9 Things Every New Engineering Manager Should Know
Being an intentional engineering manager
I use the term intentional manager because a lot of engineers find themselves promoted into this position and end up winging it. This can be a result of:
Organizations not providing clarity around exactly what’s expected of engineering managers
Previous managers not having demonstrated intentional and conscious leadership, causing a perpetuation of the cycle of zombie managers
Newly promoted managers not realizing they now need to make the time to more consciously understand and operate in the role
It’s unfortunately all too easy to fall into the trap of being reactive in this role — to feel like the role is happening to you as opposed to feeling in control of your time and priorities.
A small percentage of those promoted into engineering management might be self-aware enough to quickly understand the nuances of the role shift, but that’s more the exception than the norm.
Many new managers end up leading unconsciously — reacting to situations, instead of working in the role with intent and clarity.
Here are a few things I wish I knew when I first started out as an engineering manager.
Allow Yourself to Be Interruptible
I’m putting (what’s likely) the most controversial statement of this article on top! Let me explain: As a successful individual contributor, you were usually only accountable to your peers and your manager. Apart from a few meetings, you could expect to easily make room for long stretches of deep work — i.e., uninterrupted time gaining traction on a task.
As a manager, you have 360-degree accountability — to your peers, to your direct reports, to your manager, and if you’re working within a product group, then also to the product manager and product designer on your team.
It’d be unusual for you not to be interrupted! It’d be especially unfair to your direct reports if you didn’t make yourself available when they were blocked.
This doesn’t mean you should shy away from blocking off deep-work time on your calendar or unplugging from Slack — just do it sparingly and on the tasks that truly need your undivided attention.
Your Success Is Measured by How Effectively You Enable Your Team:
Andy Grove said it best in “High Output Management”:
“A manager’s output = the output of his organization + the output of the neighboring organizations under his influence.”
You’ll find success when you consistently find and focus on the highest-leverage tasks at any time.
As a manager, the highest-leverage tasks are often the ones that unblock, enable, or multiply the productivity of your team.
Individual contributors promoted into a manager role will often fall into the trap of thinking that the manager role requires them to be a 2x (or maybe 5x/10x) version of their individual contributor), and this never ends well.
You’re Not Necessarily the Best Engineer on the Team
Note that I say not necessarily. You might be the best engineer on the team at any given moment in time, but this won’t always be true.
If you have any insecurities about not being the best engineer on the team or feel your imposter syndrome ratcheting up because you think you need to have all the answers, then it’s worth taking the time to address the root of these insecurities first.
The expectation isn’t that you’ll have all the answers, but you should:
Be willing to help your team uncover the right questions to ask and work with them to discover the answers
Look to hire engineers who will compensate for your technical blind spots
Try Not To Take On Work That’s on the Critical Path
If your job is to be interruptible and available and you’re therefore unlikely to get fewer bursts of time for deep work, then you should avoid taking on tasks that are time critical. This is particularly true if the slow completion (or noncompletion) of that task will end up blocking your team.
This also ties in with acknowledging that you may not be the best engineer on the team. Why? Because as a newly promoted manager, you may feel the need to prove yourself by taking on a difficult or critical task, only to discover you don’t have the time needed to dedicate the necessary cycles of deep work toward it.
The end result may be one or more of the following:
Frustration for your teammates
Falling behind on the schedule
A severely bruised ego
Burnout (because you’re effectively trying to do two jobs)
Model a Healthy Relationship With Work
Speaking of burnout, I can’t overstate the importance of modeling healthy work habits.
This includes things like:
Modeling the healthy use of personal time off from work
Avoid sending communication or responding to message after hours. As a manager sending out communication after hours, some of your direct reports may experience pressure to respond to your after-hours messages quickly, instead of just waiting to respond the next work day.
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Be that manager with a sense of humor, willing to see the lighter side of things.
Sometimes things will go wrong at work. Your demeanor and response to the situation sets the tone for the rest of the team. Mistakes are rarely catastrophic or career ending — don’t let your response to the situation indicate otherwise.
Actively Think About Career Progression and Succession Planning for Your Direct Reports
You’re now responsible for helping to shape the careers of your direct reports, in addition to managing your own career.
Many new managers ignore (or are unaware of) this responsibility. It’s often because their own managers didn’t have conversations with them about navigating their career, and therefore they have no reference point or framework within which to have this conversation with their own direct reports.
This can also be difficult if you haven’t put in the work to do some medium-term planning (at the very least) for your own career.
Any thinking around career growth should also include thinking about succession planning — i.e., if a direct report were to get promoted, move to a different team, or leave the company, do you already have someone prepared to take over their responsibilities? This is something too few managers actively plan for, and it’s usually because they don’t know how to approach the topic.
Two books I personally found useful — that helped me build a framework to have these conversations — are:
Come Prepared for Your 1-on-1 Conversations
On the more general topic of 1-on-1 conversations, the most important advice I can offer is: Don’t show up unprepared!
Start by making sure there’s a recurring meeting
Don’t make cancellations/rescheduling a frequent habit. As a rule of thumb, I’ll never cancel successive 1-on-1 meetings.
Make the time before the meeting to think about any discussion points you want to bring up, and encourage your direct reports to do the same
Make the 1-on-1 about the whole person — i.e., in addition to discussing work and career issues, use the time to also understand how your direct report is doing outside of work. Take interest in their lives, and get to know them better.
Use this time and space to offer both appreciation and course-correcting feedback. As an employee, there are few things worse than having a manager who only focuses on areas of improvement or who waits until the end-of-the-year performance review to offer any critical feedback.
Don’t make the meeting only about giving feedback, but ask specific questions that elicit feedback for yourself too! Try not to make it just a “How am I doing?” but more like: “That cross-team project meeting I ran last week felt a little chaotic. What do you think I could have done better to produce a more organized meeting?”
Make the Time to Think About and Develop Your Craft
As an individual contributor, you’ve spent years honing your technical skills. If you were very intentional about developing your craft as a software engineer, shouldn’t you do the same as a manager?
Important skills to develop include:
Holding great 1-on-1s
Learning to coach
Using the right leadership tactics depending on the situation (situational leadership)
Connecting with your peers, both within and outside your organization, to continuously evolve as a manager
Investing in the time to digest podcasts/books/blog posts about engineering-management situations and principles
Building the mental muscles to zoom in on the details of technical work or zoom out to see the big picture when necessary
The Ability to Ask for Help Is a Job Requirement
A lot of things I’ve mentioned above — 1–1 discussions, career planning, becoming a better coach, having difficult conversations, figuring out how to focus on your top priorities, etc .— will likely be new to you! And yet, people think of their elevation into management as a sign they should have all the answers or know enough to not need any assistance.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Knowing when to ask for help may be one of the most important skills you develop in this role, and you shouldn’t think you’re somehow a lesser leader because you need to lean on others.
Conclusion
Paraphrasing Andy Grove of Intel fame:
Managers are the muscle and bone of an organization.
Your role is critical to the success of the organization, and it’s important for you to make the time to discover and understand it well so you can put your best foot forward.
You’re, in effect, a mini-CEO of your own suborganization within the company. Bringing both mindfulness and intent to the role is critical to the team’s success — and ultimately to your success.
Thanks for reading!