Quotes from The Manager's Path
Tech Lead
“It doesn’t matter whether you choose to dive deep into technology, or become a manager—if you can’t communicate and listen to what other people are saying, your career growth from this point on will suffer.”
“If you aren’t a good note taker, you may need to become one”
“Don’t forget to listen during all of this communication. Give others a chance to speak, and hear what they say. Practice repeating things back to people to ensure you understand them”
“Successful leaders write well, they read carefully, and they can get up in front of a group and speak. They pay attention in meetings and are constantly testing the limits of their knowledge and the knowledge of the team.”
“Your productivity is now less important than the productivity of the whole team.”
“processes must meet the needs of the team and the work”
“Doesn’t agile software development get rid of the need for project management? No. Agile software development is a great way to think about work because it forces you to focus on breaking tasks down into smaller chunks, planning those smaller chunks out, and delivering value incrementally instead of all at once. None of this means that you don’t need to understand how to do project management”
“in the process of being a tech lead, you have to act as a software developer, a systems architect, a business analyst, and a team leader”
“Software developers and team leaders write code, communicate challenges, and delegate. As projects move forward, unexpected obstacles arise. Sometimes tech leads are tempted to go to heroics and push through these obstacles themselves, working excessive overtime to get it all done”
“In the systems architect and business analyst roles, you identify the critical systems that need to change and the critical features that need to be built in order to deliver upcoming projects”
“Project planners break work down into rough deliverables. With this hat on, you’re learning to find efficient ways of breaking down the work so that the team can work quickly”
“It’s natural for humans to prefer activities they’ve mastered, so when you have to spend less time on your current talents in favor of learning new things, it’ll feel quite uncomfortable”
“Becoming a tech lead required me to change my focus. Work is now less about me and working on the most technically challenging idea or the most fun project; instead, my focus is more on my team”
“This is a senior engineering role, but it’s a mistake to tie the notion of tech lead to one that boils down to the best or most experienced engineer on the team”
“This is a senior engineering role, but it’s a mistake to tie the notion of tech lead to one that boils down to the best or most experienced engineer on the team.”
Mentoring
“Practicing the art of teaching can help us learn how to nurture and coach, how to phrase things so that others will listen, instead of just shouting them down.”
“It can be easy to undervalue your mentor’s time, because you usually aren’t paying for it, so be respectful”
“Whatever you do, don’t say yes and then fail to actually do the mentoring work.”
“It’s also OK to say no to mentoring. Sometimes you can feel obligated to say yes to every person who asks you for help, but your time is valuable”
“You may be an introvert, or someone who does not find socializing easy, but conscious effort and practice in getting to know new people and helping them succeed will pay off”
“Be prepared to say anything complex a few times, in different ways”
“Are you spending all your time thinking about what you want to say next? Are you thinking about your own work? Are you doing anything other than listening to the words coming out of his mouth? If so, you’re not listening well.”
“Listening is the first and most basic skill of managing people. Listening is a precursor to empathy, which is one of the core skills of a quality manager.”
“Sometimes the mentor is another junior person on the team, perhaps herself only a year or two into the organization; someone who can still clearly remember the onboarding or internship process herself, and can closely relate to the new person”
Management
“There’s a difference between a strong manager and a manager that you like as a friend, or even one you respect as an engineer.”
“When that feedback comes to you, take it graciously, even when you don’t agree with it.”
“As you go through various stages of your career, you’ll start to realize how much uncertainty there is in the world.”
“But she cannot read your mind, and she cannot tell you what will make you happy.”
“If you don’t ask your manager about a promotion, do not expect her to just give you one magically”
“If you’re at a company with a career ladder, sitting down with your manager and asking her what areas you need to focus on to get promoted”