Stop Telling Yourself You're Bad at “People Stuff”

About this episode

Martijn Versteeg discusses how tech leaders can improve their people skills and understand human behavior to enhance team dynamics.

Think you’re just “not a people person”? Most tech leaders quietly believe this about themselves, and it’s exactly what’s holding them back. In this episode, Martijn Versteeg, founder of peer leadership community Group Effort and former CPTO with a background in organizational psychology, makes the case that it’s not: human behavior follows predictable patterns you can understand and work with, just like any system. The conversation covers a six-variable model for understanding what drives behavior and disengagement on your team, why popular personality tools like MBTI and DiSC often do more harm than good, and a clear structure for delivering bad news without the usual stress buildup. We also get into what it really takes to let go of hands-on coding when you move into leadership, why developing a product mindset matters even if product isn’t in your title, and the psychological risks of heavy AI use that most teams still aren’t thinking about. Key topics discussed: The 6 human needs that predict human behavior Why MBTI and DiSC often do more harm than good How to stop avoiding difficult conversations Deliver bad news clearly using a 10-second rule Why becoming a bottleneck is a…

People in this episode

Host: Henry Suryawirawan

Guest: Martijn Versteeg

Topics covered

• human behavior
• leadership
• communication
• psychology
• AI risks
• product mindset

Keywords

• people skills
• leadership
• human behavior
• communication
• AI risks
• product mindset
• MBTI
• DiSC

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Group Effort, MBTI, DiSC

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