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Book Notes: Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

2023/11/21 Justin Hammond 7 minutes Books

  • Leadership is about enabling everyone around you to do their best work
  • As a leader, you affect people's lives in targetable ways that you see reflected back on the faces in front of you
  • Caring is vital to this role
  • “People are not pure functions, they have all sorts of interesting side effects”
  • Everyone is different. Without understanding and appreciating their values, you'll be bound by your own context and limitations
  • “What life events have the people you work with been through that changed the way they think about things?”
  • As a manager, you need to lay out your values to your team early on so they know what to expect
  • When you're misaligned, burnout is inevitable
  • “Trust is built in drops and lost in buckets” - Kevin Plank
  • Trust and happiness support and develop creativity, lack of it is stifling
  • As a leader, you have to go first
  • You need to show vulnerability as a leader, it will allow others to feel the same, put everyone on equal playing ground, and break the ice/tension of a new team
  • Everyone brings something to the table
  • Because the problems you are solving as a manager really aren't about you.
  • Your team is “we”. When you speak about your team, include yourself in the statement
  • When your team succeeds in something, praise them and leave yourself out of it
  • Use “they” when praising, “I” when being responsible, and never use “them” as it separates you from the team
  • You're part of larger system, groups (teams) must work together, not protect their own at all costs
  • It's your job as a manager to get your people into their flow state as frequently as possible
  • You must actively create a good culture and team morale, it's your job!
  • Meaningful change does not require radical change, especially where habits are concerned
  • Breaking tasks down for your employees helps them get into flow more easily
  • Collective aim as managers should be taking the careers of our employees as seriously as we do the teams technical/work processes.
  • Promotions ideally come exactly when and how everyone thinks they will
  • We won't know everything, everyone has a different lived experience. You have to allow room for those experiences to coexist and be lived
  • Trust is inclusion
  • The culture of your team is only as strong as the worst behavior it tolerates. It's your job as the leader to speak up
  • When someone is perceived as lazy, get curious. Peel back the layers of what could the the underlying issue. There could be misalignment, external factors, or other issues that need to be resolved for them to be able to do their best work. It doesn't always mean they are a poor performer
  • As a manager, your 1:1s are the most important thing you can do
  • The whole purpose of the 1:1 is to make the other person feel valued and connected
  • Address the listening mode transparency. Ask employees if they want to vent or want help fixing their problems
  • Employees and managers should bring agendas to 1:1s so that everything is on the table and each party is prepared
  • Your job is to align the tactical outcomes of employees and focus less on the “how” they get them done
  • Be careful with your words. As a leader, they carry weight. Something that may have been casual venting before now creates rifts in an organization
  • Change Management
    • When thinking about transparency; what can I say that would not embarrass me if another person or group heard it?
    • In and industry that moved as quickly as technology, you have more to lose by staying still
    • Culture eats strategy for breakfast. In order to make transformation, the culture has to shift to allow it
    • In order to make real change, we have to connect people to the why
    • Be specific and transparent about why changes need to be made
    • Address trade offs so people know you've considered them
    • Back up your team when change needs to happen. The quickest way to lose trust is to send a group on a journey and not back them up when the going gets tough. If they don't succeed, that's on you. Have their backs!
  • Feedback
    • Approach feedback like the “hey, you have something in your teeth” - a trusted heads up. Something you need to hear but can't see for yourself
    • It's important that those receiving feedback don't feel threatened, this is what causes people to shut down
    • Before giving feedback, do the pre-work to know the best way to give feedback to each person as they are all different
    • Give feedback when you and the recipient are in a good mental state. Don't wait for the stars to align either though, it needs to be timely and recent
    • Before giving feedback, ask if it's necessary. Is this a you thing or a them thing? If a you thing, take a step back and try fixing it on your side. Feedback can be weaponized if not careful
    • Defensiveness can come about by realizing you have a blind spot. Get curious, ask questions, learn from it
    • Don't switchtrack, which is to say as an example, person 1: “you did x. That was incredibly unproductive”. Person 2: “oh yeah? Well, you did y!” Even if true, these are two separate conversations and should not be handled at the same time
  • Meetings
    • Part of the purpose of meetings is to discuss. If you're finding you're delivering information or the agenda is locked top to bottom before it begins, then it should be an email or document that can be consumed async
    • Keep meetings small, try not to invite too many people. It becomes performative when there are so many eyes on one person. Conversations can't flow naturally with too many people
    • “It's the job of a manager to disambiguate healthy conflict from attack, so that respectful discourse is encouraged”
  • Conflict Management
    • False harmony is dangerous - when nobody says anything but agrees, they're not sure what the cost is of speaking their minds
    • There's a time and place to disagree and discuss. There's also a time and place to disagree but commit, with a designated decision maker
    • When there is conflict, it must be dealt with immediately
    • Ideas being discussed must be separated from the author or owner of the idea. It can be easy to fall into the trap of “this is my idea”; instead, we should consider it as “an” idea so that the personal feelings get left out of things
      • It's not important that it's your idea, just that it benefits the company and your users. Proving yourself can and will happen outside of whoever's ideas are chosen
  • The “curse of knowledge” can be dangerous, where you know so much about something that seemingly small things seem obvious but aren't to outsiders
  • “Your values have to be reflected in what you schedule”
  • “It's amazing what you can get done if you just sit down and do it” - Chris Coyier

Justin Hammond
I love all things tech. I've been programming since the age of 12, repairing iPhones since 16, and founding tech companies since 20. I'm an open source fanatic, Apple fanboy, and love to explore new tech. I spend my time coding open source projects, tinkering with electronics and new tech products, and consulting teams on how to get things done.

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