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

by Camille Fournier

Being an introvert is not an excuse for making no effort to treat people like real human beings, however. The bedrock of strong teams is human connection, which leads to trust.

good 1-1s are not status meetings.

If your 1-1 is a dreadful obligation for delivering a boring status report, try using email or chat for that purpose instead to free up the time, and bringing some topics of your own to the 1-1.

Come with an agenda of things you would like to discuss.

Inevitably, you will screw up in some fashion, and if your manager is any good she will let you know quickly that you did.

This is going to be uncomfortable!

The sooner you know about your bad habits, the easier they are to correct.

This also goes for getting praise. A great manager will notice some of the little things you’re doing well in your day-to-day, and recognize you for them.

Keep track of this feedback, good and bad, and use it when you write your se...

As engineers, we get code feedback mostly from our peers, but you will do things other than code, and your manager should act as a resource to help you improve those things.

Asking your manager for advice is also a good way to show that you respect her. People like to feel helpful, and managers are not immune to this sort of flattery.

If you’re at a company with a career ladder, sitting down with your manager and asking her what areas you need to focus on to get promoted is usually a good idea if you are actively seeking a promotion.

This usually requires you to say something, though. If you don’t ask your manager about a promotion, do not expect her to just give you one magically.

Your manager should be the person who shows you the larger picture of how your work fits into the team’s goals, and helps you feel a sense of purpose in the day-to-day work. The most mundane work can turn into a source of pride when you understand how it contributes to the overall success of the company.

You’ll probably go through periods of career uncertainty in your life.

Use your manager to discover what’s possible where you are, but look to understand yourself in order to figure out where you want to go next.

Knowing yourself is step one. Step two is going after what you want.

Advocate for yourself.

When you are persistently unhappy, say something.

When you want a raise, ask for it.

When you want a promotion, find out what you need...

On the flip side, sometimes if you want a bigger job, you will have to work more hours to get it.

Strong managers know how to play the game at their company. They can get you promoted; they can get you attention and feedback from important people.

There’s a difference between a strong manager and a manager that you like as a friend, or even one you respect as an engineer.

A strong engineer may make a great mentor-manager to someone early in his career, but a terrible advocate-manager for someone who is more senior.

So, when your mentee is speaking to you, pay attention to your own behavior.

One of the early lessons in leadership, whether it is via direct management or indirect influence, is that people are not good at saying precisely what they mean in a way that others can exactly understand.

We have yet to achieve Borg hive mind or Vulcan mind meld, so we’re constantly pushing complex ideas through the eye of the needle of language.

He may not ask questions even when he doesn’t understand things. Make your life easier and get those questions out of him.

My manager showed me to my office and then left me alone to figure out for myself what needed to be done. I didn’t know how to ask for help, and I was afraid that I would be seen as a fool if I did.

The alpha geek tries to create a culture of excellence, but ends up creating a culture of fear.

On the flip side, if you’re unwilling to change your style to help a mentee succeed, please don’t volunteer to be a mentor!

Alpha geeks make absolutely terrible managers, unless they can learn to let go of their identity as the smartest person in the room and most technical person on the team.

Alpha geeks who believe that their value comes from knowing more than others can also hide information in order to maintain their edge, which makes everyone on the team less effective.

What you measure, you improve.

Your internship program is not a way for you to get extra work done in the summer; it’s a way for you to identify and attract talent.

Senior engineers can develop bad habits, and one of the worst is the tendency to lecture and debate with anyone who does not understand them or who disagrees with what they are saying.

The plan itself, however accurate it turns out, is less important than spending time on the act of planning.

It’s a waste of your time to play rules cop, and automation can often make the rules more obvious.

If you’re doing all of the interesting work yourself, stop. Look at the tricky, boring, or annoying areas of technical need and see if you can unstick those areas.

but you needn’t always be self-sacrificing in what you choose to work on.

Determine which decisions must be made by you,

which decisions should be delegated to others with more expertise,

and which decisions require the whole te...

Successful leaders write well, they read carefully, and they can get up in front of a group and speak.

Are there any manager behaviors that you know you hate? If you asked me this question, my answer would be: skipping or rescheduling 1-1s, neglecting to give me feedback, and avoiding difficult conversations.

Regular 1-1s are like oil changes; if you skip them, plan to get stranded on the side of the highway at the worst possible time.

I prefer to do 1-1s in the morning before things get busy, in order to avoid having the schedule slip or being forced to reschedule due to other things coming up.

Respect the “maker schedule”

Don’t make the fatal error of spending all your time with your problem employees and ignoring your stars.