Habits of Highly Effective Engineering Managers

I finished reading the books “The Making of a Manager” by Juklie Zhuo, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey, and “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John Maxwell.

Here are my notes:

Management

1. Know what’s expected of your team and what the business priorities are.
2. Set a clear strategy and vision for the team, and ensure it’s understood by everyone.
3. Focus on results and positive outcomes, how to get from A to B.
4. Find out strengths and weaknesses of your team, also their aspirations.
5. Put first things first. Create a list of tasks based on priorities, ordered by urgency and importance.
6. Take ownership and make decisions based on facts, not assumptions.
7. Set challenging, realistic, measurable and clear goals. Clear, measurable and obtainable goals can give the team direction and keep it focused.
8. Filter information based on goals and priorities.
9. Help your team accomplish their goals and reach their potential. Remove any barriers they may face. They need resources and enough authority, not micro-managing.
10. Outcomes over Output. The goal of your team is not to produce outputs, it’s to reach a specific outcome. We often build features that create no value. Instead, we need to give teams an outcome to achieve. Using outcomes eliminates needless work and puts the customer at the centre of everything you do. Don’t assign tasks, instead, ask for specific results. The outcome is what matters the most.
11. Create a space where people can embrace ideas as their own. This leads to a positive outcome.
12. Become a mentor and invest in the life and career of your team members.

Metrics

1. Customer behaviour is the key metric for business success.
2. Look for data points that you can use to make the development process more effective.
3. Metrics you can measure to improve performance in your Agile development process:
   • Lead time.
   • Cycle time.
   • Velocity.
   • Happiness: Measuring the team’s happiness can help determine if the current work environment, team culture, tools and methods are satisfactory.
   • Value delivered (or ROI).

Leadership

1. Create the right Environment for your team:
   • Encourage collaboration between people and departments.
   • Encourage people with ideas and initiative.
   • Give people ownership of tasks. Hold them accountable and reward them for doing well.
   • Help people find a purpose. Everyone wants to be part of something larger than themselves.
2. Earn credibility and status as a leader. Once you are in control, share the power, control and responsibilities with your team. Give up the spotlight.
3. Share the company’s vision. Explain why people are doing what they are doing.
4. People have a strong need to feel valued and appreciated. Appreciation motivates people, makes them feel positive and optimistic. This also creates healthy competition between members of the team.
5. Become a role model. Role modelling is more effective than giving orders, because no one likes to be told what to do. It also gives the employees a chance to learn and grow while making them feel valued. A valued person is far less likely to rebel or become resentful.
6. Help team members grow and become better.
   • Provide meaningful and challenging work.
   • Share positive feedback.
   • Encourage them.
   • Facilitate relationships.
   • Provide training opportunities.

Relationships

1. Good communication is at the heart of any meaningful relationship.
2. Relationships allow you to become more influential.
3. Value the people around you and treat them accordingly. Positive communication to connect.
4. Listen before you talk. Listening gives you knowledge and options.
5. Showing genuine interest in someone creates attraction.
6. Empathetic listening. To cultivate personal connections you must algo understand people. Stop offering advice, help them reflect instead. Focus on them, not you.
7. Don’t give commands, ask for favours.
8. Create a feedback loop and provide honest feedback.