Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond the Management Track

by Will Larson

Write it down.

By writing down the process of finding an answer, as well as the rationale for the answer, folks around us can begin to learn from our decisions rather than simply being directed by them

Circulate early, and do it before you’ve crystallized on a decision.

Separate style from substance,

If senior leaders don’t change their mind, then soon everyone will correlate bluster with success

When critical work comes to you, your first question should become, “Who could be both successful with and grown by this work?”

the only company that can tolerate being constrained by you is a company that doesn’t grow.

As you get further into your career, though, increasingly, your impact will be constrained by your ability to influence executives effectively.

When you’re communicating with an executive, it’s almost always one of three things: planning, reporting on status, or resolving misalignment.

Controlling the sequence in which you present your ideas is the single most important act necessary to clear writing. The clearest sequence is always to give the summarizing idea before you give the individual ideas being summarized. I cannot emphasize this point too much.

Aligning with stakeholders before your presentation, sometimes called nemawashi, is extremely effective at reducing surprises.

A great meeting with executive leadership is defined by engaged discussion, not addressing every topic on the agenda. Some will consider this a controversial position, preferring to measure every meeting by its action items, but this ignores the often more valuable relationship establishment and development aspects of these meetings.

Never fight feedback.

Don’t evade responsibility or problems.

Don’t present a question without an answer.

Avoid academic-style presentations.

Don’t fixate on your preferred outcome.

If you want to boil it all down to one concise tip: send an early draft to an executive attending the meeting and ask them what to change.

A Staff engineer isn’t a better Senior engineer, but someone who’s moved into fulfilling one of the Staff archetypes.

One inconvenient reality you’ll encounter in pursuit of a Staff role is that opportunity at any given company is unevenly distributed.

It’s uniquely challenging to gain a leadership position if the existing leadership team doesn’t identify with you as a potential member.

Roughly half the women I spoke with had to change companies to attain the Staff title, whereas promotion friction come up less frequently during discussions with men.

“Don’t play team games alone, you’ll lose.”

If you find yourself in a situation where you and your manager don’t work together well, which isn’t quite the same thing as liking each other, then you’re not going to get promoted into a leadership role.

it’s not a fun skill to develop, but leadership always involves influencing and building relationships with those with conflicting goals and styles.

Staff projects will generally start with a poorly scoped but complex and important problem.

the easiest projects start with organizational alignment around both the problem and the solution, but your Staff project might likely start with neither.

To reach senior levels, you have to become effective at not only entering but also staying in these rooms of power.

Small groups function better than larger ones, so operating forums generally sacrifice redundancy and representation for efficiency.

sometimes the easiest way to increase your value to the room is by decreasing the cost of including you.

Keep in mind that it’s your obligation to be understood, not the obligation of everyone else to understand you.

If you’re known as someone who can navigate difficult conversations effectively, you’re much more likely to be involved.

you’ll stand out if you take the time to organize your thoughts before each meeting. Equally important is following up on what you committed to.

Once you’ve entered the room, be sure to show up and engage.

If someone needs to take notes, raise your hand. If someone needs to follow up on action items, be available. Prioritize being useful, especially when it isn’t the most exciting work.

If any given room doesn’t feel useful, exit the room. While exiting, sponsor someone else into the opportunity you’re leaving behind.

One of the most effective ways to get luckier is to be more visible within your organization.

Staff-plus roles are leadership roles, and by recognizing you with such a position, the company is bringing you into its leadership team. The existing members of that team want to be comfortable that they’re expanding their ranks with folks they believe in, and they can’t believe in you if they don’t know you.

The single best way to create internal visibility is to work on the things that matter to your company and company leadership.

Well-run organizations value you for what you’re good at. Less well-run companies value you for your identity.

I’ve taken to using the word “energized” over “impactful.” “Impactful” feels company-centric, and while that’s important, “energized” is more inwards-looking.

my first piece of advice to engineers is that they should avoid pattern matching in ways that lead them towards work they don’t enjoy.

When thinking through problems or ideas, write it down (even if you don’t intend to share them).

If the first time you engage with someone is when, as an example, you’re fighting for opposing solutions to a hiring problem, you’re already starting from a deficit with that person.

If you haven’t already, try to become the engineer that people want to work with.

By improving ourselves, we make the industry better.