I had a conversation recently with an Engineering Manager about the role of a leader’s backup, and what skills are required for success.
What do I mean by a backup?
I’m defining backup in this context to mean: the primary point of contact for the team, in the absence of the manager. For example, the manager is on vacation, and an issue comes up — a serious bug, a release blocker, an urgent question from senior management — the backup is the go-to person in this situation. The role is primarily outward-facing, aimed at providing a clear point of communication and coordination when decisions involving the team need to be made.
A backup is not the same as a successor
This is an important distinction worth highlighting. Often a leader’s successor will have been their backup at some point, but there is no obligation for a backup to eventually take on a leadership role. Similarly, if you are nominated as the backup for your team, know that you are not necessarily perceived as ready to lead the team — this gap is worth exploring with your manager if you do want to be the successor. The key difference between a backup and a successor is in the person’s future career goals and aspirations. The backup role requires a set of skills valuable to many contexts, and so is a great meta-position to work towards.
What skills should a backup possess?
A backup requires a certain set of skills to be effective in their role:
- They should have a good breadth of knowledge on the systems the team is responsible for. They do not need to be an expert in everything; instead they should understand how the various components within the system interact with each other, such that they can reason about the implications of proposed changes, whether for new features or to address problems.
- They need to have a sufficient level of awareness and context of all of the work the team is doing, not just their own. Ideally this bigger picture view would also extend to future work, enabling them to make better decisions regarding trade-offs.
- They should have established relationships with the key stakeholders the team interacts with. This could include product owners, QA representatives, skip-level managers, peer engineering teams, and others, depending on context. These relationships do not necessarily need to be as strong as that of the manager, but having some reputation and trust here will be very helpful.
- The backup should have a good track record of being able to weigh up trade-offs, and demonstrate sound judgement in making decisions. The role also requires humility — they need to have an awareness of what they know, and what they don’t, and when they need to bring others into the conversation, or to escalate.
- The person needs to have strong communication skills, ideally both written and verbal. Backups will often find themselves added into an email chain, or pulled into a meeting at short notice to help.
- Backups need to be organised and proactive — they should be good at following-up.
How to prepare to become your manager’s backup
The list above might sound like a high bar, and indeed, it is a role that requires a certain amount of experience, but it’s possible to work towards it gradually. The main focus should be on practicing the skills above. Consider having a conversation with your manager to understand where you are now, and where you might benefit from more exposure or experience.
Managers, there’s a lot that you can do to help prepare individuals to become backups. It could mean:
- Inviting them along to group meetings where you are the sole representative of the team.
- Making introductions and encouraging conversations with stakeholders.
- Talking to them when you need to make a decision, and asking how they think about the trade-offs involved.
- Delegating the running of a project to them so that they can practice things like stakeholder communication, system design, and organisation.
There’s already a designated backup in my team — now what?
Having multiple people in a team who can play the backup role effectively is a great asset, so don’t be disheartened if your manager already has an official backup in place. Instead of focusing on the role and the title, focus on the skills. I’m confident you’ll be able to increase your impact if you do this.
If leaders find themselves in such a fortunate position, they can consider rotating who they name as their backup when they go away — as long as it’s clear to the relevant stakeholders who they should go to, there shouldn’t be a problem with this.
Every leader should have a backup
Backups help their team and the wider organisation remain effective by ensuring seamless communication and decision making in the absence of the official leader. It is a responsibility that requires a time commitment, so it’s important that people are recognised when performing this role. For individuals, the backup role is a fantastic set of skills to work at whether you are interested in pursuing a leadership path or not. For leaders, it’s an opportunity to sponsor and invest in the people you support, and it gives you peace of mind that everything will be fine in your absence.
