The Bellamy Letter

Real-world leadership insights for tech industry managers navigating new teams, big transitions, and higher expectations.

What Your Direct Reports Say About You at Dinner

Why your impact on the people who report to you reaches well past the office, and how to choose which way it goes. Every person who reports to you talks about you at home. Most days. Dinner is one place it comes up. So is the drive home, the walk on Saturday morning, the phone call with a frien...

Oct 31, 2026

The Feedback You Keep Putting Off

Why feedback feels uncomfortable with a new team, and how to make it a normal part of how your team works. You're a few weeks into leading a new team. You've noticed some things. The status update that said "on track" the day before the work turned out to be blocked. The pull request merged wit...

Oct 24, 2026

If You Write the Plan, You’ll Be Fixing It Too

Why the people closest to the work should write the plan, and what to look for when they bring it to you. In 1987, a heavyweight named Tyrell Biggs said he had a plan to beat Mike Tyson. Tyson's response: "Everybody has plans until they get hit for the first time." He stopped Biggs in the seven...

Oct 17, 2026

Could Your Team Run Without You, Starting Today?

Why an emergency leave is the real test of how your team operates, and four questions your team needs to be able to answer without you. It's a Tuesday. Nothing special on the calendar. A 1:1 at ten, a planning review after lunch, a deck you meant to finish yesterday. Your phone rings. It's fami...

Oct 10, 2026

A Reorg Makes Every Manager a New-Team Manager

Why a reorg lands so differently inside a team than it does at the top, and how to give your people solid ground. When I was doing the initial research for my leadership program, I talked with a manager who said something I still think about. "Jeff, I've been managing my team for three years, a...

Oct 03, 2026

Does Your Team Know What Winning Looks Like?

Why a hard-working team can still pull in different directions, and three questions to find out where yours stands. "How do I get everyone pulling in the same direction?" Managers ask me a version of this all the time. Everyone is working hard. The calendar is full. Work is getting done. And th...

Sep 26, 2026

Your Newcomer's License Is Expiring

Why "I'm still learning the landscape" is the most reasonable-sounding way to fall behind. "I'm still learning the landscape." "I want the lay of the land before I start changing things." "Once I understand the org better, I'll be in a better position to do that." I often hear versions of these...

Sep 19, 2026

You Be the Customer. I'll Be You.

How to train your team when you have no time and no budget for training. "My team needs training. I don't have the budget, and even if I did, nobody has the time." I hear a version of this from nearly every new manager I talk to. The budget freeze is real. The packed calendar is real. And your ...

Sep 12, 2026

Your Team Already Knows Who Your Favorite Is

The part of leadership nobody warns you about, and what it costs the people you aren't spending time with. I talked with a manager this week who just got promoted to lead the team he had been part of for years. Same people. Same work. Different org chart. He wanted to talk about the friendships...

Sep 05, 2026

A Rubber Duck Is Outperforming You

Why answering your team's questions trains them to keep asking, and what to do instead. Someone on your team shows up at your desk. She's stuck. She starts explaining the problem, and about fifteen seconds in, you already know the answer. So you give it to her. She says thanks and goes back to ...

Aug 29, 2026

Nobody Sets Out to Be a Micromanager

How to hand a new team real ownership in your first 30 days without lowering the bar. You're 30 days into leading a team you barely know. You're still learning first names. You don't know who your strong performers are, or who you can hand something to and then stop thinking about it. What you do...

Aug 15, 2026

You Can't Lead Someone Who Doesn't Trust You

Here's the weekly routine that builds trust fast, even when you're starting from zero. You just inherited this team. You didn't hire these people. You didn't build this history with them. As far as most of them are concerned, you're an unknown quantity sitting in a seat that used to belong to s...

Aug 08, 2026

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