The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change

by Camille Fournier

There are definitely signals that you start to notice after you’ve been managing for a while. Here are some I’ve learned to spot: The person who is usually chatty, happy, and engaged suddenly starts leaving early, coming in late, taking breaks to leave during the workday, staying quiet in meetings, and not hanging out on chat. This person is either having a major personal issue or getting ready to quit. Usually, people will tell someone when there is a personal issue (such as a sick relative, relationship problems, or health issues), but not always. If this happened right after a major adjustment, such as a promotion, a team reorganization, or other event, the person may feel that she was overlooked. Regardless of the reason, you may want to have an honest conversation and try to get to the root of the issue before she resigns. The tech lead claims that everything is going well, but skips your 1-1s frequently and rarely provides detail in his status updates. This person may be hiding something. Often what he’s hiding is that the progress is going far slower than he anticipated, or he’s building something outside of the scope of the project. Help him create a clear project plan early and set expectations for how to adjust that plan when things change, so that it’s harder for him to hide a lack of progress. Also help him clarify the project’s goals and scope, which can be daunting for some new tech leads. You may have experienced something similar when managing new hires who...