The Manager's Guide – #80
Weekly Hand-Picked Collection Edition
Things I have learned about Tech Leadership
“I have now been a Software Engineering Team Lead on the BBC Sounds mobile apps team for 4 years. So what have I learned from this once-daunting, now-familiar role?”
🚀 Leadership means guiding and empowering, not dictating
💬 Collective decision making is more motivating than top-down directives
💣 Choose your battles wisely; influence is a currency that needs to be spent carefully
🌟 Transform challenging situations into opportunities to rally the team
💡 Focus on the most helpful actions as a leader
🕰️ Recognize and prevent burnout to maintain productivity
❤️ Invest in building strong interpersonal relationships at work
🌱 Tech leadership is challenging but rewarding if approached with the right mindset
Help, I see a problem and no one is prioritizing it!
💡 Pointing out a problem is not sufficient to get it prioritized
🤔 Remind your manager of the problem and explain the impact
🚀 Reconcile perspectives with your manager to understand different views
👥 Talk to your peers to see if they are bothered by the same problem
🎯 Hone the skill of identifying important problems to move up the career ladder
How to give actionable feedback on work output
💡 Get "permission" and sell why frequent feedback benefits team members
🚀 Explain the "why" behind feedback to provide context and reinforce learning
🥪 Avoid the shit sandwich approach and be direct with constructive and positive feedback
👍 Share positive feedback to encourage continued effective behavior
📌 Aim for being tactical, actionable, concrete, and specific (TACS) in feedback
📝 Anytime diagnosing, share what you noticed to enhance understanding
🎬 Record screen share videos or voice memos for feedback delivery
📸 Annotate screenshots for visual feedback
📚 Develop shared language for efficient communication
🤔 Mention if feedback is stylistic or a personal preference
⚖️ Balance feedback ease for giver and receiver to avoid burnout
🚀 By providing detailed feedback, team members learn to think like you and improve their skills
🌟 Giving Super Specific Feedback leads to behavior change and higher standards
👥 Super Specific Feedback is valuable for both team members and managers
Estimating Software Projects: Breaking Down Tasks
💡 Breaking down a project into a well-defined task list is crucial for effective planning
📋 Tasks should be sufficiently defined, complete, and deliver change
🔄 An iterative process is key in breaking down tasks, starting from a list and expanding on previous steps
🧠 Breaking down tasks is a skill that takes practice and experience
🛠️ Tasks need to be defined enough for the person working on them to understand the desired change, what "done" looks like, and all the necessary steps
📅 The process involves starting with a list of tasks, thinking through steps needed, ensuring tasks are sufficiently defined, and repeating as needed
Parkinson's Law: It's Real, So Use It
“Yes, just set that deadline.”
💡 Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available for completion
🎯 Setting challenging deadlines can lead to better results by manipulating the Iron Triangle of scope, resources, and time
💬 Deadlines force a clear tempo and cadence, making things happen and driving progress
📘 Weekly reporting cadence can reshape how people think about their work and foster progress
🚀 When managed with grace and good intentions, deadlines are a powerful tool for growth and fast delivery in organizations
Productive Compliments: Giving, Receiving, Connecting
💬 Giving and receiving compliments can be assertions of power
✨ Compliments can either be warm fuzzies or naked power plays
🤝 Compliments offer an opportunity for connection
💭 Compliments should focus on connection rather than judgment
🙌 Accepting compliments means accepting the offer of connection
🎭 Receiving judgy compliments might hide a desire to connect
🧠 Appreciation without an agenda is attractive and genuine compliments get easier with practice
How I build and run behavioral interviews
💭 Budget at least 2 hours to build a behavioral interview
📝 Think ahead about follow-ups and rubric to assess candidates effectively
🎯 Focus on a small number of skills or traits during the interview
🚀 Kick off by asking for brief high-level context, problem, and solution
🔍 Dig into details by asking for timelines, outcomes, effects, and improvement insights
📊 Make yourself a rubric before the interview to evaluate candidates objectively
🚩 Watch out for vague platitudes, communication issues, lack of self-improvement mindset, lack of high standards, and scapegoating behavior
That’s all for this week’s edition
I hope you liked it, and you’ve learned something — if you did, don’t forget to give a thumbs-up and share this issue with your friends and network.
See y’all next week 👋