Priorities of a Great Engineering Leader by Roni Poyas Aug, 2024 Medium
Priorities Of A Great Engineering Leader | by Roni Poyas | Aug, 2024 | Medium #
Excerpt #
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to be the E2E owner of your domain. Your domain has clients, partners and counterparts (e.g. dependent domains or ones you depend on), stakeholders and…
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Myself along with a wonderful team of people over @ Chegg’s HQ, bonding for a more powerful future
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to be the E2E owner of your domain.
Your domain has clients, partners and counterparts (e.g. dependent domains or ones you depend on), stakeholders and investors.
Whether you’re a team lead, manager, or a senior manager, the bottom line is this:
You are accountable to every aspect of your domain, now Succeed!
Photo by Matt Atherton on Unsplash
Within this context, you might feel as if it’s an ask for an overwhelming mission. Alternatively, one might ask themselves: “what do you mean? I only run the tech side of things..”.
Let’s simplify.
There are 4 main vectors of influence and outcomes we as leaders operate in:
- People leadership
- Company/Team processes
- Technology
- Project deliveries
What do you believe is the correct ranking of these 4 to be? Is there one more important than another? Who comes first or last? After all, our day has a finite amount of active energies to invest.
Let’s continue breaking these down.
Over the years, I’ve been actively investing energies into my personal growth as a human and as a leader.
Reflecting on my journey, I revisited a note on my Notes app — a curated list of engineering leadership metrics I’ve aggregated over the years from any book, post and article I’ve read or conference I’ve been fortunate to attended.
Sounds familiar right? We’re all here to succeed. And we’re all likely going through the challenge of figuring out how, one growth journey at a time.
Going back to the note encompassing these success metrics, here’s a snapshot of it:
Collection Of Potential Leader Success Traits
A pretty cluttered list right? Let’s bucket some of the items according to the above discussed outcome areas.
[Bucketing was executed using ChatGPT, while prompting it as a seasoned engineering leader prepping for a talk about leadership traits, inputing the output vectors I’ve shared above — people, process, tech and project deliveries]
But hey, we’re visual beings, here’s the bucketing in a visualized form:
This depiction prioritizes people leadership first.
But we all know these so called “rare” periods of time in our line of work where reality strikes, and a critical business need has come up.
Let’s say a competing product just launched a certain capability and if we as a business don’t deliver “project X” in 6 weeks, we might loose the race.
Is this also a viable operating mode?:
How about this one?:
Makes you wonder.
Is there a correct answer at all?
Laying The Foundations #
Foundations matter
Part Zero: Foundations #
Working through our core values as growth minded engineers and leaders in the software space while laying the right foundations can serve us well here.
I’m sure you can relate to my belief that at our core, we and our team are:
- Human beings looking to create an impact of high value, while striving towards the feeling of being part of something bigger than us
- Software professionals, constantly striving to become the better version of ourselves alongside our team, teammates and the people we hold ourselves accountable to
With this, let’s take a stab at our priorities.
Part One: Deliver, On Time #
First and foremost, as engineering leaders we are expected to make sure our team delivers, on time.
If we don’t have that, nothing else matters and you’ll get scrutinized for anything you’re trying to achieve except for an on-time delivery of your team’s projects (read as: promises).
Whether you’re just stepping into your leadership role, or being in a time of changing circumstances, be anything you need to be for the first item to be true. Deliver, on time.
Part Two: People Leadership #
As Simon Sinek puts this, leadership is not about being in charge, rather, taking care of the people in your charge.
You’re leading a team of great professionals and should be constantly asking your team and yourself, how can you unleash the best version of this team to enable your vision and goals.
My experience tells me that the magnitude and quality of the outcome always comes down to the quality of the people aspect of our role.
Authentically be there for those relying on you, and you’ll enable creating the dynamics of an empowered team delivering awesome results.
Part Three: Always Have A Story To Tell — The Story Of Your Vision #
When taking all our needed outcomes into account, along with the resources we have to deliver them, we’re trying to create a path to success.
We’re conceiving The How.
How do we get from where we are today to where we want to be.
A story is being “written” in our minds, from one meeting to another, via multiple interactions, discussions and lots of thought processing, that story unfolds. Until it settles with us.
When that Eureka moment hits, as a singular event in time or in continuity of generation until it’s strong enough, we usually feel it deep down.
This is the moment we feel we know how to make it.
The story you are able to tell yourself for a high level of confidence to arise (we can make it!), is a story worth spreading across the board.
Always have a story to tell — the story of why we need to get to where we’re headed and how do we get there — one listener at a time, it will give birth to the reality you’re looking to achieve!
And it will help focus the outcomes or goals your team needs to deliver.
Part Four: Hold Yourself Accountable To Your Prioritization Decisions #
Whether you choose to prioritize the company processes aspect of your team’s interfaces, the technical quality of your team’s standards or being heads down in the bits and bytes of the next team project, keep yourself accountable to the priority-decisions you’ve made to make your team successful. Oh, and make sure you can explain to yourself why you chose them.
Priorities will keep changing as you continue to retain and hire great professionals, as your company’s needs will evolve and as any significant change around you will force a re-evaluation of the needs.
Be there for your company and the people in your charge. The rest will follow.
Summary #
We’re operating in a convoluted ecosystem of people, systems and processes. Our passion drives us to create significant value — a mission that is fulfilling as it is challenging.
Start with the basics of getting your ongoing projects delivered and obtain some breathing room with a solid planning for the upcoming projects so you have the Deliver part at bay.
Continue to focus on your people with a true care for their thoughts and needs.
Write your own “achieving the vision” story; with what you believe to be true for your domain. Doing so, while taking people’s inputs, thoughts and concerns in the 360° perspective of your domain will help assemble and vet your direction.
It will also help you generate a significant buy-in amongst the people around you, towards the goals you’re asking them to achieve.
Be concise with your decisions around focus areas and priorities up to a point you’re able to sleep well with them, based on the story you’ve created.
Remember, it takes time to make our line of work, a form of fluent art.
Give yourself the leeway to learn and grow, along with your people and the organization you operate it.
Onwards and upwards!
one growth journey at a time