Category: One-on-One

  • Creating an Engineering Career Framework

    Creating an Engineering Career Framework

    A good career framework has many benefits for an Engineering team. It provides engineers clarity and visibility on the expectations of their and other roles. Frameworks are also for managers to as a guide for career conversations with their teams. Putting a framework together is not something you want to rush but, equally so, it…

  • Resources for all areas of tech leadership

    Resources for all areas of tech leadership

    Do you have a list of articles you go back to that you find useful for guidance and reminders? I do, across all areas of tech leadership, there’s a lot of great resources out there! Mine are saved on github so it’s easy for me to find and update. I’m sharing it here in case…

  • LeadDev – Motivating Engineering Teams

    LeadDev – Motivating Engineering Teams

    LeadDev recently hosted a panel discussion on ‘Creating and sustaining motivation in your engineering team’. I recommend listening as many topical points were covered that may spark ideas around motivation in your teams. My takeaways: Motivation can be considered on 3 levels: Individual, Team, and Organisational. Fairness – there should be an appearance of fairness.…

  • The results will take care of themselves

    The results will take care of themselves

    TL;DR – Bill Walsh, an ex-NFL coach, had a leadership approach that transformed the success of the San Francisco 49ers. His ‘Standard of Performance’ covers a wide range of leadership traits that apply across industries. Each point offers learning relevant to leading tech teams today. There’s no hiding from the fact that results are important.…

  • Recommended Reading – July 2018

    Recommended Reading – July 2018

    Some blogs I recommend reading from this month… How to Manage an Employee Who’s Having a Personal Crisis Whether we like it or not people in our teams will go through difficult times, this covers good points for supporting those people in the right way. The 4 questions you should stop asking during your one-on-one…

  • Are you learning from your one-on-ones?

    Are you learning from your one-on-ones?

    One-to-ones should be seen as a special time, it’s usually the only time set aside for you and a member of the team to talk…about anything! Unfortunately, it seems most time in one-on-ones is used up with status reports that a manager should know anyway. Set a target to learn something new from each of…

  • Know what is important

    Know what is important

    I enjoy photography and learning how to capture better photos. I’ve been the photographer at a few low-key events, snapping away trying to catch those special photos. It’s not until later that someone asks did you get a picture of this or can I see a particular photo that you realise you didn’t capture it…

  • Adjusting for people with different needs

    Adjusting for people with different needs

    We all have needs and many of these are unique, this is what makes working with people intriguing. Some needs are obvious, others are closely guarded secrets, and more we don’t even know ourselves! As leader’s we have to make every effort to understand the needs of the people in our teams and adjust our…

  • To praise, or not to praise: that is the question!

    To praise, or not to praise: that is the question!

    The desire to praise people or teams should be firmly rooted in the mind of every leader. When someone does good work or puts extra effort in for the team it feels natural to praise them for it. I wouldn’t want anyone to think their effort has gone unnoticed. HBR’s blog – The Easiest Thing…