Rachel Lockett

Executive Coach at Former HR Leader at Pinterest & Stripe

Rachel Lockett is an executive coach and former longtime HR leader at Pinterest and Stripe, working with CEOs, founders, and tech leaders on emotional intelligence, resilience, vision-setting, and building trusted teams.

The Org Builder The Craftsperson

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 45%

Execution & Craft 45%

Data & Experimentation 20%

Growth & Distribution 20%

Team & Leadership 95%

User Empathy & Research 70%

Key Themes

leaders don't need all the answers difficult conversations emotional intelligence in tech avoiding burnout conflict as mutual understanding coaching vs advising

Episode Summary

Rachel Lockett shares coaching frameworks for tech leaders, challenging the assumption that leaders need all the answers and that work is purely logical. She explains how having answers all the time actually disempowers teams, why the goal of conflict is mutual understanding rather than winning, and practical approaches to avoiding burnout and having difficult conversations.

Leadership Principles

→ When you try to have all the answers, you train your team to bring you all the hard problems instead of solving them
→ The goal of any conflict is to create mutual understanding, not to convince the other person they're wrong
→ Tech operates on a misguided belief that work is purely logical — professionals have feelings

Notable Quotes

"Most leaders assume they have to have all the answers. But great leaders know that when you try to advise and have the answer all the time, you're training your team to come to you with all of the hard problems."
— On the biggest gap keeping technical leaders from being successful

"People, when they want to have a conflict, come in ready to prove their point. Actually, the goal of any conflict is to create mutual understanding."
— On reframing the purpose of difficult conversations

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