How to build frontline leaders in technical organizations

About this episode

Matt Gjertsen discusses how to develop leadership skills in technical professionals.

Technical expertise doesn’t automatically translate into leadership traits. So how do we help engineers, scientists, and specialists become confident and effective managers? Leadership development expert and former SpaceX trainer, Matt Gjertsen, shares how to grow strong leaders inside technical organizations. Drawing on 15 years of experience across aerospace, defense, and emerging tech, Matt specializes in turning skilled technical professionals into confident, effective leaders. You’ll learn: Why leadership is often the biggest blocker to scale, not technology How to engage technical employees in learning (even the skeptical ones) Why engineers are uniquely suited to lead and what holds them back The mindset shift new technical managers must make Things to listen for: (00:00) Introducing Matt Gjertsen (02:09) Why technical leadership is a unique challenge (03:21) Scaling hard tech requires solving people problems (05:23) The leadership gap in reindustrialization and the trades (07:59) A humbling mindset shift: You can’t lead alone (10:12) Why engineers are better at conflict than you think (13:13) Getting skeptical technical leaders to buy in (15:01) Designing leadership…

People in this episode

Host: Big Think+

Guest: Matt Gjertsen

Topics covered

• leadership development
• technical organizations
• management skills
• employee engagement
• mindset shift

Keywords

• leadership
• technical expertise
• management
• employee training
• engineering leadership

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SpaceX

More episodes of How to Make a Leader

• How to develop leaders in a distributed, AI-augmented world · May 28, 2026 · 29 min
• Build a system of learning (not just one-off programs) · April 30, 2026 · 27 min
• Quick question: What can L&D learn from the marketing team? · April 9, 2026 · 5 min
• How to build a manager development program from scratch · March 12, 2026 · 20 min
• Quick question: How can leaders give effective feedback? · February 5, 2026 · 7 min
• Design learning that earns attention · January 15, 2026 · 17 min