Ali Merchant

All-In Manager

👉🏼 My mission is to help ambitious managers become better leaders. 

I can help your managers in three ways:

1️⃣  Leadership workshops: 60-90 minute monthly workshops depending on your company's needs. Popular workshops include: 

1. Remote productivity, performance, and resilience
2. Building Psychological safety in a remote world
3. Delivering, asking, and receiving feedback virtually
4. Learning to become an effective coach.


👉🏼  "This is the best feedback training I have attended on this topic. I really like Ali's style and how he goes thru examples and breaks it down" - Sales leader


2️⃣ First-time manager training: A 5-week virtual program designed to get your first-time managers up and running. Topics include:

1. Understanding the role of leader
2. Building one on one connections 
3. Building Psychological safety
4. Delegate or DIY
5. Understanding feedback mechanics
6. Learning to become a coach.


👉🏼 “With becoming a manager recently, these sessions have really helped” - Engineering manager


3️⃣ Director and VP level coaching: Your leaders want someone who's a coach + consultant + mentor. Having coached for a decade, I know when to play each role.


👉🏼 "Ali's dedicated his career to developing leaders and it shows in his ability to effectively coach me." - Customer support leader.

Founder

Digestive Health Foundation

Board Member

Everwise

Advisor and Mentor to Managers in Saas organizations

Mentor

Marin Software

Head of Learning and Development

Forbes Coaches Council

Contributing Writer 

Gap Inc.

Senior Manager, Learning & Development, Supply Chain

iProspect

Director, Training and Development North America

Client Services Manager

Training and Innovation Manager

Training and Innovation Specialist

Search Marketing Specialist

Microstrategy

Production Consultant

WebMD

Software Engineer

I help managers become leaders in 12 weeks or less.

There are 1 of 2 reasons you're reading my profile.


Reason 1: You're a manager who wants to become a better leader.

OR

Reason 2: You're a senior leader looking for leadership training for your managers.


If you're looking to become a better leader. I offer training and coaching services:
▪️ Training: https://www.allinmanager.com/Lead-confidently-in-six-weeks
▪️ Coaching: https://www.allinmanager.com/leadership-coaching


If you're a senior leader looking to bring me in to train your teams. This page will help:
▪️ Training: https://www.allinmanager.com/corporate_cohort


Two more things:

1. I write about leadership daily. (500+ posts with 44,000+ followers). You can hit follow, and I'll show up in your feed.

2. I also write a weekly newsletter that goes to 10,000+ leaders. You can subscribe here: https://www.allinmanager.com/leadership-newsletter. 

If you're wondering who's this guy?

I'm the founder of All-In Manager: https://www.allinmanager.com/

We're a boutique leadership development company.

I started AIM for one reason — To help ambitious managers become leaders. We do that through training, coaching, and content.

Before starting AIM, I spent 16 years running Learning & Development departments for public companies, iconic technology brands in Silicon Valley, and the biggest Ad agencies on the planet.

Feel free to DM me and say 👋.

Engineering with People Intelligence | Microsoft, Yahoo, SAP, Carnegie Mellon | The Engineering Career Coach

I transformed from a curious software engineer to a strategic leader, guiding massive teams at Microsoft, Yahoo, Walmart Labs, and startups. Along this journey, I generated over $2.3 billion in revenue. But it wasn't always smooth sailing.

My quest began with questions about management, innovation, and leadership, leading me to an unexpected discovery - emotional intelligence. It sparked a new realization; traditional corporate management training teaches frameworks, not leadership. That's why I created Taha's Method, a unique approach focused on leading yourself before others and applying management frameworks rooted in human principles.

And boy, did it work!

In 6 years, I led from 0 to 250+ team members. To date, I have coached over 600+ professionals, including those at Google, Netflix, Oracle, Microsoft, Meta, Intuit, Yahoo, and startups, helping them to secure management as well as IC roles (Principal+).

But why stop there?

In January 2022, I walked away from a 7-figure career to dedicate myself to enabling ambitious software engineers to reach their full potential. I developed a personalized 6-month 1:1 coaching program - and the impact has been phenomenal. (Check out the reviews from my clients below.)

Every day, I share insights on LinkedIn about effective leadership, emotional intelligence challenges, and career advancements. In doing so, I've created a vibrant community of learners and leaders.

For me, great leadership can make the world a better place. And I believe that everyone has the capacity to become a great leader.

So, are you ready to unlock your potential? 

Join me, and let's change the world one leader at a time.

Taha Hussain

At Microsoft, I saw three kinds of senior engineers. 

The first were the Masters.

They were the best technicians I had. 

Flawless code. 
Deep systems knowledge. 
The kind of engineer you begged to review your work.

But most of them were stuck at L64 for a decade.

They stayed in the code. 
Their reach stopped at their fingertips.

They blamed managers for not making them bigger than they were willing to become.

The second were the Heroes.

They ran toward outages. 
Took the hits. 
Brought everything back online.

And the team leaned on them. Too much.

The mess returned, and the Hero was there again in the middle of it.

They absorbed complexity. 
They multiplied reliability. 
They did not multiply successors.

The third were rare. The Challengers.

In calibration discussions, it took 30 seconds. 
Everyone said, "The best."

They did not step in. They stepped back.
They handed the outage to the junior.
They let the mid-level bleed through a design review.

They held the line until people changed shape.

They did not multiply output. 
They multiplied people.

Masters make code.
Heroes make systems.
Challengers make people.

And people outlast everything.

Want to grow into the kind of engineer people call “the best” in 30 seconds?

Enroll in the Top Engineer Method.

I built it from my experience shaping engineers at Microsoft, SAP and startups into true Challengers.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

JSESSIONID

LinkedIn App Challenge

li_at

Talks about #careers, #leadership, #softwareengineering, #emotionalintelligence, and #engineeringmanagement

Engineering Career Coach | Microsoft, Yahoo, SAP, Carnegie Mellon | Engineering with People Intelligence

Most “underperformers” on your team are not found.
They are built.
By you.

You quietly decide someone is “not ready.”
So you give them smaller problems.
With less context.
And softer feedback.

They move slower.
Take fewer risks.
Stay in the shallow end.

Then you point at the gap and call it proof.

Psychologists have a name for this: The Golem Effect
 
Low expectations that quietly become reality.

On engineering teams, it shows up in four places:

1. Climate: Who gets your patience and full attention?
2. Input: Who gets the real “why,” not just the Jira ticket?
3. Output: Who gets the scary migrations and visible projects?
4. Feedback: Who gets specific, stretching one, not “Nice work”?

If the same person keeps landing on the “less” side of those questions, you are not just measuring performance.

You are designing it.

Leaders love to say, “I wish they would step up.”

Often, they are already standing as tall as the room you built for them.

I learned this the hard way with an engineer on my team at Yahoo.

I ran the Golem script.

I did not like how the story ended.

I wrote the full story here in today's newsletter, including what I changed after.

Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gNcKgBcy

If you manage people, someone is living inside the room you built for them. Make sure you can live with how small or how wide that room is.

The most dangerous person to work for is a first-time manager.

Not because they don’t know what they’re doing,

But because no one punishes them when they get it wrong.

For six months, every misstep gets wrapped in gift paper labeled “growth.”

And you?

You’re the ribbon they pull apart.

Every new EM goes through the same phase:

• Break the silence
• Practice discomfort
• Prove you're a leader: "give tough feedback"

So they go looking for something to fix.
Even when there's nothing to fix.

In September, three new clients came to me.

Each on a PIP, all under first-time managers.

The feedback reads like a template.

Facts. Expectations. No warmth. No context.

Here’s the part no one wants to say out loud:

New managers are afraid.

Afraid of being wrong.
Of sounding junior.
Of being exposed as someone who never belonged in the chair.

So they overcompensate.

And you become the proof they’re looking for.

If you're working under a new manager: tread lightly.

Don't confuse their fear with your failure.
Don’t make their practice your identity.

Most don’t mean harm. 
But they are learning on live subjects. 

Treat them like a cop on the highway:

Hands at ten and two.
No sudden moves.
Let them pass.

Then get back to driving your career.

You can't choose every manager you work for.

But you can choose how you grow under them.

Need help taking control of your growth?

Enroll in the Top Engineer Method.

I built it from my experience growing engineers at Microsoft, SAP, and startups through messy, imperfect management environments.

Start now: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Your career deserves steadier hands, especially your own.

graphical user interface, text, application

Most engineers chase titles.

Senior. Staff. Principal. Lead.

But here’s the truth:

Your title isn’t your ceiling.
Your communication is.
Your visibility is.
Your leverage is.

I’ve seen Staff Engineers nobody trusts.
And Seniors with Director-level influence.

If your work is invisible, your value is too.

So speak clearly.
Document generously.
Mentor someone.
Present your work.
Post your lessons.

Quiet excellence is noble.

But it rarely gets promoted.

Need help making your work visible without feeling loud?

Enroll in the Top Engineer Method.

I built it from my experience growing engineers at Microsoft, SAP and Walmart into people the org could not overlook.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Managers obsess over grooming people for promotion.

They forget to groom themselves for replacement.

If your team falls apart when you step away, you did not build strength. You built a bottleneck.

Great managers are not trying to be the hero.

They are trying to be removable.

They train decisions into their people.
They design systems that run without hand-holding.
They make themselves less necessary every quarter.

That is how you earn real scope.

First, your team runs without you.

Then the org trusts you with more than your team.

If you want to build that kind of team, that is exactly what Top Tech Leader is for.

Practical systems, real scripts, and a clear operating model for managers who want ownership, not chaos.

Join here: https://lnkd.in/gHSYuJrv

An Engineering Director hired me to prep him for an M2 role at Meta. He didn’t get it. Not even M1.

On paper, he was perfect.

• Scaled systems
• Managed managers
• Hit every target
• Told every story by the book

So what went wrong?

It wasn’t his answers.
It wasn’t his architecture.
It wasn’t his delivery.

A leadership blind spot, hidden inside his success.

Startups reward it.
Big tech exposes it.

And it revealed itself with one question.

I wrote about it in the article:

"Why Meta rejected Jeff."

(Tap the image below to read it 👇)

One question exposed the blind spot that decides promotions. The Zoom call started on time. Jeff appeared, fiddling with his headphones. He had a poli

Open article: Why Meta Rejected Jeff by Taha Hussain • 4 min read

Senior engineers think it’s about the code.

Staff engineers know it’s about something else.

I’ve seen the same story 100 times:

A sharp Senior does everything right — clean commits, crisp design docs, predictable delivery — and still gets passed over.

Meanwhile, someone with half the technical depth overtakes them into a Staff role.

It’s not politics.
It’s not favoritism.
It’s five invisible skills no one talks out loud.

I wrote about them here:

5 Skills That Separate Staff From Senior

(Click the image below to read it 👇)

I’ve watched this play out too many times. A Senior engineer does everything right. They know the systems cold. Their code reviews are precise. Their 

5 Skills That Separate Staff From Senior

Every engineer hates politics.

Until they watch a weaker idea win
just because the right person said it.

Until their carefully-prepared presentation dies quietly
because they didn't loop someone in.

Until the obvious solution gets tossed
because it makes someone uncomfortable.

At first, you think it's just unfair.

Then you realize:

Fairness was never the game.
Influence was.

Influence isn't about charm or manipulation.
It's knowing:

→ When to speak up, and when to wait.
→ Which egos need room, and how to give it gracefully.
→ How to present your solution as an upgrade, not a threat.

You can pretend politics don't exist.
You can hope your quiet contributions get noticed.

Or you can choose to see the invisible currents clearly.

You don’t need to play games.
You need to stop assuming merit wins on its own.

Engineers can learn influence without faking, manipulating, or selling out. 

Here’s how: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Taplio

If your best friend got engaged after three dates, you'd panic.

At work, we do something just as wild:

We hire people for eight hours a day, five days a week, for years... after three to five interviews.

Forty five minutes at a time.
Polished questions. Polished answers.
A carefully edited trailer.

You almost never see the full movie.

How they think when nobody is grading them.
How they behave when a release goes sideways.
How they treat people who cannot help their career.

That is what you want to know before you “put a ring on it” with an offer.

Now flip it.

You are the one they are betting on after a 45 minute trailer and a PDF.

Writing is how you let them watch the full movie in advance.

In today’s episode of The Conscious Leader, I am sharing a 101 minute hands-on masterclass on how to write about your work on LinkedIn so hiring managers can “watch you” over time and start reaching out before you ever apply.

Click the image to watch it 👇

A practical way to earn trust online so recruiters reach out before you apply. Imagine your best friend calls you one afternoon and says, very calmly,

Open article: How to Build a Reputation That Gets You Hired (Without Applying) by Taha Hussain • 4 min read

How to Build a Reputation That Gets You Hired (Without Applying)

You say you’re open to feedback.

But you’re not.

You’re open to praise wrapped in suggestions.
You’re open to feedback that doesn’t hurt.
You’re open to what confirms what you already believe.

The moment it threatens your self-image?

You shut down.
You start nitpicking how it was said.
You label it “rude” or “harsh” or “not actionable.”

Here’s what’s really happening:

You’re not protecting your growth.
You’re protecting your guilt.

Because if the feedback is even half true?

You’d have to face all the moments you coasted.
All the things you said you’d do and didn’t.
All the ways you played small when you knew better.

That’s not feedback rejection.
That’s ego triage.

You’re not built soft.
You’re just rusty.

Let the feedback hit.
Let it bruise.
Let it point to something real.

Then fix it.
Quietly.
Relentlessly.
Like a professional.

No shame.
No tantrum.
Just reps.

If you want to turn bruises into breakthroughs, this is where you begin.

Enroll in the Top Engineer Method.

I built it to help engineers grow without defensiveness and improve without drama.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Sales Navigator

If you're an engineering leader, here's a hard truth:

Your job is to manage up and craft down.

Executives don’t care about clean architecture.

Engineers don’t care about stakeholder politics.

So your influence lives in the middle:

• Translating chaos into clarity.
• Turning vision into interfaces.
• Turning ego into velocity.

Bad managers hide in ambiguity.
Great ones compress it.

The more clearly you think, the less your team has to.

Need help?

I help engineering leaders cut through ambiguity and lead with clarity.

Learn how inside the Top Tech Leader program ↓
https://lnkd.in/gHSYuJrv

Promotions teach you how to climb.
Layoffs teach you how to survive.

One rewards loyalty.
The other rewards leverage.

If you’re only optimizing for titles, you’re fragile.
If you’re building skills, networks, and reputation, you’re durable.

One path depends on your company.
The other depends on you.

Need help building a career that survives any company?

Enroll in the Top Engineer Method.

I built it from years of growing engineers at Microsoft, SAP and startups into durable, high-trust professionals.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

You're not afraid of "posting."

You're afraid of what someone might think if you do.

That old coworker.
Your manager.
Your college roommate who hasn't said a word to you in 6 years.

Fear has a tax.
You pay it daily: in silence, invisibility, and missed opportunities.

Meanwhile?

Someone less talented than you is hitting "publish."
And slowly, they're building:

Audience

Income

Leverage

All because they got over one person’s imagined opinion.

Don’t let ghosts cost you real success.

In a toxic org, being great makes you a target.

• You get more asks
• You become the buffer
• You absorb the chaos

Eventually you get burned out while someone else gets promoted.

Don’t try to “fix the culture.”

That’s code for “die slowly.”

Instead:

• Set hard boundaries
• Leave a trail of impact in writing
• Document everything

You’re not stuck.

You’re in the wrong game.

If you don’t learn the system, the system will decide for you.

If you know you’re capable of more but tired of toxic games, I built the Top Tech Leader for you. Learn more ↓ 

https://lnkd.in/gHSYuJrv

Engineers say they hate DSA.

“It’s irrelevant.”
“It’s academic.”
“No one uses red-black trees at work.”

Bullsh*t.

You do not hate DSA.
You hate what it makes you feel.

Slow.
Stupid.
Exposed.

It drags you into problems where you cannot hide behind frameworks.

Where your fancy IDE does not save you.
Where the question does not care about your title, your tech stack, or your years of experience.

And suddenly you are alone with the voice.

“You are not good enough.”
“You have been faking it.”
“Everyone else figured this out years ago.”

So you avoid it.
Or mock it.
Or treat it like a ritual for insecure overachievers.

Engineers blame DSA because blaming themselves is too painful.

Because admitting you feel behind is heavier than any algorithm.

Because if you say it out loud, you have to do something about it.

You’re scared.

Scared that you’ve plateaued.
Scared that you’ll try and still fail.
Scared that your edge is gone.

Here is the reality:

You do not sharpen a knife on bread.
You sharpen it against steel.

Most of your day is soft.
Setters. Getters. API glue.
Tickets that keep you busy but never really test you.

DSA is not for the job.
It is for the edge.
For the part of you that still wants to be dangerous.

You do not have to love it.
You have to stop hiding from it.

Because that shame you keep dodging?
That is where the growth lives.

The edge is in you.

But only if you are willing to bleed a little.

If you're ready to stop hiding and start facing challenges, enroll in the Top Engineer Method.

I built it from years of training engineers at Microsoft, SAP, and startups into the kind of talent others can’t ignore.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Your résumé will not save you when the layoffs hit.
It will sit in a folder with a hundred others.
What actually travels ahead of you?

A reputation.

Résumés get skimmed.
Reputations get shared.

You build one by:

• Publishing what you know
• Showing up consistently
• Teaching others
• Solving problems in public
• Being easy to recommend

A résumé only speaks when you apply.
A reputation speaks when you are not in the room.

You are one layoff away from being forgotten.
Or one post away from being unforgettable.

Build the reputation now.
Before you need it.

This Sunday, my newsletter breaks down a simple writing system that makes recruiters and hiring managers come to you.

It is the same recipe I teach clients who pay me twelve thousand dollars to land roles.

Subscribe here to get it directly in your inbox: https://lnkd.in/g3J25k5w

What junior devs think seniors do:

• Know everything
• Architect from scratch
• Make every call

What seniors actually do:

• Say “I don’t know” faster
• Cut scope without guilt
• Guide tradeoffs under pressure
• Keep the team unblocked

It’s not a rank.
It’s a posture.

And most of it has nothing to do with how fast you code.

Need help improving your senior posture?

Enroll in the Top Engineer Method.

I built it from my experience growing engineers at Microsoft, SAP and startups into trusted decision-makers.

Start now: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Your career may be suffering because your manager can’t see beyond their own ceiling.

• They’ve never promoted someone to Staff
• They don’t know what Principal looks like
• They can’t sponsor at the next level

You’ve outgrown them.

And no amount of “working harder” fixes that.

At some point, your only move is sideways.

Most engineers think they’re being rejected for a lack of skill.

But they’re not.

They’re being rejected for lack of signal.

The resume doesn’t say,
“This person knows their stuff.”

It says,
“This person did a few things once.”

No arc.
No weight.
No impact.

It reads like a work log, not a reputation.

And so even great engineers get ghosted.
Not because they’re underqualified.
But because no one can tell what they’re qualified for.

In today's newsletter, I break down exactly how we fix that.

"How to fill your calendar with interviews."

We’ll rebuild your resume from the ground up using systems thinking so it works like a funnel, not a flyer.

This is the same process I’ve used with over 200 clients.

Start here:
https://lnkd.in/gVnA7cad

You won’t get fired.

You’ll just stop mattering.

No email.
No awkward conversation.
Just a shift.

First, you're asked for input.
Then you're only told the decision.
Then you're not in the room at all.

Your calendar stays full.
Your name’s still in the org chart.
But the work? It moves without you.

People say you’re burned out.
You nod like that explains it.
But deep down, you know the truth.

You didn’t make a mistake.

You just got quiet.

You played it safe.
You waited for clarity.
You kept your head down and assumed it would come back around.

It didn’t.

That’s how relevance dies.

Not from failure.
From hesitation.

So don’t wait.

Find the work no one wants.
Say the thing no one’s saying.
Make yourself hard to ignore.

Because no one’s coming to pull you back in.

You have to walk yourself out of the fade.

The Top Engineer Method teaches you how to take back ownership of your visibility.

Enroll today: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Relevance returns the moment you start moving with intent.

taplio

The Battle

Ali Merchant

Taha Hussain

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreTaha Hussain's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Ali Merchant

Taha Hussain

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Taha Hussain's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreTaha Hussain's LinkedIn Performance