Everyone wants to work on the new stuff. Building new things is what gets you promoted, and funded, and it’s where you learn. Right? It’s the glamor job. Nobody wants to work on the boring but important things — the vintage systems, the invisible systems, the ones that just work, or that everyone is afraid will stop working. As an engineering leader, you know that somebody is going to have to do that work. So how do you motivate people to want to do it and keep doing it?
In this talk, I’ll talk about how we motivate ourselves and others to work on the less shiny parts of systems that pay the bills and keep the network running, while balancing career development needs.
Personal reflection
Think of a past project you worked on that you found rewarding. What was it that motivated you about it?
Is that something you seek out in other projects?
