Engineering leadership rarely happens behind a desk.
In 2025, my work took me through San Francisco, Portland, Albany, Austin, Tel Aviv, Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Dallas and many small manufacturing towns across the Midwest.
What looked like constant travel on the calendar soon became something more meaningful, a moving classroom for leadership, decision making, and personal growth.
Airports have a way of stripping life down to essentials. Between security lines, gate changes, and late night connections, I found myself reflecting on what the year had taught me. These lessons shaped how I lead teams through complexity, uncertainty, and acceleration. They are the lessons I am carrying into 2026 and would like to share here with you all.
1. Intention Sets the Pace
Every trip began with a purpose. A fabrication center floor walkthrough, a strategic review, a customer escalation, or an executive alignment. The semiconductor world moves quickly, and without intention it is easy to fall into reactive mode. Intention sharpens meetings, clarifies decisions, and keeps teams aligned even when the environment is chaotic.
Define the purpose before you move. Teams feel the difference immediately.
2. Layovers Are Part of the Journey
Detroit, Atlanta, and Chicago reminded me that progress is rarely linear. Delays happen. Plans shift. You wait longer than you want to. Teams experience the same thing. Projects slow down, systems need maintenance, and strategies require re-calibration. Sometimes the most productive action is to pause, reassess, and let the next gate open.
Normalize pauses. They create space for better decisions and healthier teams.
3. Security Checks Mirror Self Reflection
Airports force you to examine what you are carrying. This year, I found myself doing the same internally. I let go of outdated assumptions, old habits, and emotional weight that did not support the next phase of growth. Engineering leaders often accumulate mental baggage. Legacy processes, fixed ideas, or expectations that no longer match the scale of the organization.
Regularly audit your leadership habits. What worked at twenty people may not work at two hundred.
4. Connections Are the Real Infrastructure
Missed flights through Chicago or Denver were frustrating, but they also highlighted something important. Connections, especially human ones, are what keep organizations moving. The most impactful moments of 2025 were not in conference rooms. They were in hallway conversations, shared meals, and unexpected discussions during long drives between sites.
Invest in relationships before you need them (and please read it again before you proceed..). Trust is built in the small moments.
5. Comfort Is Earned, Not Guaranteed
Some weeks meant cramped regional jets into small towns supporting legacy manufacturing. Other weeks brought surprise business class upgrades on the way to Silicon Valley. Both experiences had value. Engineering leaders operate across environments that vary just as widely. Legacy systems, greenfield innovation, high pressure escalations, and long term strategy work. Comfort is inconsistent. Adaptability is what matters.
Build range. The best leaders can operate in both constraint and abundance.
6. Maps Guides But Detours Create Insight
Even with perfect directions, the most meaningful insights came from wrong turns in Salt Lake City, unexpected conversations, and unplanned stops. In engineering leadership, detours often appear as failed experiments, shifting priorities, or unexpected customer feedback. They are rarely convenient, but they often contain the most valuable learning.
Treat deviations as data or signal, not disruptions.
7. Presence Matters More Than Velocity
From Tel Aviv one week to Texas the next, presence was the anchor. My boss often says, “Be present,” and this year I understood the depth of that advice. Engineering leaders are pulled in many directions. Strategy, execution, hiring, culture, customers. Presence is what keeps teams grounded. It turns a meeting from transactional to meaningful.
Wherever you are, be fully there. It is one of the most underrated leadership skills.
8. Travel Light
By midyear, traveling light became more than a packing strategy. It became a leadership philosophy. The less unnecessary weight I carried, the clearer everything became. Goals sharpened. Decisions simplified. Team outcomes improved. Keep it simple - as they say.
Remove what does not serve the mission. Focus on goals that are bigger than you, but not about you.
9. Every Destination Has a Lesson
Small Midwestern towns taught me about resilience and pride in legacy manufacturing. Silicon Valley reminded me of the power of ambition. Minneapolis, Albany and Portland showed how innovation clusters form and thrive. Engineering leaders benefit from the same openness. Insight often comes from unexpected places. Junior engineers, customers, cross functional partners, or teams working on entirely different problems.
Stay curious. Insight hides in places you do not expect.
10. Returning Home Creates Renewal
Coming home was not only a landing. It was a reset. A moment to integrate what I had learned and step forward with more clarity. Leadership requires the same rhythm. Intense periods followed by reflection. Without integration, experience becomes noise instead of wisdom.
Build reflection into your operating cadence. It is how leaders grow intentionally.
Looking Ahead to 2026
I am stepping into the new year with lighter bags, clearer focus, and deeper respect for the journey. Movement will continue, but the intention behind it feels sharper than ever. If 2025 taught me anything, it is this: leadership is not defined by the miles you travel, but by the meaning you extract along the way.
Avi
