I’m a Leadership Coach and help EAs with people management, org leadership, team performance, work culture, building trust, career development, feedback and other areas. I’ve been coaching EAs since September 2022. Before that I led technical teams at Amazon and Bloomberg for 11+ years. I scaled a business-critical software organization at Amazon from 8 to 25 people, managing three dev teams. I have a masters in computer science and engineering with a focus in AI/ML and a minor in philosophy. https://adamtury.com
atury
Karma: 40
As in there are life/other types of coaches on MHN?
Yeah, there are lots of coaches and therapists on MHN. The idea is that people have a single list that is known and trusted, and also provides a useful interface for people to be able to find a coach/therapist that is right for them. This is the main purpose of the providers page. There is some benefit to having the central resource including reducing the proliferation of separate lists, which can be confusing to people.
These coaches aren’t generally licensed mental health professionals (certainly some exceptions), but seeing an effective coach is certainly something that can greatly support mental health, and I think that was at least part of the reasoning of listing them there.
I’m not sure how I feel here. The coaches section has definitely got a bit bloated. I could do some rotation to highlight individuals, but that sounds quite a pain in the butt. I’m also a little wary of deferring to a single other resource, since I’m generally worried about EA groupthink that comes from deferred epistemics. Maybe a reasonable approach would be to list coaches only if they fit the opt-in criterion and for some (non-egregious) reason (e.g. that they don’t deal with mental health) aren’t listed on MHN?
I agree that rotation isn’t practical. I hear what you’re saying about being worried about deferred epistemics. My perspective is that MHN providers page is actually worth deferring to for this because it earns trust by providing a general platform where many people can be listed, (it wouldn’t be deferring to a shorter list of people getting outsized attention). The intention is that it gives someone a better chance at figuring out what provider is right for them based on their own analysis rather than other more arbitrary methods. It would be supportive of a process of evaluating multiple providers instead of just hearing of one provider and going with that person. Also it includes a bunch more things like factual information about the coaches that help with matching, and has recommendations from others who have gotten services (which, in aggregate, provide meaningful data). Would love to get your thoughts on this.
All that said, I think it would be reasonable to list coaches who contact you and fit the opt-in criteria and who aren’t on MHN.
Thank you so much for creating this series of posts! I think this is a great idea to get the word out about these and there is a lack of visibility into these important services and orgs.
Is there any other marketing that is going along with these posts? e.g. posting on Slack channels, Facebook groups, or the like? I think that could potentially multiply the benefits and help get the word out even more.
I’m definitely supportive of being more broadly inclusive of services/orgs here that are fee-charging and for the same justification you list.
I see the Mental Health Navigator is mentioned under the Mental Health section, but I suggest that the Coaching session also have a reference to it at the top mentioning that there are a bunch of coaches on that resource as well, in the same Providers list.
More strongly, I don’t think it makes sense to only list a few coaches explicitly by name in this post. There are a ton of coaches who specifically target EAs on the Mental health Navigator, virtually all (if not all) of whom meet all the criteria. The MHN is intended to be the single source of truth list and provides useful features like filtering. It also only lists providers who have some review/recommendation (or if they’ve listed themselves, that has been reviewed by a gatekeeper at the Mental Health Navigator). To have another list here could only ever amount to a less complete and as such potentially confusing or less valuable list. I myself am a leadership coach to EAs and would love to be added to this list, but, I also know of a couple dozen other coaches who would also love to get more visibility, many of whom will never discover this post. I’d rather help out the entire coaching community, and also provide a more valuable interface to EAs seeking coaches, which helps out the entire EA community.
If you don’t agree, I’d love to hear your thoughts on why. If you do agree and want to change this, then it’s less clear what to do with the existing names, since it seems it would slightly reduce the visibility for the people already here (it is far shorter list here, and far fewer clicks to dive to those individuals). However, at the risk of irritating a few people (most of whom I personally know and very much like and respect!), I would lean towards removing them in favor of the broader list. But a middle ground might be to leave them and something like this at the top of the coaching list “When looking for a coach, the best thing to do is go to the Mental Health Navigator providers list. It is the single source of truth for coaches, it provides a broader list, includes recommendations, and provides filtering to identify coaches that fit your criteria. The list of coaches here are only the ones who have specifically reached out to be added to this post.”
And, finally, if you do choose to continue to explicitly list some coaches here, then I’d love it if you could reply to this comment with that as well (or email me at adam@adamtury.com) so that I can request to add myself to the list (and reach out to a bunch of other extremely effective EA coaches to encourage them to do this too).
Nitpick: You use “or” a couple of times in your criteria. I believe in both cases the “or” conjoins only the bullet with the single adjacent bullet. But just to make it a tiny bit clearer what two things are conjoined by “or”, you could use indenting, or include both things in the same line item.
There’s a newer version of this post here. I suggest that this one be linked to at the top of this post so that people don’t spend a bunch of time reading through this only to realize there is a more up-to-date list of resources. thanks!
I suggest adding the EA Services Directory (managed by Deena Englander) here. EASE is: “A directory of independent agencies and freelancers offering expertise to EA-aligned organisations.” Their problem statement: “Many organizations in the EA world have similar needs but lack the bandwidth or expertise to realize them. By providing a directory of experts covering many common challenges, we aim to save the movement time whilst addressing key skill shortages.”
There’s a newer version of this post here. I suggest that this one be linked to at the top of this post so that people don’t spend a bunch of time reading through this only to realize there is a more up-to-date list of resources. I see the final comment here mentions it, but it would be better to put it prominently at the top. thanks!
There’s a newer version of this post here. I suggest that this one be linked to at the top of this post so that people don’t spend a bunch of time reading through this only to realize there is a more up-to-date list of resources.
Funding opportunity for personal/professional development for those working in AI safety (deadline March 29)
This is a great idea! I participated in Toastmasters for a few years in my career and got a lot out of it. Public speaking is hard and getting practice in a low stakes setting was hugely beneficial for me. This allow you to get great feedback from other experienced presenters, and also helps desensitize yourself to the potential feelings of anxiety that can come from public speaking. I plan to be joining a few sessions and giving a talk myself!
When is the next event and how do I sign up?
The supply gap of EA org service providers
This is a great list. I agree there is high ROI on small actions that have to do with the flow of useful information, making and reinforcing connections, and giving feedback. It has also been my experience that people in EA have been highly likely to accept my 1-1 meetings even if the person doesn’t know me nor do we have mutual connections.
Going along with the feedback form idea and your statement “People can only assume what you want unless you tell them”: I’d add to the list that quickly giving or asking for feedback from another person is super useful, especially after you’ve interacted with the individual for a while and you have rapport. It only needs to take a minute or two. Praise makes people feel good, stay motivated and double down on strengths. Criticism helps remove blind spots and shows that the giver cares about the growth of the receiver. When coming from a place of caring, these build trust.
Name: Adam Tury
Target roles: Operations Manager, Operations Generalist, Technology Manager.
Location: Various (UK/EU mostly, US sometimes)
Remote: Yes—I am only entertaining remote roles at this time.
Willing to relocate: No, but willing to travel 4-6 times per year for work.
Skills: leadership, people management, coaching, career development, hiring, onboarding, software development management, software operations, operational excellence, organizational culture, performance management, Agile methodologies, continuous improvement, project/program management, business writing.
CV Highlights: Studied CS, AI and philosophy at the University of Michigan, worked at Amazon for 6 years, worked as a people manager for 11.5 years, managed up to 25 people, promoted 12 people, gave 500+ interviews, led the delivery of product/technology roadmaps for several years.
EA Experience: 80000 Hours career course, 80000 Hours advising, EA virtual intro course, participated in EAG San Francisco, EAG Washington DC and EAGx Virtual.
Cause areas: Meta-EA, AI-safety, alternative proteins (climate change + farmed animal welfare) are my preferred cause areas, but I’m open to other longtermist cause areas.
Available: now.
Email: adam@adamtury.com
Note: I’m piloting a pay-what-you-can leadership coaching offering for current and aspiring EA managers. Email me for details.
Me! I don’t just enjoy people management, I am passionate about leadership and consider it to be my strongest skill set.
[I see I’m a bit late to the party on this once since the latest replies were in 2019. It seems like the underlying concern about lack of management capacity in EA organizations is still a pressing issue though. Does anyone strongly agree/disagree? Please comment as I’d love to chat further, or send me a message]
I have 11.5 years of experience managing software teams in industry (Amazon, Bloomberg). I’m now pivoting my career to EA and have been deeply engaged in the community for about 6 months. I love managing and growing high-performance teams, and scaled an organization from 8 people (1 team) to 25 people (3 teams). I take a people-oriented, supportive, coaching approach to management—this helps me find the win-win of happy employees who are learning and growing in their careers, and delivering amazing results. If someone reads this and is hiring for an operations or technology manager role in EA, please feel free to send me a message. My preferred cause areas are EA movement building, AI safety, and alternative proteins, but I’m open to other causes in order to gain experience and do good.
I also am piloting a pay-what-you-can leadership coaching program for current and aspiring EA managers. If you’re interested, send me a message!
Ah, right—there is that element of the interface for a series of posts. I sort of missed it though, and I wonder how many other people miss UI elements like that too, or don’t understand what they do. And I’d say people may not realize that this is somewhat of a special series of posts, where newer posts supersede earlier posts and if someone is looking at an older one, then as I understand it, they almost certainly should be looking at the newest one.