Being Your Own Leader in Times of Transition with Han Yuan

Episode 40 What does it look like to be your own leader in times of professional transition? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus talks with Han Yuan, friend and former Senior Vice President of Engineering at Upwork, about transitioning into entrepreneurship from a traditional job and vice versa. How do you know it’s time to make a transition? Where do you find the support you need? How can you prepare team members for their own transitions? It’s a scary proposition for anyone. Fortunately, Yuan says it can be managed effectively with a combination of objective benchmarks, meaningful relationships, and authenticity.

Show Notes

• The dangers of becoming an entrepreneur (2:41)
• When it’s time to leave your “good" job (4:00)
• How professional managers can help employees think this way through career development (6:30)
• Helping team members transition out of the organization (8:37)
• Avoid win-lose situations by mentoring people, not professional roles (9:56)
• Dealing with uncertainty during transition (15:05)
• Connecting activities to outcomes (19:39)
• Be authentic when “parachuting” into a new work culture (23:17)
• How entrepreneurs can maintain structure and build peer groups outside of traditional work structures (28:37)

Links:

• Han Yuan on Linkedin
• Articles by Han Yuan:
  • Be authentic
  • Why you should make your management principles transparent
  • Being a team, or being a family? Why I strive to make the groups I lead be both