Steve Trautman

Steve Trautman created Peer Mentoring to help developers and testers at Microsoft deliver on-the-job training to their peers. He has since customized the program for a wide range of organizations, including Nike, Nordstrom, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Electronic Arts, Boeing, Standard Insurance, Phelps Dodge, Southern Company, the U.S. Air Force, the Coast Guard, and the Army Corps of Engineers. A former program and group manager at Microsoft and general manager at Expedia.com, Trautman is author of the Practical Leader Series: programs that have helped thousands of leaders, managers, and employees improve communication, performance, and quality.

Steve Trautman

Steve Trautman is the author of the Practical Leader Series, including the Peer Mentoring Workshop. These programs have helped thousands of business leaders, managers, and employees upgrade how they communicate, improving performance and quality, while managing change more effectively.

Steve’s expertise in rapid knowledge transfer was born from his years at Microsoft in the early 1990s. He developed Peer Mentoring there, as a solution to the intense on-the-job learning needed to manage the software development process. It became the model for the program that Steve and his colleagues have since delivered for companies that span the full spectrum of business.

While a program and group manager at Microsoft, and later as a general manager at Expedia.com, Steve walked in his clients’ shoes. As a result, he understands first-hand the everyday realities of leading, teaching, and learning on the job. His subsequent consulting work in a variety of industries has allowed Steve to see and understand the challenges faced by employees from the front lines and factory floor on up to the chief executive’s office.

Steve lives in Seattle with his family. Between his speaking and consulting engagements, you can find him in his garden or on adventure travels that, in the past, have taken him from the North Pole to the Equator, and from the jungles and forests of Central America to those of Asia and the Pacific Northwest.