The Manager's Path

Management 101

• Establish regular 1:1s: Schedule consistent one-on-one meetings with your manager to build relationship and address concerns
• Create a shared agenda: Collaborate on meeting agendas to ensure important topics are covered
• Seek specific feedback: Ask for concrete, actionable feedback rather than general assessments
• Document key discussions: Keep notes on important conversations and decisions for future reference
• Manage up effectively: Learn to work well with your manager by understanding their communication style and needs
• Clarify expectations: Ensure you understand performance expectations and success metrics
• Own your career development: Take responsibility for your growth rather than waiting for direction
• Build trust through reliability: Consistently deliver on commitments to establish credibility
• Communicate challenges early: Raise issues before they become critical problems
• Balance independence with support: Work autonomously while knowing when to seek guidance

Mentoring

• Set clear expectations: Establish boundaries and goals for the mentoring relationship
• Share context liberally: Provide background information to help mentees understand decisions
• Focus on growth, not answers: Guide mentees to discover solutions rather than simply providing them
• Tailor your approach: Adjust mentoring style based on the individual’s experience and learning preferences
• Create learning opportunities: Identify projects and tasks that will stretch mentees appropriately
• Provide timely feedback: Offer observations close to when behaviors occur for maximum impact
• Balance challenge and support: Push mentees while providing necessary guidance for success
• Model sound reasoning: Demonstrate good decision-making processes and technical judgment
• Recognize different learning styles: Adapt your mentoring approach to how the person learns best
• Celebrate progress: Acknowledge growth and achievements to build confidence

Tech Lead Role

• Balance coding with leadership: Find the right mix of hands-on work and guiding the team
• Communicate architectural vision: Clearly articulate technical direction and design principles
• Manage technical debt: Make strategic decisions about when to address technical debt
• Unblock your team: Proactively identify and resolve obstacles to team progress
• Guide technical decisions: Facilitate consensus while providing direction when needed
• Delegate effectively: Assign work that develops team members while ensuring quality
• Review code thoughtfully: Provide constructive feedback that improves code quality and teaches
• Focus on system health: Monitor system performance and reliability metrics
• Collaborate across teams: Build relationships with other teams to coordinate dependencies
• Maintain technical credibility: Stay current enough technically to make informed decisions

Managing People

• Adapt your style to individuals: Tailor your management approach to each person’s needs and working style
• Establish clear expectations: Set explicit standards for performance, communication, and teamwork
• Conduct effective 1:1s: Use one-on-ones to build relationships, provide feedback, and remove obstacles
• Deliver constructive feedback: Frame feedback as specific, actionable, and aimed at growth
• Address performance issues promptly: Have direct conversations about concerns before they escalate
• Document performance discussions: Keep records of key feedback and performance conversations
• Support career development: Help team members identify growth opportunities aligned with their goals
• Recognize accomplishments: Acknowledge contributions and successes, both publicly and privately
• Manage work allocation fairly: Distribute interesting and challenging work equitably
• Build psychological safety: Create an environment where people feel safe to take risks and speak up

Managing Teams

• Establish team identity: Develop a clear sense of purpose and shared values for the team
• Set team goals and metrics: Create measurable objectives that align with company priorities
• Communicate context and priorities: Ensure the team understands the why behind their work
• Run effective team meetings: Design meetings with clear purposes, agendas, and outcomes
• Foster healthy team dynamics: Address interpersonal issues and promote constructive collaboration
• Balance team composition: Build teams with complementary skills and perspectives
• Create feedback mechanisms: Establish processes for team members to give and receive feedback
• Promote knowledge sharing: Create systems for sharing information across the team
• Manage team transitions: Handle changes in team composition thoughtfully
• Celebrate team wins: Recognize collective achievements to build morale and cohesion

Managing Multiple Teams

• Delegate team management appropriately: Entrust direct management to capable leads
• Focus on systems, not individuals: Shift attention to creating effective processes and structures
• Build strong leadership bench: Develop managers who can operate effectively with autonomy
• Ensure cross-team coordination: Create mechanisms for collaboration between teams
• Standardize processes appropriately: Implement consistent practices while allowing necessary flexibility
• Set clear team boundaries: Define clear responsibilities to minimize confusion and duplication
• Allocate resources strategically: Distribute people and budget based on business priorities
• Create visibility across teams: Implement systems to track progress and identify issues
• Manage dependencies effectively: Establish processes to coordinate work between teams
• Maintain connection to ground level: Stay informed about day-to-day realities without micromanaging

Managing Managers

• Focus on leadership development: Help managers improve their management skills and approaches
• Hold regular 1:1s with managers: Use these meetings to coach and support your management team
• Review team health metrics: Monitor indicators of team engagement, productivity, and satisfaction
• Provide management coaching: Offer guidance on handling challenging management situations
• Address management style issues: Give direct feedback on problematic management behaviors
• Create consistency across teams: Ensure fair and consistent practices while allowing for individual approaches
• Evaluate manager performance comprehensively: Assess both delivery results and team health
• Foster peer learning: Create opportunities for managers to learn from each other
• Cascade information effectively: Ensure critical information flows appropriately through management layers
• Model good management practices: Demonstrate the behaviors you want to see in your managers

The Big Leagues

• Build executive relationships: Develop strong working connections with senior leadership
• Think strategically: Focus on long-term direction and company-wide priorities
• Align technical and business strategies: Ensure technology decisions support business objectives
• Manage organizational change: Lead transformational initiatives effectively
• Communicate with senior stakeholders: Tailor messages appropriately for executive audiences
• Make trade-off decisions visible: Clearly articulate the reasoning behind difficult choices
• Influence without authority: Develop skills to shape decisions beyond your direct control
• Manage political dynamics: Navigate organizational politics while maintaining integrity
• Represent the organization externally: Present effectively to customers, partners, and industry forums
• Develop executive presence: Build credibility and confidence in senior leadership contexts

Bootstrapping Culture

• Define cultural values explicitly: Articulate the principles that should guide behavior and decisions
• Hire for cultural contribution: Select people who will enhance rather than just fit existing culture
• Onboard intentionally: Create onboarding experiences that reinforce cultural values
• Address behavior inconsistent with values: Have direct conversations when actions contradict stated culture
• Recognize and reward cultural exemplars: Highlight people who embody the desired culture
• Create inclusive practices: Ensure culture supports diversity and belongs for all team members
• Build feedback mechanisms: Establish ways to gather input on cultural health and issues
• Adapt culture as organization evolves: Update cultural practices for different stages of growth
• Model cultural values consistently: Demonstrate the behaviors you expect from others
• Document cultural expectations: Create explicit guidelines for how values translate to behaviors

Navigating Career Transitions

• Identify readiness for advancement: Recognize signs that you’re prepared for the next level
• Manage career transitions deliberately: Create plans for successful role changes
• Adapt to scope increases: Adjust your focus and priorities as responsibilities expand
• Develop new skill sets proactively: Acquire capabilities needed for future roles before you need them
• Find appropriate mentors and sponsors: Seek guidance from those who have navigated similar paths
• Relinquish old responsibilities: Let go of previous duties to focus on new challenges
• Reset learning expectations: Accept being a novice again when taking on new roles
• Build support networks: Develop peer relationships to help navigate new challenges
• Recognize signs of failure: Identify early warnings that a role transition isn’t working
• Create transition plans: Design structured approaches to moving into new positions

Key Takeaways

1. Management progression: Understand how engineering management evolves from mentoring to executive leadership
2. Focus evolution: Shift focus from technical details to people to teams to systems as you advance
3. Feedback importance: Provide regular, specific, actionable feedback at all levels of management
4. One-on-one effectiveness: Use 1:1s as a fundamental tool for building relationships and coaching
5. Delegation necessity: Learn to delegate effectively as your scope increases
6. Technical balance: Maintain appropriate technical engagement without becoming a bottleneck
7. Career ownership: Take responsibility for your own growth and development as a manager
8. Culture creation: Actively shape team and organizational culture through deliberate practices
9. Expectation clarity: Set explicit expectations for performance, behavior, and outcomes
10. People development: Prioritize growing and developing the people who report to you