my calendar, my caffeine intake, my emotional bandwidth—and somehow still managed to remind me why I do what I do. Between last-minute presentations, sprint planning chaos, infrastructure headaches, and keeping my team sane, I also got to celebrate something far more meaningful: 25 years of marriage to the quiet girl who changed my life. Here’s how Week 42 unfolded.

Why I’m Trading SMART Goals for HEART Goals

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I was having coffee in my kitchen and browsing Substack when I came across a note from Courtney Cunningham, where she declared that she was done with the so-called SMART goals.

SMART, as you probably know, is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound — a framework for structuring professional and personal goals. If you’re in a leadership position and responsible for helping others achieve their aspirations or close knowledge or behavioral gaps, chances are you’ve heard of SMART goals.

Oops… Did I Really Say That?

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever had one of those days when you say one thing, hear yourself say that one thing, but later realize that you had been saying something completely different all along?

A Gloomy Day, A Bigger Mistake

Today, another gloomy and rainy day, and after my morning routine of exercising and showering, I was full of energy and ready to go carpe some diem, right? Well, let’s just say that things took a weird turn when I realized a deadline I had been communicating all along (this is the thing I heard myself verbally telling everyone) was off by eight days (the thing everyone else heard me say). Eight days off.