The Engineering Leadership & Wellbeing Newsletter 🌱 #18
“HAY” there 👋🏼 Here’s a Monday idea for you💡Simplicity is 👑
Kevin Miller worked at Google and Opendoor, but he always dreamed of building his own startup. Rather than creating groundbreaking technology or flashy new software, he opted to build a simple website that counts words — That’s it!
Within two years, his site ranked #1 on Google and was generating $20k per month.
Topics for the day: Engineering framework, Team trust, Blue-collar devs, Happiness, Luck or hard work?, Conflict, Startup tech leadership
Some free insights: Check out 10 Key Performance Review Tips 📈
A Leave-No-Trace Engineering Framework
Based on the 7 Principles of ‘Leave No Trace’, Jacob Kaplan-Moss offers his own framework for engineering leadership.
Read more: All I Need to Know About Engineering Leadership I Learned From Leave No Trace
Trust Might Be Holding Your Team Back
Ben Kuhn from Anthropic writes about trust being crucial for effective team growth but often becoming a blocker due to a lack of data or experience rather than competence. Trust allows for efficient collaboration, preventing micromanagement. Building trust involves sharing mental models, giving feedback, and trial tasks, while being trustworthy means overcommunicating status and owning up to issues.
Read more: Trust as a bottleneck to growing teams quickly
What Are “Blue-Collar Developers”?
The pandemic accelerated digital transformation, making some roles vulnerable. To succeed, developers should become M-shaped professionals, combining broad and deep expertise, and leveraging AI tools. As the era of blue-collar developers ends, adaptable professionals will thrive.
Read more: The Rise and Fall of the Blue-Collar Developers
Happy Workers are Productive Workers
Atlassian and DX teamed up to do some research on satisfaction, happiness, and productivity. It’s nice to see their “developer joy” initiative explore dev tools, empowerment, and team culture. Sign up required!
Read more: State of Developer Experience Report 2024
Were You Lucky? Or Did You Work Your A** Off?
Success often gets attributed to luck, but it's a mix of hard work, strategic decisions, and fortunate circumstances. While dismissing success as mere luck overlooks the sacrifices and efforts made, recognizing the role of luck is also important.
Read more: How much of success is luck?
On When Your Direct Report Stirs up Workplace Drama
We know that managers don’t want conflict and will probably “win.” It’s likely they will try to get you fired. if nothing happens, they simply have to adapt or move on. All this should be ironed out in a 1:1 meeting.
Read more: Fighting With Your Boss
What Engineering Leadership Looks Like as a Startup Grows
VC-backed startups must adapt to different growth phases to succeed. Early stages involve hands-on work by founders, but as the team grows, the CTO must manage both technical and leadership duties, often without prior experience.
Read more: Typical First Years of Startup Engineering Leadership
Did you like this edition of ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP & WELLBEING 🌱?
If you're looking for a specific subject to read about or maybe would like to collaborate on a project, reach out to me at tomek@howareyou.work.