Abstract
As leaders, our responsibility extends beyond achieving targets; it includes nurturing a culture of excellence built upon trust, growth, and success. When a manager realizes their true role is not simply to “manage” but to “coach” their teams to reach their maximum potential, they will realize better outcomes for their teams and their customers.
Having managed successful high performing local and remote engineering teams pre-pandemic, pandemic and high attrition-impacted teams, as post-pandemic product, agile, and cloud transformation-era teams - I have a unique perspective born from experience on the value of coaching teams of different shapes and sizes as well as having had managers with different strengths and weaknesses.
The Why
Top companies understand the value of a strong, inclusive culture of excellence not just for their teams but ultimately for their bottom line and long-term growth:
“People are our most important asset. The long–term growth and success of JPMorgan Chase depends on our ability to attract and retain our employees. Maintaining a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive is not only the smart thing to do — it’s the right thing to do.” - Jamie Dimon, Chairman & CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Cultural excellence propels our business excellence, which increases member satisfaction and in turn propels our long term growth and stock price. It’s how we build an extraordinarily successful company entertaining the world. - Netflix
A manager who understands this similarly coaches his direct reports to understand this, and therefore it is critical that a manager of managers (coaches) understands this. Hiring talented engineers and engineering managers is hard - we often hire them not just for their current capability but for potential - so keeping them and supporting their professional development should be a priority.
Your success and the success of your products depend on your team's success.
Given that so much of the success of our products is tied up in “treating the team right”, it’s not enough to leave all the focus to just “building the product right”, or else we will run out of people willing and able to “build the right product”.
Whatever your worldly mission, invented or inherited: to make a statement that resonates with the world, entertain the world, organize the worlds information and make it accessible and useful, be the best financial services company in the world, give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together, or otherwise - without the right product, built the right way, by teams that you continuously treat the right way then your success will be fleeting.
The Bad and The Ugly
Unfortunately, many fall short when it comes to treating their teams right or managing them effectively and as a result they create environments fraught with frustration, demotivation, and stagnation. Communication is the lifeblood of any team. When communication and clarity is lacking, so is trust; misunderstandings arise, tensions simmer, and productivity wanes.
Feedback, of the kind that’s honest, positive, and constructive, is essential for growth and development. Yet, too often, many managers shy away from providing it, fearing discomfort or confrontation. Others provide it or rather, some unrecognizable, inapplicable, or indirect form of it all too late, or far too infrequently.
On the other hand micromanagement - the silent killer of creativity and autonomy, has no place in effective leadership. When we suffocate our team with unnecessary oversight, we stifle innovation and undermine trust. It creates a team frozen from fear of making a bad, or rather a different choice from the one their micro-managing lead may have made. As a manager this management style guarantees that you will never sleep well or that you will share your family beach vacations with your entire product development team since everything is so dependent on you.
Support and empathy are not signs of weakness but pillars of strong leadership.
Support and empathy are not signs of weakness but pillars of strong leadership. Neglecting the well-being of our team members leads to burnout, disengagement, and ultimately, turnover. The world, especially since the pandemic, is a different one. The trajectory, priorities, and desires of individuals that make up our teams and their families have changed. Managers unable to engage with this new reality and the personalities within it will fall short in maximizing the success and well-being of their teams.
The Good
Coaching your team to excellence.
The How
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Adopt the coaching mindset: Recognize that managing as a coach is essential in today’s dynamic work environment and apply the art of continuous learning to your role as a manager.
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Create a supportive environment: Empower your teams by creating an environment that supports personal and professional growth. This includes fostering open communication, providing constructive feedback, and encouraging a culture of continuous learning and growth.
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Build trust and collaboration: Cultivate trust by demonstrating empathy, transparency, and accountability. Analyze each member for strengths, weaknesses, and goals and create a personalized development plan to help them excel according to their individual working style - leverage a standard coaching model (e.g. STAR, PAR, CAR, DIGS, STARI, STARL). Praise publicly and critique privately.
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Empower team members: Empower team members to take ownership of their work and make meaningful contributions. This should include setting clear goals, delegating responsibilities effectively, and providing autonomy while offering guidance and support. Do not micromanage but do not overcorrect and lose context.
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Develop skills and expertise: Read books, articles, watch TED talks, attend training programs, and skill-workshops for practical hand-on and situational knowledge to further develop skills and expertise. Your company is also likely full of plenty examples of good (or even great) managers; they also tend to make great mentors and more than likely will respond positively to a request asking for a slice of their time.
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Promote innovation and creativity: Foster innovation and creativity within your teams. Push people beyond their comfort zones so they can grow and become more confident. Create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas, experimenting with new approaches, fail fast, and see failure as a learning opportunity.
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Lead inclusively, cultivating diversity: Cultivate diversity creating a team better equipped to tackle complex problems. Lead inclusively by encourage a wide range of opinions and viewpoints - maximizing the potential of every individual within the team leveraging the unique strengths of each team member.
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Measure success and impact: Measure the success of your coaching efforts. This could include tracking key performance indicators, gathering feedback and doing “health checks” with team members, as well as celebrating milestones and achievements together. Don’t undermine the motivation and trust of your team by waiting to correct mistakes or to simply fire team members who may be temporarily falling behind.
Looking Ahead
If you’ve made it far then it sounds like you’re already convinced. Like me you believe in the proverb:
If you want to go fast, then go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
So let’s go further, together:
- Foster open dialogue, actively listen to our team members, and provide timely, constructive feedback.
- Empower our team members to take ownership of their work, delegate tasks accordingly, and focus on outcomes rather than minutiae.
- Embrace candid conversations, celebrating achievements, and guiding improvement with empathy and respect.
- Prioritize the mental and emotional health of our teams, offering a listening ear, resources for growth, and a compassionate presence during both triumphs and trials.
When a manager realizes their role is not simply to command and control but to proactively coach their teams to reach their maximum potential, then they will manage with excellence and ultimately realize better outcomes for their teams and their customers.
Up Next:
Managers may face challenges when adopting a coaching approach. This might include resistance to change, conflicts within the team, managing expectations effectively, or times when urgent situations arise. Let’s address those challenges next, in Hello, Engineering Managers - Coaching Your Team to Excellence - The Player Coach.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are based on my personal experiences and knowledge acquired throughout my career. They do not necessarily reflect the views of or experiences at my current or past employers