Having hard conversations This week I was speaking with leader unsure about how to provide some diffi
|
|
September 6 · Issue #56 · View online
Level Up delivers a curated newsletter for leaders in tech. A project by http://patkua.com. Ideal for busy people such as Tech Leads, Engineering Managers, VPs of Engineering, CTOs and more.
|
|
Having hard conversations This week I was speaking with leader unsure about how to provide some difficult feedback to someone. I’ve been there, you’ve been there. Typically you’re worried about how they are going to react and consequences with the conversation. The dynamics of the conversation certainly depend on a number of things:
-
Differences in power dynamics - If you are their manager or the other person is your manager;
-
Impact on working relationships - What will this do in the future interactions?
-
State of the current relationship - Is there even a relationship to begin with? Is it good or bad? Has there been bad blood in the past
Here are five tips that have certainly helped me:
-
Establish safety - Give people and heads up that allows them to control the environment of the conversation (e.g. location, time)
-
Follow the feedback formula (Situation, Behaviour, Impact) - Avoid jumping to suggestions, or conclusions first
-
Focus on them - A lot of poor feedback takes only into account the benefits of the person giving it, not of the person receiving it. Ensure your feedback will help them be more effective
-
Focus on the long-term - Prioritise the points that contribute to a better working relationships or success for both parties. The Crucial Conversations book has a great framework to communicate your needs
-
Focus on what you control - You control what you communicate, what words you use and how you choose to react. Remind yourself you cannot control how someone reacts.
-
(Bonus Tip) Earlier is better - When you avoid conversations you should be having, you often end up making them worse. It takes courage to give effective feedback and doing so early before a situation escalates is always better. Remind yourself to be direct and empathic (ala Radical Candor)
I hope you enjoy this week’s content. If you find it useful, please forward to someone else and send me feedback. Stay safe and healthy 🙏
Join the virtual 3-hour workshop, “Shortcut to Tech Leadership.” Level Up subscribers receive a 15% discount off registrations with the coupon code “LEVELUP15” until Sep 15. Each course has a limited number of tickets (up to 30), so book now.
|
|
Have those harder conversations earlier than later.
|
|
🌟🌟🌟 Want to reach thousands of engineering leaders around the world? Maybe you want to share a leadership role you’re looking to fill? Interested in becoming a sponsor? Get in touch for details. 🌟🌟🌟
|
|
|
Book Recommendations By Engineering Leaders
Reading time: 9mins A link collection of books recommended by engineering leaders from a question I posted on twitter. There are a number of new books for me on that list as well, but interesting to see what people are reading and what they learned from it.
|
The Official, Authorized List Of Legitimate Reasons For Deciding to Become a Manager
|
Focus on the Good Parts
Reading time: 4mins
Marc Brooker (@MarcJBrooker) explains a common failure mode he observes with engineers in reading research papers. They immediately go for “What’s wrong,” or “What’s not working.” Although this is in the context of reading research papers, I see this consistently in engineers in general conversation. This limits their leadership potential, which is why I’m including it in this section. If you know you fall into this trap, watch yourself carefull, or ask for people to call you out on it. T
|
The Rhythm of Agile Leadership (Presentation)
Watch time: 12:41 I watched this short presentation recently from Agile Coach, Nancy Evbuomwan (@nancy_evbuomwan), and I really liked the way she explores the role of leadership in an agile environment. I also like the focus on practice, a strong reminder that everyone can build leadership skills.
|
Level up your technical leadership skills on Sep 23, 2020 (click image above)
|
|
Principles for Microservice Design: Think IDEALS, Rather than SOLID
Reading time: 17mins A long but solid read from Paulo Merson that highlights a nice acronym to guide microservice design. The “IDEALS” of Microservice design include interface segregation, deployability , event-driven, availability over consistency, loose-coupling, and single responsibility.
|
These students figured out their tests were graded by AI — and the easy way to cheat
Reading time: 7mins This article reported by Monica Chin (@mcsquared96) is an amazing story of abusing AI systems. It’s also one I expect to see more and more as AI continues to expand its influence into everyday systems and one we should all be cautious of as people building them.
|
If everyone hates it, why is OOP still so widely spread?
Reading time: 6mins Medi Madelen Gwosdz explores a really interesting question in this article. In this, she looks at a brief history of OOP, what it brings and ponders some of the potentials answers to this. I’ve found that OOP, used well, certainly encourages high cohesion and low coupling, both which contribute to better designed systems.
|
The Agile Manager: Legacy Modernization
Reading time: 16mins I love the perspective that Ross Pettit (@rjpettit) brings to technology, always strongly rooted in pragmatic commercial and business contexts. As technology leaders, this perspective is one of the least exercised and one to read if you’re working in a long-lived organisation with older systems thinking about “legacy moderization”.
|
|
Implementing Shape Up
Reading time: 14mins I think it was earlier this year, Basecamp published their product dev approach, calling it “ Shape Up.” I remember seeing claims like, “We do development without agile” ( Editor: But it certainly fits with the agile spirit“. In this article, Nolan Phillips (@ncphi) shares how his team at TinaCMS went implementing this product development approach.
|
Title inflation is bad for everyone
Reading time: 2mins One reason I find people’s focus on titles annoying is that they rarely make a lot of sense in many different settings. You see this a lot in start up land where a Director or VP may simple be a “Team Lead” in a different place. Vinod Kumaar R (@vinodkumaar) explores why title inflation is bad for everyone.
|
Dev huddle as a tool to achieve alignment among developers
Reading time: 7mins A key to leadership is ensuring team members pull in the same direction. This is sometimes really hard to do with technical decisions when engineers dig their heels in for a particular solution. In this article, Mario Fernandez (@sirech) shares a simple approach on how to align developers with a Dev Huddle.
|
Building the perfect tech team
Reading time: 8mins
Aaron Randall (@AaronJRandall) and Amy Phillips (@amyjph), hosts of the Human+Tech 🎙podcast (listen to it!) share some great advice about what to consider when building a team, but also offer 3 great questions to test if you need to build a team (a mistake I have seen at too many companies).
|
|
Rare but always a nice treat when working with a well-architected system
|
|
|
You appreciate a software system's architecture quality when you add a new feature and all its code falls nicely into place. Even more so for unanticipated or complex features. [Photo credit: https://t.co/D4zw3ZaHYd] https://t.co/Ynsfuf3gDR
|
|
|
Always amazing to see how creative people can be! Worth watching for a laugh if you AWS🍿
|
|
|
|
|
Introducing: Debbie the Database. I've been working on a little project in my free time to make some database concepts more approachable - I'd love to hear what you think and whether you'd like to see more content like this. Anyway - enjoy! 😊 https://t.co/bCXfHA1NIW
|
|
|
|
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please send me feedback and share with others!
|
Did you enjoy this issue?
|
|
|
|
If you don't want these updates anymore, please unsubscribe here.
If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.
|
|
Patrick Kua, Postfach 58 04 40, 10314, Berlin, Germany
|