Don't Leave Your Moral Compass at Home with Natasha Jaffe

Executives Unplugged

What do you do when a leader tells you, "You have integrity. That's rare in this profession"? For my guest Natasha Jaffe, it was the signal she needed to leave.

In this episode of Executives Unplugged, I talk with Natasha, an experienced engineering leader and coach who has guided teams at both Fortune 100 companies and startups through multi-billion dollar acquisitions.

We have a raw and honest conversation about the critical mistake leaders make when they chase productivity gains but accidentally "squash the magic" that makes their teams special. Natasha shares a powerful playbook for leading through disruptive changes—like reorgs or the push for AI—by protecting your team's "flow state" and listening to your own moral compass.

This episode is a masterclass in leading with empathy and principle, offering practical advice on how to navigate immense change without losing your team, or yourself, in the process.

Guest:

• Natasha Jaffe: Experienced Engineering Leader and Coach.
• Find Natasha's writing at her blog: Nuts and Bolts on Substack

In this episode, we discuss:

• (1:13) What is "Flow State"? Natasha explains why long, uninterrupted blocks of time are the source of an engineer's most creative and deep work.
• (2:11) How Leaders Destroy Flow: Forcing teams to prioritize the "important" over the "interesting" for too long erodes curiosity and squashes the magic.
• (3:40) The Human Reaction to AI: Why engineering teams often react to top-down AI mandates with trepidation, seeing it as "dystopian" and a threat to their craft.
• (4:35) Fear Kills Innovation: When your team is afraid, they won't engage in the productive risk-taking required to innovate.
• (5:11) A Case Study in Leading a Reorg: How Natasha turned a messy, demoralizing situation into a success by bringing the team into the decision-making process, listening to their fears, and even choosing a team mascot.
• (8:33) The Real Path to Moving Faster: Stop telling your engineers to "run harder." Instead, reduce toil and remove friction to "widen the mouth of the funnel."
• (9:16) The Collapsing Talent Stack: Are we moving away from hyper-specialists and back toward multi-skilled teams who can move with lightning speed?
• (12:49) The Bell Curve of Team Size: The trade-off between having more minds on a problem and the rapid degradation of velocity and quality when "too many cooks are in the kitchen."
• (15:01) Your Moral Compass: Why you can't leave your values at home and how the biggest career regrets come from not listening to your gut.
• (16:35) "They Said the Quiet Part Out Loud": The powerful story of how a single comment about integrity was the signal Natasha needed to make a pivotal career change.
• (18:41) Key Questions to Ask Yourself: How to get clarity when your job is in conflict with your values, and how to know when it's time to explore a change.
• (22:08) On Burnout and Recovery: Natasha shares her personal journey of recovering from massive burnout and rediscovering creativity.

Chapters

1. Don't Leave Your Moral Compass at Home with Natasha Jaffe (00:00:00)

2. What is flow state? (00:01:13)

3. How leaders destroy flow (00:02:11)

4. The human reaction to AI (00:03:40)

5. Fear kills innovation (00:04:35)

6. A case study in leading a reorg (00:05:11)

7. The real path to moving faster (00:08:33)

8. The collapsing talent stack (00:09:16)

9. The bell curve of team size (00:12:49)

10. Your moral compass (00:15:01)

11. They said the quiet part out loud (00:16:35)

12. Key questions to ask yourself (00:18:41)

13. On burnout and recovery (00:22:08)