Jovonia Thibert, who goes by Jo, joins us to share engineering leadership lessons from her 20 years at Boeing and Amazon. In this episode, Jo shares some key lessons from her experience as a leader:
- Great leaders show up holistically - they care about their people mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Jo aims to understand where her people are at and meet them there.
- EQ is as important as IQ. Jo strives for a balance between connecting with people (EQ) and technical expertise (IQ).
- Zoom out and zoom in intentionally. Jo talks about the need to strategically zoom out to grasp the big picture then zoom back in on critical details. Leaders can get stuck zooming in too much and lose sight of the overall goals.
- Create mechanisms to move fast enough. Speed is important but safety and quality are non-negotiable.
- Develop trust and community between leaders. Jo cultivates trust with peers who sharpen each other, not compete. She wants to complement strengths, not combat over territory.
- Hold people accountable with empathy. Regular check-ins allow Jo to understand what's really happening before acting on underperformance. The goal is learning and improvement, not punishment.
Her faith and desire to show love also shape her inclusive, compassionate leadership style.
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In our conversation, we mentioned several books:
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- Escape Velocity by Geoffrey Moore
- Books by Stephen Covey (such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People )
- Servant leadership books
- Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown
- The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
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Where to follow Jovonia Thibert:
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jovoniathibert/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/JovoniaThibert
Where to find Romain Jourdan:
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjourdan/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/rjourdan_net
Website: https://www.tpifs.com
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