My People
In my experience as an Engineering Manager and an Engineer, I have found that the people in the team are what make the job and role.
I have worked on legacy platforms with hard deadlines and pressure as an engineer, but the whole team were in it together and had a very strong culture and desire to succeed as a team. I’ve also worked within a team where the pressure was much less, deadlines were non-existent but the team had no culture, dragged into the office and sat in a corner on your own all day.
If I had to choose where to work again, it’d 100% be the high-pressure and stressful environment with a team of people around me that cared for me, the team and the vision of the leaders.
The Individuals
I have found engineers respond far better when they are challenged, motivated and have a vision from leadership. We as EMs should foster this environment through creating a vision of our own, focusing on metrics that matter and getting buy-in from the team and advocating for reasons to be motivated, such as innovation, tech debt and personal development.
Be vocal to the team about your goals, if you aren’t high performing but want to be, tell them, be open, tell them what high performing looks like and what your vision is to get there.
Encourage and advocate for Personal Development, buy into initiatives like dedicated time within the work day to invest into their own interests in their career. Create a process to track and demonstrate the time spent, whether it be innovation showcases or simple show-and-tells.
Engineers like context, they like knowing why, they want to be involved and buy into the company they are working for, give them that opportunity and foster that culture.
Don’t be afraid to slow down
This may sound counter-intuitive, as a high performing team you want to deliver fast and deliver a lot, but make it clear to individuals that we work hard, but if things need to slow down, talk.
Building a culture where engineers feel safe to speak about their feelings is crucial to high performing teams, without this, engineers will burnout and either leave or become low performers.
A recharging engineer is infinitely more valuable to the team then a burnt out one.
Invest in the People
What I mean by this is that as EMs, we should be genuinely interested in the people within our team, their interests within work, outside of work, where they want their careers to go (check-in on this reguarly as it subject to change), weekend plans and most importantly, their well-being.
Career Investment
Investing time into the people in your team isn’t just about scheduling a fortnightly catchup, it’s about using the information you have to aid them in their careers, through learning opportunities as well as actual work opportunities. It’s as easy as having an engineer who’s interested in architecture, take them time to make introductions if you have architects, ask if they can shadow, etc.
When opportunities within your company come up, be the voice of your engineers, whether it’s an event your team weren’t previously invited to, some training courses, conferences, promotions, sideway moves, etc. Don’t be scared to be denied, the best case scenario is you invest in your engineers, worst case is everything stays the same.
Well-being Investment
Be aware, check-in with people on a personal level, encourage the team to speak about how they are dealing with workload, use retrospectives as an opportunity to ask people if they are energised, overwhelmed, etc. Offer your own honest outlook on things first to open the room, as an EM, if you are overwhelmed or stressed over something, talk to them, prove that you foster a culture of openness and this will create a ripple effect.
Outside of Work Investment
I hate when people call themselves work families and force the concept on you, that’s not what I am talking about here. Be present in standups and catchups, listen to the team, ask questions that encourage people to speak about non-work activities, it’s as simple as asking if people have any weekend plans on a Friday, or what they got up to on a Monday, talking about upcoming holidays in 1-1 catchups, etc.
Being an EM doesn’t stop with work related activities, nurture a culture within the team where people feel open to share, seek advice, talk about exciting plans, etc. We are responsible for the culture of the team, if we aren’t actively engaged and invested into fostering a good culture, it’s a slippery slope to a remote working nightmare.
Protecting the Team
There is a lot that we can protect our team from as an EM but we shouldn’t protect them from everything. For engineers to grow they need to face challenges and things that may be outside of their comfort zone. Be aware when engineers are outside of their comfort zone and be prepared to support, but let them fail, encourage failure, help them find learnings and then use them to improve.
Stakeholders
Wherever you are working, there will be stakeholders involved in what you are working on. Engineers should have interaction with stakeholders and be visible, give them the chance to showcase their skills, improve their soft skills and build relationships outside the team and within the wider organisation. It’s an important balance to get right, you don’t want your engineers managing stakeholders, own that responsibility while giving them freedom to do the more fun stuff.