For the first 10 years of my career, I focused on software development and worked as an individual contributor (Java, Python, RoR). I then became more of a "player/coach", where I was still hands-on but also led small teams. And since then, I've held various leadership positions. For awhile, I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave hands-on development so I joined smaller companies where I could lead people and still code (Golang and Elixir/Phoenix). However, in my last 3 roles, I've focused more on people leadership and have grown to really appreciate it. The thing is, being a people leader takes as much practice and work as becoming a strong technical IC; it really is a totally different career path. Here are some key areas you'll need to focus on as a people leader.
Culture is ultimately defined by the desired behaviors that leadership clearly and consistently
communicates and then holds themselves and their employees accountable towards.
So what behaviors do you want to model? What is your leadership philosophy? A team or company's culture is set at the top and then realized by the individuals. Thus, it's critical to come up with your own philosophy and then create a set of behaviors that model that philosophy and then hold your team accountable for it. You have to hire, grow and let go of people based on it to really reinforce it. Sometimes, companies have amazingly transparent and open cultures so it'll be easy to model your team culture based on things the company believes, but nonetheless, implementing and realizing a company culture takes work.
I took a management development program and it focused on the 4 key capabilities that define great managers:
- Coaching
- Feedback
- Productivity and Prioritization
- Effective 1x1s (which includes career development)
I won't be able to effectively communicate all the lessons and learnings from this multi-day, multi-hour course, but suffice to say, these are definitely the four areas that really matter when leading people. Coaching, feedback and effective 1x1s are all tied together, and I consider this the core to growing people. 1x1s are where the coaching and feedback takes place, and being able to "coach" instead of "tell" will help drive autonomy and learning. Feedback is central to it all because if you can't give specific, timely positive and critical feedback, its going be hard to grow anyone. Finally, productivity and prioritization is something you as a leader will have to do but also make sure your teams does well, and this really will help them execute effectively on projects and meet the team's goals.
Creating a fantastic culture and growing people will go a long way in retaining them, however, there's a whole other set of things you need to do to ensure people stay and continue to be happy and thriving. They are:
- Performance Evaluation
- Compensation
- Appreciation
- Career Growth
This is the entire process of finding talented people that can be effective at a specific role within your organization. It takes a lot of work, and in many organizations is considered the most critical thing a people leader does. Some people falsely assume that HR or Recruiting will just do this for you, but in reality, the burden is on the hiring manager (and the team) to do the work. Below are the steps you need to do well to hire well
- Define - what is the role and what are you looking for?
- Source - where will you find people with the skills you need?
- Recruit - Most likely, the people you want, others want too, so you'll need to sell them on the role and company
- Interview - What's the process to vet the skills and attributes you're looking for? How will you craft the questions and panel to find the right fit?
- Onboard - Once they're hired, how will you ensure they're effective from day one and provide them the support and instruction they need.
If you've spent the time hiring, growing and retaining people, it is unlikely that they are incapable of doing the work, but more likely struggling with the specific role or the organization and culture. Or maybe something in their personal life has changed, and its made it difficult for them to execute the way they used to. In the end, doing this the right way, making sure proper, direct feedback and coaching has been given and then doing it in a authentic, honest and timely manner is best. Someone should never be surprised when you part ways with them. It will undoubtably be unpleasant and wear on you, but making sure people end up at the right place is the best for them, your team and of course yourself. I still find this the hardest thing to do as a people leader and something I'll never get used to (and probably shouldn't).
Great quote From FB VP
Take the incentive out of "climbing the ladder." People don't fight for management roles as much
when management is not an end goal. Most people think "success" happens when you get the big job
with the big title — that you're not growing unless you're moving up. At Facebook, moving into
management is not a promotion. It's a lateral move, a parallel track. Managers are there to support
people and to remove barriers to getting things done. Managers focus on building a great team,
creating a vision for how that team will execute its goals, and helping the people on that team
develop in their careers. They are put in those positions because of their strong people skills.
They aren't there to tell teams what to do. This viewpoint has become so effective that some
managers at our company have even gone so far as to stop saying things like "my team," instead
opting for things like "the team I support."
Engineering leadership at Netflix
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