Leadership Roles

Ignoring- A Conflict Management Technique

In a volunteer organization for Management and Leadership, the president was not being informed of meetings by an ultra-confident colleague in charge of arranging them. The president used the four quadrants of Negotiation Conflict Styles to respond, but the colleague was unresponsive to authoritative action, so the president chose to ignore the colleague. This decision was a reflection of the president's personality, and the colleague had no self-introspection. If this was a business organization, the president would have taken matters to senior management.

How to Build a Distributed Engineering Team

At Doximity, they decided to cultivate a culture of inclusion by building a geographically distributed team. To do this, they fine-tuned their recruiting practices, established a personal connection with their teammates, treated collocated and distributed employees equally, created a virtual water cooler, and focused on delivery teams. They also leveraged the right technology, such as videoconferencing, asynchronous chat, screen-sharing, and voice calls. Through this process, they learned that a distributed team is less about saving money and more about hiring top talent, and that trust, collaboration, and creativity are key to success.

Managing a Remote Report Who is Resistant to Feedback

This article discusses how to manage a report who is not junior but wants the respect of a non-junior person. The author suggests setting up a coffee chat type of one-on-one, giving intense in-person coaching, and having a serious in-person conversation with the report. The author also shares lessons learned, such as having a 15-20 minute coffee call check-in, pairing the report with a mentor, and understanding the value of the manager's skill set.

Investigating a Variety of Career Paths

This article is about the journey of an engineer who had an undergraduate degree in biology and a Master's in computer science. He began an internship in software testing and eventually became a project manager. He then realized he wanted something more technical and decided to look into product management. He had informational meetings with different product managers to gain insight into the role and eventually left the company he was working for because he wasn't able to get the career growth he was seeking. He then received a cold call about a test manager job which led him to his current role as an engineering manager. He learned that being patient isn't necessarily the correct way to solve things, to ask for what you want, and that you may have to move to a different team or company to get the career growth you want.

Creating Focused Paths for Growth

In response to feedback from team members, the organization created three paths for career growth: a technical lead path, an architect path, and a manager path. This was supported by the TILES framework and a strategy document, as well as an engineering health framework. The implementation of these paths was adjusted to provide a softer transition for those crossing over to a manager role, and to separate tech leads from HR duties.

Proving Yourself When Onboarding

When hiring a new Engineering Manager, it is important to set clear expectations that they will be coding for 3-6 months before transitioning into a tech lead and then management role. This helps to build trust in the team and ensure the manager is familiar with the organization. This approach has been successful in helping new managers gain trust from the team and eventually revamp engineering processes.