Focus on these six things

The computer and information technology sector is projected to grow faster than any other occupation over the next ten years.

As more and more people enter the field, the need for management grows, too. The software engineering field is notoriously fickle about hiring “outside managers,” and for good reason; research shows that the most effective managers not only understand the work of their teams, but can actually do the work, too.

Maybe you’re one of those managers, pulled from the halcyon ranks of your programmer peers. Maybe your own manager felt the overwhelm of too many people to manage. Maybe you wanted to take a swing at this “soft skills” stuff people are always talking about. Maybe you just love a new challenge. Maybe you’ve been doing this for a while and feel like you have it figured out.

No matter your circumstance, managing software engineers is hard. The job has changed a lot in the past couple of decades, too.

Gone are the days of “waterfall” project planning. Gone are the micromanagers and stiff-necked authoritarians (well, mostly). Gone are the patent leather shoes, the pantsuits, the horn-rimmed glasses. Okay, horn-rimmed glasses never really went out of style.

Today’s engineering managers are still responsible for the work product, but the emphasis is so much more on creating an environment conducive to innovation. Heavy wooden office doors and weekly status reports have been replaced by open floor plans (ugh), group stand-ups, and Trello boards.

What a software engineer needs from her manager today, more than anything, is trust, support, and feedback, and to work with a team that is actualized through thoughtful process and interaction design.

If you’re ready to take your management to the next level, I have created what I am calling “The Engineering Manager’s Charter,” which is a set of six simple principles that embody what I believe is the key set of behaviors anyone can learn and apply.

If you look closely, you can see where I was inspired by Google’s Project Oxygen and successful habits within Amazon among others.

You can read the full charter here.

I urge you to go read through the charter before you continue.

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My score

I believe in transparency, and I believe that we can’t make durable connections as people unless we are able to be vulnerable. In that spirit, I will share my score with you here.

I hope that this encourages you to be open with yourself about where you stand, and to be open with your colleagues as well.

Everyone has areas to grow into. These are mine. I can definitely be better at providing timely feedback, and I need to put some effort into getting closer to the work so that I can help out in a more hands-on way when needed.

On the positive side, I’m very good at applying coaching methods to guide folks toward their own answers, I’m allergic to micromanagement, and I think I’m a better than OK writer.

Keep in mind that these principles are “north star” goals, and are also situational. While everyone would wish to have their scores steadily creep upward until they’re all 10s, it’s more likely that they’ll fluctuate. Your work environment, your area(s) of focus, and feedback you get from others all factor in.

For those reasons, check in with yourself regularly and think about how you’re doing in each area. Are you making the progress that you want to, in the areas that are most important for right now?

If you want my help to remind you to check in, subscribe to my newsletter!

So now what?

Over the next few weeks, I am going to dive into each of the principles in detail, right here in this blog (and the newsletter; subscribe so you don’t miss anything!) I’ll give you practical tips for measuring and improving, and explain what I’m going to do to work on improving my own score.

This is as much about learning as it is about sharing for me, and so I hope to hear from you if this is helpful, or not helpful, or if you just want to tell me your story.

You can always leave your comments right here, or find me on Twitter where I am @aaronbieber, or email me at aaron@aaronbieber.coach.

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