This is the third and final part of my series exploring the practices of engineers on the path to becoming team leaders. I recommend starting with parts one and two if you haven’t read them yet.
Future TLs…
10. Foster trust
The team lead role is people-oriented, and strong relationships are important for success. Relationships are built on trust — without trust you won’t be able to create psychological safety in your team, deliver feedback effectively, or influence people. Future team leaders need to be trustworthy, and able to build trust easily with others.
Trust is multifaceted, and there are many different models for describing it. One that I like is the Trust Equation:
Credibility — relates to your expertise and believability on a given topic. Do you demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about? Is what you are saying true?
Reliability — doing what you say you’re going to do. Do you follow-up on action points? Do you own things through to completion?
Intimacy — how comfortable are people sharing sensitive information with you? Are you able to maintain confidentiality? Do you gossip or spread rumours? Are you open to showing vulnerability?
Self-orientation — is about where you’re focused, and your perceived motivations for taking an action e.g. is it for the benefit of the group, or your own personal advancement. Do you talk more about “I” than “we”? Do you demonstrate emotional intelligence, and empathy for others?
It’s worth reflecting on these different dimensions and how they apply to you — are there things you’re doing that might be reducing trust in your relationships?
11. Demonstrate good judgement
It’s important for future team leaders to have good judgement. People with good judgement:
- Escalate blockers when they are sufficiently critical
- Push back on making a technical compromise when it introduces too much risk
- Advocate for reducing scope to manage unreasonable complexity
- Balance the time needed to implement a fix with the urgency of the issue
Such actions are highly contextual, and can have a significant impact on the outcome of a project, the quality of the solution, and the long-term cost of ownership of a system.
A core part of a team leader’s role is to make decisions. Because of the increased scope of their role, the decisions TLs make can have greater consequences than those at the individual level. If a person has a history of poor judgement, there will be concerns about the potential impact of their decisions when in a position with more responsibility. Having a track record of solid judgement is important in order for people to sponsor you for the opportunity.
To practice judgement, you need to have opportunities to make decisions. One of the best ways to get this exposure is to lead large projects. The number of variables and associated complexity requires that decisions are made. Once you have this opportunity, it’s valuable to talk through key decisions with someone more experienced. This helps you get another perspective, and recognise your own biases. There may be factors you’re not considering, some context you’re unaware of, or misalignment in what you’re optimising for, or how you value different trade-offs. This deliberate exercise of reviewing decisions, and learning from others will help you to make better decisions in the future.
12. Have a growth mindset
Future team leaders need to be open to feedback, and have a desire to improve. The role of a team leader is a fundamentally different job to that of a software engineer — you’re no longer doing the work, rather you are supporting the team to do the work.
The learning curve once you’re in the TL role is particularly challenging compared to that of an individual. The feedback cycles are longer, and the connection between action and impact is less clear. Dealing more with humans than with code makes the work highly non-deterministic. To put it in some perspective, Engineering leader and author, Michael Lopp (aka Rands) says that it takes at least three years to become competent as a manager. Three years is a long time, particularly for someone who is used to good performance reviews and excelling generally. People embarking on this path need to be prepared for that struggle, be able to show humility when they get things wrong, and be ready to learn from their mistakes.
The best way to practice having a growth mindset is by taking on new things that are unfamiliar to you — to go back to being a beginner in something. Work through the feeling of discomfort that comes from struggling to learn a new skill. Solicit constructive feedback from your co-worker or manager, and take the time to understand the feedback and try to improve. Find a mentor who can challenge you.
This series began with the question, “What can I do as part of my role today to prepare myself for becoming a team leader in the future?”.
Based on my experience supporting people preparing for leadership roles, I’ve described why and how those people…
- Discuss their goals and articulate their motivation
- Proactively make things better
- Understand their tech domain
- Run large projects spanning multiple teams
- Communicate well
- Mentor others
- See the bigger picture beyond the backlog
- Contribute to initiatives outside of their team
- Are open to change
- Foster trust
- Demonstrate good judgement
- Have a growth mindset
Whether you’re looking to pursue a leadership path or not, it is worth reviewing these behaviours to see where you might have gaps or possible areas of improvement. By strengthening your skills in some or all of these areas, you can increase the effectiveness of the work you’re doing, expand your overall impact, and broaden your career options.
Thanks to Melanie Harries for reading drafts of this.
