This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding – Medium and was authored by Séverin Bruhat
A simple guide to help you find your footing
Stepping into an engineering management role is one of the most challenging — and rewarding — transitions in a tech career. The skills that made you a great engineer are not the same ones that will make you a great manager. Suddenly, your focus shifts from writing code to building teams, fostering growth, and navigating complex human dynamics.
Here are ten actionable tips to help you build a solid foundation for your leadership journey.
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1. Deliberately Adopt a Growth Mindset
If you take only one thing from this article, let it be this. As I’ve written before, embracing a Growth Mindset, a concept from Carol Dweck’s brilliant book, is fundamental. As a manager, you will face situations where you don’t have the answer. You will make mistakes. A fixed mindset tells you, “I’m not good at this.” A growth mindset says, “I’m not good at this yet.” This small shift in perspective is everything. It allows you to see challenges as opportunities and failures as lessons.
2. Master Your 1-on-1s
Your weekly or fortnightly 1-on-1 is the most important meeting you will have. It’s not a status update. It’s a dedicated space for your direct report. It’s your chance to listen, understand their career aspirations, unblock their challenges, and build trust. To get the most out of them, prepare. I’ve previously shared a (FREE) list of conversation starters, but the key is to ask open-ended questions and then truly listen to the answers.
3. Build a Reading List (and Actually Read It)
You don’t have to invent everything from scratch. Countless people have walked this path and shared their wisdom. Reading is a superpower. If you’re not sure where to start, my list of 5 essential reads for engineering leaders is a good place, but three books I believe are non-negotiable for new managers are:
- The Manager’s Path by Camille Fournier
- Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim
- Radical Candor by Kim Scott
4. Remember: Perfection Is the Enemy
As engineers, we often strive for elegant, perfect solutions. As a manager, you must learn to embrace the mantra that “perfection is the enemy of good”.
Your job is to enable progress, not to achieve personal perfection. You’ll have to make decisions with incomplete information. You’ll need to ship an imperfect feature to learn from users. Don’t let the pursuit of the ideal prevent you from making good, timely progress.
5. Develop Your Leadership Toolkit
Leadership isn’t an abstract art; it’s a practice built on tangible behaviours and frameworks. Start consciously building your own “leadership toolkit.” This could include things like:
- A framework for giving constructive feedback
- A process for delegating tasks effectively
- A structure for running productive team meetings.
As I’ve discussed when navigating the complex world of engineering management, standardising your approach helps you act more decisively and fairly.
6. Become a Student of Team Dynamics
Your primary focus is no longer the codebase; it’s the team.
How do they collaborate? What are their communication patterns? Who are the influencers?
Understanding the intricate dynamics of your team is crucial. Pay attention to how work gets done, who helps whom, and where the friction points are. Your job is to be a positive influence on this system.
7. Always Ask “Why?”
The biggest mindset shift from engineer to manager is moving from the “how” to the “why.” Your team will look to you for context. It’s your responsibility to understand the strategic reasoning behind a project and communicate it clearly. When your team understands the “why,” they are empowered to make better decisions about the “how.”
If you have not read it already, I highly recommend you have a look at Start With Why (by Simon Sinek)
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
8. Learn to Give (and Receive) Feedback
This is a classic for a reason: it’s hard, and it’s essential. Giving direct, compassionate feedback is a skill you must cultivate.
Don’t sandwich criticism between praise; be clear and kind. Equally important is your ability to solicit and gracefully receive feedback about your own performance.
Ask your team: “What is one thing I could do differently to be a better manager for you?” And then, listen.
Check out my previous article:
9. Find a Mentor
You are not alone. Find a more experienced manager you respect and ask them for guidance.
Having a trusted mentor outside of your reporting line gives you a safe space to ask the “silly” questions and get an objective perspective on your challenges.
This has been invaluable in my own career.
10. Be Patient with Yourself
You wouldn’t expect to master a new programming language in a day, so don’t expect to master management overnight.
It’s a new discipline with its complex syntax. There will be days you feel like an impostor. That’s normal. Reflect on your progress, celebrate the small wins, and keep learning.
The journey of a manager is a marathon, not a sprint.
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My 10 Actionable Tips for New Engineering Managers was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding – Medium and was authored by Séverin Bruhat