The five ideas you need to read from the last month LeadDev.
1. Lara Hogan, How to get helpful, actionable feedback from your colleagues
When people request feedback from their colleagues, they normally ask, ‘Is there anything I can be doing differently or better?’ But broad questions like this rarely elicit a helpful, thorough response. In this article, Lara Hogan walks you through a better approach: identify a skill you’re hoping to improve, and request feedback on that specific skill. This makes it easier for the person you’re asking, and leads to better, more insightful feedback for you.
2. Camille Fournier, The secret to getting to the Staff+ level? Leverage.
Are you a senior engineer wanting to get to the next level of your career? Here Camille Fournier shares the secret to getting promoted up the IC ladder: develop the skills that give you the leverage to show more value to the company. She outlines the four types of leverage (interpersonal, executional, strategic, and expert), and explains how you can start developing them.
3. Mugdha Bendre, Five management anti-patterns and why they happen
Poor management can look like many things. Here Mugdha Bendre caricatures five types of bad manager (The Bottleneck, The Sphinx, The Sh*t Funnel, The Wrecking Ball, and The Wallflower), and shares how to avoid becoming like them. If any of these characters do sound uncomfortably familiar, don’t worry! These are fixable problems, and becoming aware of our behaviors is the first step towards changing them.
4. Kevin Dallaire, Four engineering leadership trends you need to know
What have engineering managers been planning for in 2022, and how might that change given the current economic uncertainty? In this article, Kevin Dallaire shares insights from Jellyfish’s 2022 State of Engineering Management Report, and reflects on how leaders can prepare to manage engineering priorities when resources become scarce.
5. Vaidehi Joshi, Three strategies for building trust with your engineering teams
We know that trust is the glue that holds engineering teams together. It’s essential for creating an environment where people feel safe, happy, and productive. But how can leaders actually build trust within their teams? Where should they start? Vaidehi Joshi outlines three actionable strategies for planting the seeds of trust in your teams: be reliable, create connections within your teams, and be vulnerable.
