The Engineering Leader: Strategies for Scaling Teams and Yourself 9781098154066

Table of contents :
Foreword
Preface
Who the Book Is For
Organization of the Book
O’Reilly Online Learning
How to Contact Us
Acknowledgements
I. You
DRIing Your Career
Career Decisions and Optimizations
Setting and Executing on Career Goals
Becoming More Coachable
Knowing When to Move on (and to What)
Owning Your DRI Responsibilities
1. Career Decisions and Optimizations
Expecting More from Your Career and Less from Your Job
Planning for Opportunity
The Work > The Title
Defining the Moment
Distinguishing What Your Employer Rents Versus What They Buy
Rent
Buy
Trade-offs
2. Setting and Executing on Career Goals
Owning Your Professional Development
What
Why
Resources
Support
Opportunity
Putting It Together
Building Your Support System
Manager
Skip-Level Manager
Peers
Mentors
Sponsors
Coach
Professional Network
Work BFFs
3. Embracing Growth
The Gap Between Capability and Requirements
High Actionability with High Receptiveness
High Actionability with Low Receptiveness
Low Actionability with High Receptiveness
Low Actionability with Low Receptiveness
Becoming More Coachable
Build Your Self-Awareness
Broaden Your Perspective
Shed Your Defensiveness
Own Up
Ask for Advice
Bad Feedback
Ignores Broader Context
Negates Your Input
Undermines Rather than Helps You Succeed
Key Takeaways
4. Moving Forward
Signs It’s Time to Move On
You’re Not Learning (and You Want to Be)
You’re Learning Coping Mechanisms Rather than Skills
You Feel Morally Conflicted About Hiring
Your Job Is Affecting Your Confidence
Your Job Is Affecting You Physically
Making Decisions
Your Action Plan to DRI Your Career
Section 1 Summary
Self-Management
5. Energy Management
Managing Energy Versus Managing Time
The Trap of Being Useful
Navigating Burnout
Understand the Context
Identify the Causes
Work Toward Change
Giver Burnout
Better Energy Management
6. Defining and Adapting Your Role
The Components of Management
Direction
Feedback
Practical Help
Support
Managing Down
Managing Up
The Role of Strategy in Management
↓People && ↑Scope: Layoffs
=People && =Scope: Stability
↑People && ↓Scope: Consolidation
Approaching Struggling Teams
Letting Go: Why Your Job Should Change Regularly
You Don’t Want to Confront the New Challenges Faced by Your Team?
You’re Afraid to Give Things Up?
You’re Afraid to Take on Something New?
7. Expanding Your Leadership Range
Identifying Failure Modes
CliftonStrengths Assessment
Positive Intelligence
Communication Failure Modes
Lack of Depth
Conflicting Context
Too Much Empathy
Missing Empathy
Assuming Unearned Trust
Growing Your Impact
Scope
Complexity
Output
Agenda
Understanding and Expanding Your Leadership Styles
Pacesetting
Authoritative
Affiliative
Coaching
Coercive
Democratic
Where to Begin?
Navigating Change
There Are No Heroes
High Performers and Low Performers Struggle Most
All Process Is Contextual
You Will Make Mistakes
Your Action Plan for Self-Management
Section 2 Summary
II. Team
Scaling Teams
8. Hiring That Scales
Assessing the Current State of Your Hiring Process
Metrics
Feelings
Prework for Improving the Diversity of Your Team
Brand Awareness
Play a Long Game
Advertising
Targeted Outreach
Improving Evaluations
Job Descriptions
Resume Review
Evaluations
Assessing Trajectory
Better Interviews
Types of Interviews and What to Evaluate in an Interview
Take-Home Assignments
Additional Considerations
Interviewing Effectively
Your Plan to Fix Your Hiring Process
Step 1: Know Your Numbers
Step 2: Understand What You’re Looking For
Step 3: Calibrate, Calibrate, Calibrate
Step 4: Debug Your Process
Step 5: Stop Looking for a Straight Line
9. Making People Successful
Effective 1:1s
The Value of Complaining
Onboarding
Belonging
Accomplishment
Impact
Implementation
Supporting
Building a Culture of Helping
Choose Being Kind over Being Nice
Performance Management
Finding Balance
10. Building a Bench
Identifying and Developing Potential
Identifying Potential
Feedback Culture
Developing Potential
Hiring External Leadership
Developing a Good Rationale
Clarifying Responsibility
Hiring Effectively for Leadership
Successful Onboarding
Making Change
Your Action Plan to Scale Your Team
Section 3 Summary
Self-Improving Teams
11. Mission and Strategy
Constructing a Mission
Case Study: WordPress Mobile
Case Study: Developing a Mission for a Distributed Team
Case Study: Aligning Developer Experience
Determining the Mission
Determining a Strategy
Case Study: Scaling Hiring
Case Study: Onfido Studio
Case Study: Building the Mobile Infrastructure Team at Automattic
Developing the Strategy
Making the Mission and Strategy Work Together
12. Tactics and Execution
Defining the Layers
The Mission
The Strategy
The Tactics
The Execution
Meta
Mapping
Developing Tactics
Case Study: The Accidental Introduction of Deadlines
Case Study: People and Process
Building the Process Layer
Driving Execution
Case Study: Building Strategic Alignment Toward Execution
Case Study: The Daily Standup
Case Study: The Never-Ending Activity Feed
Getting Sh*t Done
Tactics + Execution = Effective Day-to-Day
13. Driving Improvement
Creating Clarity
Creating Clarity: Mission
Creating Clarity: Strategy
Creating Clarity: Tactics
Creating Clarity: Execution
Things to Consider
Creating Capacity
Creating Capacity: Mission
Creating Capacity: Strategy
Creating Capacity: Tactics
Creating Capacity: Execution
Things to Consider
Aligning Incentives
Aligning Incentives: Mission and Strategy
Aligning Incentives: Tactics
Aligning Incentives: Execution
Things to Consider
Building Feedback Loops
Building Feedback Loops: Mission and Strategy
Building Feedback Loops: Tactics
Building Feedback Loops: Execution
Things to Consider
Where to Begin
Your Action Plan for Making Your Team Self-Improving
Section 4 Summary
III. Conclusion
14. What Good Looks Like
What Good Looks Like in a Team
Logistics
Chitchat
Positive Reinforcement and Recognition
Meta Chat
Constructive Feedback
Healthy Conflict
What Good Looks Like in Leadership
Can You Take a Week Off?
Can Problems Be Handled Without You?
Does Your Team Deliver Consistently?
Do People Tell You What They Think?
Do People on the Team Treat One Another Well?
Is the Team Self-Improving?
Can You Give People Who Report to You Meaningful, In-Depth Feedback?
What Kinds of Things Can You Delegate?
Who Is Taking on Bigger Roles?
Can You Take on Work Outside of Your Immediate Scope?
Do Your Peers Value Your Perspective and Come to You for Advice?
Does Your Team Need to Rebrand?
Rebranding Projects
Owning Achievements
Marking Progress
Clear Retrospectives
Rebranding People
Starting at the End
What Now?
A. Team Strategy
↓ People && ↓ Scope: Deprecation
What to Consider
What to Worry About
↓People && =Scope: Efficiencies
What to Consider
What to Worry About
↓People && ↑Scope: Layoffs
=People && ↓Scope: Reorganization
What to Consider
What to Worry About
=People && =Scope: Stability
=People && ↑Scope: Expansion
What to Consider
What to Worry About
↑People && ↓Scope: Consolidation
↑People && =Scope: Growth
What to Consider
What to Worry About
↑People && ↑Scope: High Growth!
What to Consider
What to Worry About
B. Reading List
Index
About the Author