#15 - Intentional Technical Leadership

Hey my friend!

Happy Saturday! 🎉

Welcome to another issue of the Intentional Technical Leadership newsletter.

I promise you it's Saturday this week. Yes, I know I sent it on Friday last week. 🤦‍♂️

Automation is great when you can work out the difference between a Friday and a Saturday on a calendar.

I hope everyone's having a great weekend and that your summers are off to a roaring start.

I'll level with you. I've had a terrible week. A family medical emergency on Saturday has made this week pretty awful.

My manager has been great at ensuring that I take time off to deal with the hospital visits and she's constantly looking out for me by regularly checking in on Slack.

My team have been amazing at helping me to cover the work that we still need to do and telling me that they can handle things in my absence.

The VP of Engineering reached out to me to tell me to take time off. I don't think she realises how much a small gesture like this means.

It's still hard to concentrate when you don't know what the outcome will be but I'm glad I'm working at a company that thinks about its people.

These sort of things can happen at any time so make sure you do the same for your team. Building a culture where people care about others should be the norm but it often isn't.

I've only got a few articles this week as my head is all over the place.

I hope you understand. ❤️

🔖 Interesting Reading

How to Build Trust as a New Manager in a Fully Remote Team

One of the questions I always ask when I'm being interviewed for a new role is "what do you expect I'll be doing in 30/60/90 days?"

I like to understand what a company's expectations of new engineering leaders is and it helps me to gauge if they are really serious about leadership as a career. If they don't have any expectations then it's probably not a role I'll thrive in.

This article shares a 30/60/90 day plan for managing a fully remote team. There are some great insights into how you should manage your first 3 months in a new engineering manager role.

For me it's all about relationships within the company and building trust with team and this article shares some good tips on how to achieve this.

Managers: what do you do when your teammate shares their grief?

I ❤️ Lara Hogan.

If you're not aware of her, she's an experienced technical leader who coaches and mentors people like us.

With a lot going on in my head right now, I wondered how I should manage difficult situations such as my own. A Google search brought up one of Lara's articles in which she shares how she manages team mates who share emotionally challenging information in 1:1s.

This article is so perceptive and shares so many brilliant ideas for managing grief-related conversations with a team member.

It might not be happening right now but thinking about difficult conversations before they happen is always useful. This blog post will really help if you find yourself in this situation.

📺 Worth Watching

What a Trusting Team Feels Like | Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek's talks are always worth watching and this one is no exception.

It's under 2 minutes but it shares some concise insights into how you build psychological safety on your team.

I always ensure that I build a culture of trust within the team and encourage everyone to talk openly.

Sharing your own faults and mistakes as a leader will really help your team to understand that they can too.

Create a safe space for your team to share their worries without fear.

Being the leader or manager that builds a secure environment the team will take you far. 💪

Only a handful of articles this week but I hope you still enjoyed this week's selection of intentional technical leadership articles.

Hit reply and let me know what you think.

Feel free to send me any interesting articles or podcasts you've found too.

Have an amazing week and be excellent to each other!

Speak to you soon,
Marc

Senior Engineering Manager @ Netlify