#people

Managing people is perhaps the most important and the same time most difficult part of an engineering leader's job. Technology is deterministic, there are runbooks and good practices that can be applied to various situations. People are different. More chaotic, driven by emotions and unique in their diversity of backgrounds. And yet, your job is to manage them and help them improve and grow. Make them proud of the work they do and make them feel like a part of something bigger. Articles in this category will help you do that :)

Top Performers or Underachievers - Who Will Define Your Culture?

14 December 2024 by Damian Sosnowski

The way you manage people in your team defines its culture. Your focus and attention help people thrive and grow, while lack of it hinders their progress. Should you devote your limited time to elevating your top performers and setting a high bar for excellence? Or should you focus on supporting your low performers, ensuring no one is left behind? Will you foster a culture where 10x engineers thrive and others either rise to the challenge or exit? Or will you cultivate a more inclusive environment, helping those who struggle to improve and potentially uncovering hidden talents?

#teams #people

Be careful with the Blameless Culture

27 November 2024 by Damian Sosnowski

Blameless culture sounds great on paper - who wouldn't want a workplace where mistakes are learning opportunities rather than witch hunts? But here's the catch: when done wrong, this well-intentioned approach can backfire badly. Lack of accountability and a culture of avoidance will push your company down the slippery slope, degrading your product and burning people along the way. A proper blameless culture is not easy to build as it requires a solid foundation of discipline and relentless pursuit of constant improvement.

#leadership #teams #people

FAQ on How to Run Effective 1-1 Meetings

12 July 2024 by Damian Sosnowski

1:1 meetings are among the most popular managerial processes and people hold strong opinions on how to run those. No wonder that after I published my article on How To Run Effective 1:1 Meetings, many people reached out to discuss it. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for anything and 1:1s are no exception. So I've decided to summarise the most frequent and interesting questions in this short follow-up article.

#people #howtos

How To Run Effective Skip-Level Meetings

8 June 2024 by Damian Sosnowski

Skip-level meetings are one of the most powerful tools for breaking leadership isolation. If done well, they allow you to gather priceless information about your teams' daily work and create relationships with people on the frontlines. But if done wrong, can backfire badly. Your actions can be easily perceived as a witch hunt and shatter the delicate trust between you, your managers and their reports. It's a delicate situation that needs to be played carefully. Let's explore how!

#people #howtos

Escape the Ivory Tower. How to Avoid Leaders Isolation

11 May 2024 by Damian Sosnowski

As a senior leader, you have a serious problem. You are out of touch. You are sitting on top of an Ivory Tower, too far from the frontline, isolated by your authority and extended communication lines. You are missing important bits of information, and without those, you are making mistakes. There is a way to escape the Ivory Tower and break the bubble. But it won’t be easy and you will have to get your hands dirty.

#leadership #people

How To Run Effective 1:1 Meetings

27 April 2024 by Damian Sosnowski

Face-to-face meetings are one of the most important management tools. Yet they are rarely done well. Nearly half of employees rate their 1:1 experience as sub-optimal, and many managers struggle with low team member engagement and low value from these meetings. Yet, when done well, 1:1s can make a team's work more efficient, build trust and improve employee well-being and engagement. Based on my years of experience as an engineering manager, I've written this opinionated guide to preparing and running 1:1s as a manager. If you feel your 1:1s are not where they should be, give it a try!

#people #howtos

Rethinking Workspaces: The Local First Revolution

8 April 2024 by Damian Sosnowski

Conventional office work is dead, but the remote work revolution did not deliver on its promises and is now facing a backslash. What if there was a better way? A solution that will remove the painful pitfalls of the monolithic office and cure the loneliness of remote work. A new, dynamic, local-first office model that fosters a sense of belonging, collaboration and helps local communities. Too good to be true?

#thoughts #people