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The Feedback You Don't Notice You're Getting
The best feedback you ever received might not have registered as feedback at all — at least not in the moment. Adrian McKenzie and Oli Deakin, former colleagues of host Alex Brooker at Snowflake Software, turn the tables and put Alex in the hot seat, unpacking leadership philosophy, the hidden shape of formative feedback, and what it really costs to leave the corporate world behind.
Show Notes
Adrian McKenzie and Oli Deakin worked alongside host Alex Brooker during the building and scaling of Snowflake Software, a UK-based software and data company, before each moving into distinct post-corporate paths — Adrian into leadership and team performance work anchored in the principle of being kind rather than nice, and Oli into advising heads of technology and CTOs on connecting day-to-day decisions to a three-to-five-year strategic vision. In this role-reversal episode, Adrian and Oli interview Alex directly, drawing out a rich conversation that covers why conflict avoidance is a poison in any organisation, how the courage to have uncomfortable conversations is what separates kindness from mere niceness, and why honest feedback becomes paradoxically harder to deliver with people you haven't yet built trust with. The group reflects on moments where feedback only revealed itself as feedback in hindsight — conversations that landed without triggering defensiveness precisely because they were delivered with skill. Alex shares the emotional core of the book he is writing, centred on the tipping point at which a founder can no longer code their way out of every problem and must learn to lead others through complexity. Oli sketches a hypothetical book of his own on technology strategy, and all three trace threads between early-life hustle — fossil selling, Christmas Day shifts, dinner-table debates — and the strengths each has carried into life beyond the corporate safety net.
Click to expand the full episode transcript (5,152 words approx.)
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About the Travel Tech Podcast
Hosted by Alex Brooker, founder of Airside Labs, the Travel Tech Podcast features authentic long-form conversations with leaders, innovators, and startup founders shaping the future of aviation and travel technology. No scripts, no sponsors, no sales pitches — just real conversations about building technology that matters.