Growing technical leaders

There are some common traits shared amongst strong technical leaders.

1. Motivation - Something motivates them to do their best work, whether it’s something well-defined like faster promotion or something more nebulous, like passion or competitiveness.
2. Compartmentalization - The ability to organize their various engagements independently, with minimal interference between them.
3. Coverage - Hand-in-hand with compartmentalization, coverage refers to the ability to ensure nothing gets left behind.
4. Presence - Ever-aware, always there in spirit, often there in person.
5. Apprehension - The intuition that something bad may happen sans further investigation or thought.
6. Rigor - Sometimes, it’s ok as l ong as it passes the smell test. But more often, asking “why?” just once or twice exposes shaky foundations.
7. Rapport - Harmonious working relationships with everybody, from the most senior leads to new grads. Going beyond the technical, to understanding individual motivations and goals.
8. Inciting - Either verbally or in writing, exerts influence, excites others, provokes thought, instigates resolution.
9. Opinionation - Possesses technical and organizational wherewithal to direct both tactical resolutions and long-term strategy.

Traits, including those above, can be exhibited in a multitude of ways. The ways by which these traits are exhibited are called mannerisms.

It is my belief that mannerisms are chiefly a product of a person’s personality and early life experiences. This is not to say mannerisms do not develop and evolve, but a person needs to be self-aware and self-modulating in order to adapt their mannerisms.

So how does all this play into growing technical leaders?

A few pieces need to fit into place to effectively (quickly and reliably) grow technical leaders.

1. A self-cognizant candidate with the drive to grow
2. Believable mentors with similar mannerisms in the present or past
3. Opportunities to flex technical and organizational muscles
4. Carved-out dedicated time to lead and practice leading
5. A facilitator and coach to overcome roadblocks and sometimes give a poke

Candidates unfortunately don’t grow on trees. They are generally self-identifying or obviously identifiable, but i’ve found that spending 2-3 hours with an individual talking about their motivations and goals often leads them to the realization that they are indeed aptly suited for loftier technical leadership responsibilities. It is a manger’s responsibility to have these profound, illuminating conversations.

Mentorships should be pursued and not handed out like candy. It is my belief that finding a mentor with similar mannerisms is of utmost importance and incredibly challenging. How often in your career have you had a mentor not only experience, but more importantly, perceive the exact same challenges you had faced? Probably not too often. Hence, we should aim to close the gap between mentor and mentee as much as possible, in order to maximize growth bandwidth. Thus, while I believe it is important to have multiple mentors to gain novel perspectives, I do not believe that actively seeking out mentors with diverse mannerisms is a good use of either mentor or mentee time. I do not support randomized matching between mentor and mentee. It is a manager’s responsibility to help search for and identify believable mentors.

Opportunities abound - but opportunities with the right level of technical and organizational challenge may not. Opportunities ought to have multiple degrees of freedom, to allow the candidate to exert opinionation. Opportunities need to have multiple not-necessarily-collaborative stakeholders, to accommodate influence to and from the candidate. Opportunities must have impact on or consequences for the candidate or their team. It is a UTL’s responsibility to originate a list of these opportunities. It is a manager’s responsibility to order the list such that it aligns with business priorities.

Too often are brilliant stars dulled by the burden of tactical, mostly short-sighted engagements. Candidates need dedicated time, arguably even free time, to just think and write down their thoughts. Compartmentalization and coverage of all focus areas within a team is already demanding. Let’s not make it harder. It is a manager’s responsibility to identify work to deprioritize in the event time spent on limited-growth opportunities encroaches on leadership development time.

We can’t grow technical leaders overnight. It often takes months, or even years, for individuals to develop and refine their operandi modus. Over such long periods, most people experience periods of stagnation or even regression. In the absence of a supportive figure, it is all too easy to give up. Sometimes, a poke goes a long way in orienting a person in the right direction. It is a manager’s responsibility to facilitate leadership development and be actively supporting the person.