Train yourself to ask questions Many technical leaders step into their leadership role with their "En
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November 1 · Issue #64 · 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.
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Train yourself to ask questions Many technical leaders step into their leadership role with their “Engineering” hat still on. An engineer defaults to problem solving and means they default to offering solutions. You may do this because you find satisfaction in solving problems. Unfortunately this behaviour is often counter-productive in a leadership role. When you solve other people’s problems, you rob them of the opportunity to learn and therefore an opportunity to grow. You’ve also started to train others to come to you for the “right answer”, which is definitely not what multipliers should be doing. Instead of jumping in with advice, focus on asking questions. Ask questions to find out how someone will approach the problem. Ask questions to find out what assumptions lead to that idea and what alternatives did they seek and what trade-offs did they make. Asking questions also forces you to practice listening. Good questions do not follow a pre-planned list. Good questions take into account what details or assumptions you hear, which means you have to really listen for that detail. Be careful of what a lot of people do - waiting for a pause to say something which isn’t the same as listening. Ask questions and truly listen instead of providing answers and you’ll find you level up your leadership game. This approach will be especially useful this upcoming week. 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 🙏
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Learn to ask questions instead of offering solutions by default
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This expert blog written by Ori Keren (CEO at LinearB.io) explores the complexities of having to be the translator between development and executive teams, and how that makes being VP of Eng. the hardest and loneliest executive role. |
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How Google Cloud's Kelsey Hightower became one of the most respected people in cloud computing - Protocol
Reading time: 23mins I’ve put this article at the top of this section because Kelsey’s Hightower’s (@kelseyhightower) leadership journey should be shared wider. It’s such a great example of being a leader (without the title), of a untypical journey into the tech industry and a fantastic role model for under-represented people. 🎉 |
The basic boss formula (25% / 50% / 25%)
Reading time: 8mins Although I cringe at the “Boss” term, EM at Skyscanner, Ben Stewart (@benstewart__) offers an interesting mental model for leaders. I know many people shifting to their first leadership role have difficulty making this adjustment, overshooting or undershooting, so this model may help. |
The Prominent Tech Team Leadership Styles of Middle Earth
Reading time: 9mins If you liked anything to do with Lord of the Rings (LOTR), this post will resonate deeply with you. Philip Leonard (@phillyleonard), Tech Lead at Picnic shares an important post about different leadership styles, connecting them to characters you will see in LOTR. A fun and educational post. |
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ThoughtWorks' Technology Radar Volume 23
PDF Length: 33 pages I always look forward to reading the latest ThoughtWorks (@thoughtworks) Tech Radar (full disclosure: I’m TW alumnus). I always use this to inform myself, not to blindly follow but be aware of some of the trends they see with clients around the world. I love some of the opinionated items in this edition like “Assess” on Bounded low-code platforms", “Hold” on Microfrontend anarchy, and the shift from “Adopt” back to “Assess” on Redux . Use this to trigger conversations in your own organisations and consider building your own tech radar. |
Managing technical quality in a codebase.
Reading time: 28mins I see a key responsibility of technical leaders (whether or not they are managers) as keeping technical quality high. CTO of Calm Will Larsen (@lethain) shares very practical advice on what to focus on and how to approach this in this article. One to bookmark and share with your team. |
Data Alone Is Not Enough: The Evolution of Data Architectures
Podcast: 21:54 mins or Transcript 23mins This podcast covers a conversation between Ali Ghodsi (@alighodsi), CEO and founder of Databricks and a16z General Partner Martin Casado (@martin_casado) as they discuss the history of data and how they are treated. I particularly liked hearing Ali’s perspective on what he would build as a “modern” data architecture. |
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Managing Migrations
Reading time: 7mins Whether or be monolith to microservices, or relational DB to NoSQL DB or more, migrations will be a fact of life if you’re in a successful business. Uma Chingunde (@umanagineer) outlines some excellent practical advice for engineering leaders on selling and managing these types of projects. |
Onboarding to a new team as an engineering leader
Reading time: 9mins In this post, Jean Hsu (@jyhsu) VP Engineering of Range shares some guiding principles and practices that have helped her in onboarding as a new engineering leader, particularly in a remote context. |
Remote Onboarding Changes the New Hire Experience
Reading time: 3mins A good complement to the article above, Shane Hastie (@shanehastie) offers a nice set of ideas to improve the onboarding experience for your team members. |
Most Common Health Problems in IT and How to Prevent Them
Reading time: 4mins A great reminder about health problems to watch out for yourself and your team from Natasha Lane (@Natasa_Lane). What are you doing to ensure you and your team have enough self-care, particularly when many can’t control the working environment they’ve been thrown into in COVID-19 times. |
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This is hilarious 😂 What’s your favourite? Hold on “Pure flower and socks” or Adopt the “Stolen Machine”?
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To celebrate the release of the latest , I fed their previous tech radars into a neural network, then back into their build-your-own-radar to get a glimpse of the future
This time next year you'll all be deploying Gremp apps to Japanese Chrome Farms running Swigg https://t.co/MMxSEZuCrR
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Looks like their algorithm could use a bit more work 😅
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Roborace is the world first driver-less/autonomous motorsports category.
This is one of their first live-broadcasted events.
This was the second run.
It drove straight into a wall. https://t.co/ss5R2YVRi3
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Patrick Kua, Postfach 58 04 40, 10314, Berlin, Germany
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