When I was a strong senior engineer I could execute things no problem. Give me some ambiguous scope, a tight deadline, and a goal and Iād figure out how to make that happen.
I thought, great, this will get me to the next level, right? Nope.
My manager told me that to get to staff I need to help the whole team execute the way I was executing. Itās no longer enough to do great work, it was time for me to build up the entire team so anyone could execute things just like I did.
1. Mentor senior+ level engineers
Itās not enough anymore to mentor people below your level, start helping people at your level or above (yes you can help staff engineers!).
Thereās tons of ways you can make this happen:
Ask if someone wants regular 1:1s just to have someone to talk through problems (e.g. a rubber duck buddy)
Find staff engineers that are new to the company, reach out and see how you can support them
Review pull requests (PRs) and design docs outside of your direct project
Answer unanswered questions in channels that you are not responsible of
2. Document and implement processes
If youāre really good at something, chances are thereās a process you follow with each project, release, design, etc. Now letās take it to the next level, how can you formalize this process? And even better, how do you get others to adopt this process?
This is where you need to learn to sell to other engineers. People donāt adopt new processes for no reason, it needs to be 10x better than what theyāre already doing for them to adopt it. How can you prove that it is?
3. Take ownership of the success of ALL projects on your team
As a staff engineer if a project doesnāt go well on my team I donāt think ānot my problem š¤·š¾āāļøā anymore, because it is my problem!
As a leader you want to support other directly responsible individuals (DRIs) on your team and if you notice something going wrong, jump in!
Some ways you can support the success of all projects:
Call out if you notice a project is consistently missing itās weekly/sprint goals
Jump in to help with a project if theyāre falling behind (e.g. if thereās a few people unexpectedly out sick)
Offer 1:1s to the DRIs
Conclusion
If youāre reading this, youāre probably a pretty high performing engineer and can get shit done. Letās figure out how you can spread that across your team and pillar.
Want to chat about your game plan to lead through leaders? Reply to this email! Iād love to chat :)
Thanks for reading!
Eden
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