In partnership with
Issue #36 | 02/11/2026
From the Editor
Hey fam!
As a native Floridian, I’m still enjoying the Super Benito Bowl Halftime show. Many folks don’t know that in another life in Pointe Orlando, you used to be able to get two nightclubs for the price of one every Sunday night. They were called Matrix & Metropolis. One venue provided all the salsa clasica, merengue, and bachata, while the other gave you all the perreo, dembow, & reggaeton that brought las cangris from every corner of Orange & Osceola county.
Lynne Sladky/AP
Orlando introduced me to the culture of Fania, on2 salsa, Dale don Dale, but it was in Puerto Rico that I fell in love with Roberto Roena y su Apollo Sound, La Sonora Poncena, and Gran Combo - watching these incredible musicians blend rhythms that reminded me of my 2nd home in Ghana (check out the high-life from the 70s).
Sunday was a moment of pride and nostalgia, b/c the truth is, before I connected with my own family, the Latinos adopted me as one of their own. From the Latin Rhythm dance club at UCF, to Salsa Heat, to all the salsa congresses worldwide - I still have a network of incredible musicians and dancers who hold me down.
So there were tears, no perreo b/c of my babies 🤣, but lots of dancing otherwise that brought me right back to my college days surrounded by so much love. I hope everyone finds a community that showers them with the kind of love and support I received from the Latino community. #Quebonitabandera
In this issue:
Job Board Update! Tons of leadership jobs are now added weekly.
Advice I had to give to a family member about the trap of being the “Go to Person”.
Rekindling the love of long-form content
Your resource of the week
Sincerely,
Phedra Arthur Iruke
How can AI power your income?
Ready to transform artificial intelligence from a buzzword into your personal revenue generator
HubSpot’s groundbreaking guide "200+ AI-Powered Income Ideas" is your gateway to financial innovation in the digital age.
Inside you'll discover:
A curated collection of 200+ profitable opportunities spanning content creation, e-commerce, gaming, and emerging digital markets—each vetted for real-world potential
Step-by-step implementation guides designed for beginners, making AI accessible regardless of your technical background
Cutting-edge strategies aligned with current market trends, ensuring your ventures stay ahead of the curve
Download your guide today and unlock a future where artificial intelligence powers your success. Your next income stream is waiting.
Job Board
🦸 Hero Role of the Week
We’re going to keep our Florida theme this week.
500+ jobs pulled. One caught my eye, and in Clearwater, FL, the beaches are BEAUTIFUL.
Snr. Director, Strategic Initiatives (Hybrid), KnowBe4 - Hybrid
Why This Role is Exciting
Strategic Operator with Real Authority You're not executing someone else's strategy—you're shaping it. You'll own the operating cadence for the entire organization, design the strategy narrative, and have the authority to align stakeholders and drive decisions. This is the strategic seat at the table delivery professionals fight to get.
Force Multiplier, Not Task Manager The role explicitly positions you as a "force multiplier" and "strategic operator." You'll establish operating rhythms, run leadership meetings, and ensure execution stays on track—but with executive-level visibility and influence, not as a coordinator checking boxes.
Visible Impact on What Matters Your success is measured by customer adoption, retention, renewals, and long-term value—actual business outcomes, not activity metrics. You'll lead high-impact initiatives end-to-end with clear ownership and accountability.
Industry Leader with Momentum KnowBe4 serves 70,000+ organizations with unusually high retention rates and is recognized as an industry leader. You're joining a proven winner in a critical space (cybersecurity), not trying to validate a struggling product.
Culture of Ownership & Transparency They explicitly value "radical transparency" and "extreme ownership"—plus professional development and making work fun. This isn't corporate theater; they're describing an environment where strategic operators thrive.
No spoilers. Go find it. Filter on Director-level roles, and it should be one of the top results
👉 Browse this week's top roles 👇
New roles added daily.
Giphy
Professional Development
💡 Micro-Tip of the Week
The difference between $100K and $200K+ isn't working harder. It's not another certification. It's not "developing executive presence" (whatever that means).
Strategic leaders don't just deliver outcomes. They define which outcomes matter.
The PM who gets promoted to Director isn't the one with the cleanest RAID log. It's the one who walks into the room and says: "We're solving the wrong problem. Here's what we should be doing instead."
That takes courage. It takes business context. And it takes deliberately stepping back from being the fixer so you have room to be the thinker.
Industry News
A few things from Big Tech & business leaders that you can steal in 10 minutes
How To Be "Strategic" As A TPM | Shannon Vettes
Source: Art of TPM Substack
Why "keeping the trains running" is killing your career—and the 3-step framework to become a predictor instead of an executor. Reveals that influence is 80% relationships and only 20% technical execution, with tactical tools like the Mendelow Matrix for mapping stakeholder power...
Source: Sijie Yang's Blog
A PhD researcher explains why AI optimizes brilliantly but understands nothing—and why delivery professionals who think in systems and first principles won't get replaced, they'll get promoted. Shows how the housing density example reveals AI's blind spots and what executives actually need from strategic thinkers...
Climbing the data career ladder, and descending it again | Rodel van Rooijen
Source: The Data Canal SubstackReal story of climbing to Director at 29, then intentionally descending back to IC work. Exposes why tech companies treat engineering as profit centers (and pay accordingly) while traditional companies treat it as a cost center—plus the brutal truth about managers who seek power vs. those who enable teams...
From the Community
Resource of the Week
"The First 90 Days" by Michael Watkins
If you're thinking about making a move to a more strategic role, this book is essential. Not for the new job itself — but for understanding how leaders think about transitions, stakeholder mapping, and building credibility fast.
Pro tip: Read it BEFORE your next interview cycle. It'll change how you talk about your approach.
Here’s how I use Attio to run my day.
Attio is the AI CRM with conversational AI built directly into your workspace. Every morning, Ask Attio handles my prep:
Surfaces insights from calls and conversations across my entire CRM
Update records and create tasks without manual entry
Answers questions about deals, accounts, and customer signals that used to take hours to find
All in seconds. No searching, no switching tabs, no manual updates.
Ready to scale faster?
Energy
🎤 Phedra's Take
This week's theme: Uncomfortable Truths
Here's my take: You've probably been told to "work on your executive presence." To speak up more. To be more visible. Lean In.
What I've learned: That advice isn't wrong. But it's incomplete. The real barrier isn't your presence. It's your positioning. As long as you're positioned as the person who implements strategy, you'll never be invited to create it. No amount of confidence or "gravitas" changes that equation.
Your move this week: Repositioning is uncomfortable. It means:
Saying no to the fire drills that made you feel important
Letting some balls drop so you have capacity to think
Speaking up about direction, even when it's not your "lane"
But it's the only path from where you are to where you want to be.
Was this useful? Hit reply and lmk. I read every response.
P.S. - Know someone stuck in the “fixer” trap? Forward this to them. Sometimes the shift starts with realizing you’re not alone.
That’s it for this week.
Keep showing up, keep cheering each other on.
How I can help?
The Delivery Career Decoder is the first comprehensive career transformation system designed specifically for delivery professionals, program managers, and technical operations experts who are ready to break through the "execution ceiling" and step into strategic leadership roles. This is a proven methodology that leverages your unique strengths as a delivery professional while systematically building the strategic positioning, executive presence, and communication skills that open doors to VP, Director, and C-suite opportunities.
The Business of Delivery Team
P.S.
You got this!