Nurturing engineering talent is an art, not science. My guest, Rajeev Nanda, the Director of Engineering Operations at Unlearn.ai. dives in to talk about career growth and exploration. He will share what he has learned in his managing career, including his tips and tricks. In this episode, we cover: The concept of nurturing talent — career growth &  talent growth. Importance of having a mentor in your organization. How to lead a technical organization: Manager responsibilities Technical versus Organizational growth path, what you need to know. Lesson Learned: Skills you need to manage people or technical teams effectively. Soft skills are much more difficult to master than hard skills. The Importance of communication between managers and their team members. Understanding your team's motivations is core and key to helping them grow. Dealing with a misalignment of employee aspirations and skills Building trust is a cornerstone of nurturing talent A Good Manager is Like a Gardener About today’s guest:  More than three decades of hi-tech industry experience split between consulting, startups, and captive IT.  Rajeev has successfully delivered software applications and solutions across multiple domains and platforms in leadership and management roles.  He has managed and actively contributed to projects with business values ranging from $0.5M - $20M+.  Built and managed cross-functional and cross-geo organizations sized 5 – 350+ with a motivated workforce and minimal attrition. Rajeev has worked with CIOs and staff on strategic programs for technology and business transformations.  He is a published author of books and articles on technology, strategy, management, and leadership in topics including AI, IoT, Cloud Computing, and innovation.  His most recent book is RISE: Essential soft-skills for career management, which was released in Oct 2019. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevnanda/ https://rnanda.com/ ________ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a minute and leave a quick rating and review on the Apple podcast app! Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)