Key leadership skills needed by individual contributor engineers, and ways to develop these skills

1. 5 Leadership Skills
Every Engineer Needs
1
North Bay Python
December 2017
Kathleen Vignos
@kathleencodes

2. 2
kathleencodes
@kathleencodes
Question for engineering tech
leads and managers: what
made you want to be a leader
on your team?
16 16 Nov 20178 18
Taylor Leese
@taylorlesse
0 16 Nov 20170 5
I didn’t want to lead but
nobody else was doing it.

3. Why does leadership matter for non-managers?
recognition
compensation
promotion
respect
influence
satisfaction of helping
others

5. Survey data
from 100+
senior software
engineers

6. https://github.com/amueller/word_cloud

8. Worst qualities of least favorite leaders

9. Best qualities of favorite leaders

10. Leadership challenges for engineers

11. Communicate
clearly
“The art of communication
is the language of
leadership.” - James Humes

12. To: Kathleen
From: Sam
Subject: Doc (Which doc?)
Hi Kathleen,
In yesterday’s meeting, Claire was concerned about the schedule. She
says we should be able to be finished by noon on Wednesday, but I
think it will take longer. The problem is that we have to change where we
make the call to the widget service. I’ve attached the doc. Instead of
making the call after the foobar loader, we need to move it to the (wat??)
beginning so that the queue gets populated with the data before we
make the request to component service. (What am I supposed to do?)
<attachment.doc>

13. To: Kathleen
From: Sam
Subject: Image cropping feature
requirements
Hi Kathleen,
I’ve attached the draft of the product requirements doc for the image
cropping feature we’ve been working on. We need to finalize by Friday,
so please add your comments and questions to the doc by EOD
Thursday.
Thanks, Sam
<attachment.doc>

14. Widget Service Changes Doc
Author: Sam
Reviewers: Ja, Claire, Parak
Status: Reviewable
Estimate: 3 weeks
Feature overview
[....]
Foobar Loader Widget ServiceComponent
Service
Component
Service
Foobar LoaderWidget ServiceProposed Solution
Current State

15. Email/doc communication checklist
❏ Audience
❏ Context
❏ Intent and/or Call to Action
❏ Length and Format
❏ Visuals
❏ Customer Service Tone #teamwork

16. Code review communication checklist
❏ Don’t be a jerk.
This is wrong…. You might want to
consider...

17. Master your time
“The wisdom of life consists
in the elimination of
non-essentials.” - Lin Yutang

18. ● How to Say No
● What to Say No To
● What to Say Yes To
Prioritize ruthlessly

20. 6.7 Brainstorming and collaborating
5.8 Email and meetings
+ 3.7 Waiting for tests
3.5 Waiting for builds
2.7 Environment management
= 22.4 hours / 41.5 hours for admin
Estimating engineering hours/week

21. 46%19.1 hours: Design and coding

22. 2XHours needed to design and code

23. Share candid
feedback
“Why didn't you tell me?
Why didn’t anyone tell
me?” - Bob

24. https://radicalcandor.com

26. Situation-Behavior-Impact
Situation At yesterday’s meeting...
Behavior You interrupted me multiple times when I
was sharing my design with the customer.
Impact I wasn’t able to effectively share my designs
with the customer, and the customer may
interpret your behavior as a lack of
confidence in me and our team.
Important: Be specific!

28. Build trust
“As we look ahead into the
next century, leaders will be
those who empower
others.” - Bill Gates

29. ● Teaching others
● Listening to others
● Coaching others
● Giving credit to others
● Soliciting ideas from others
Focus on others

30. ● 1:1s, coffee, lunch
● Eye contact
● No distractions
● Ask questions, be curious
● Paraphrase
● Try it tonight at dinner! Then test yourself.
Active listening

32. Increase your
technical
competence
“Control without
competence is chaos.”
- L. David Marquet, author
of Turn the Ship Around

33. ● Pair program
● Validate your approach
● Read articles, attend conferences
● Rely on design patterns, frameworks, first
principles
Expand your skillset

35. ● 5 whys to determine root cause
○ https://www.isixsigma.com/tools-templates/cause-effect/determine-root-cause-5-whys/
● Start with Why: Simon Sinek, TED Talk
○ https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action
● Why leads to how: impact, purpose
Get to WHY

36. ● Communicate clearly
● Manage your time
● Share candid feedback
● Build trust
● Increase your technical competence
5 leadership skills

37. Leadership is not just for managers - it’s about
influencing and directing others for positive
outcomes and high impact.

38. Thank you!
North Bay Python
December 2017
Kathleen Vignos
@kathleencodes
Slides: slideshare.net
Photo credit: Fox Grom (huskies on ice)