Index

Symbols

1-1s (see one-on-one meetings)

A

Agile software development
- Agile Manifesto for, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Process Czar
- estimating with, Setting Expectations and Delivering on Schedule
- people pleaser managers with, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser
- project management with, Managing Projects, None of this is a replacement for agile project management
- retrospective meetings, Run Retrospectives for the Processes and Day-to-Day
alpha geeks, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
architecture review, Architecture Review-Architecture Review
Ask the CTO sections
- Big Ambitions, Training and Career Growth
- Coaching Someone Out of the Company, Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers
- Engineering Process, Developing Engineering Processes
- The Fallacy of the Open-Door Policy, Managing Managers
- Hiring Interns, Tips for the Manager of a Mentor
- I Hate Being a Tech Lead!, Software developer and team leader
- I Have a Nontechnical Boss, Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News
- I Miss Code!, Managing Multiple Teams
- Identifying Potential, Schedule enough time to discuss the review
- I’m Not Sure I Want to Be a Tech Lead, Managing a Project
- Joining a Small Team, Be selective about what you bring to the team to estimate
- Managing a Former Peer, Collaboration Problems
- Managing Outside Your Skill Set, Hiring Managers
- Mentoring a Summer Intern, Calibrate your response
- My Tech Lead Isn’t Managing, Don’t Prevaricate
- Warning Signs, Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
- Where Do I Fit?, What’s a CTO?
assessments
- for managers, Assessing Your Own Experience
- for managing managers, Assessing Your Own Experience-Assessing Your Own Experience
- for mentors, Assessing Your Own Experience
- for multiple-team management, Assessing Your Own Experience-Assessing Your Own Experience
- for people management, Assessing Your Own Experience
- for senior management, Assessing Your Own Experience-Assessing Your Own Experience
- for team management, Assessing Your Own Experience-Assessing Your Own Experience
- for tech leads, Managing a Project, Assessing Your Own Experience
autonomy, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator

B

bad news, delivering, The Shield, Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News-Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News
- (see also firing people)
benign neglect, What to Expect from a Manager
books and publications
- Daring Greatly (Brown), Recommended Reading
- The Effective Executive (Drucker), Recommended Reading
- First, Break All the Rules (Buckingham and Coffman), Introduction, Technical Elements Beyond Code
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Lencioni), Senior Peers in Other Functions
- Getting Things Done (Allen), Managing Your Time: What’s Important, Anyway?
- High Output Management (Grove), Hiring Managers, The Big Leagues, Recommended Reading
- Leadership and Self-Deception (Arbinger Institute), Recommended Reading
- Talking with Tech Leads (Kua), Tech Lead
- Turn the Ship Around! (Marquet), Recommended Reading
- The Tyranny of Structurelessness (Freeman), Bootstrapping Culture
- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (Goldsmith and Reiter), Recommended Reading
brilliant jerks, People Drama, The Brilliant Jerk-The Brilliant Jerk
burnout, The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience
business roadmap, uncertain, Challenging Situations: Roadmap Uncertainty-Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty

C

career growth
- career ladder for, setting, Writing a Career Ladder-Writing a Career Ladder
- goals for, identifying, Spend Time Thinking About What You Want-Spend Time Thinking About What You Want
- goals for, working toward, Training and Career Growth-Training and Career Growth, You Are Responsible for Yourself-You Are Responsible for Yourself
- manager’s responsibilities for, Training and Career Growth-Training and Career Growth
- mentoring for, Technical or Career Mentoring-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
challenging situations
- alpha geeks, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
- brilliant jerks, People Drama, The Brilliant Jerk-The Brilliant Jerk
- conflict management, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Conflict Avoider, Conflict Tamer-The Dos and Don’ts of Managing Conflict
- control freaks, Managing New Managers
- delivering bad news, The Shield, Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News-Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News
- disrespectful team members, The Employee Who Lacks Respect
- dysfunctional teams, Debugging Dysfunctional Teams: The Basics-Collaboration Problems, Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers-The Employee Who Lacks Respect, Debugging Dysfunctional Organizations-Be Curious
- firing underperformers, Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers-Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers
- micromanagers, What to Expect from a Manager, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator
- with new managers, Managing New Managers-Managing New Managers
- noncommunicators, Tech Lead, The Noncommunicator
- people pleasers, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser
- with performance reviews, Performance Reviews
- roadmap uncertainty, Challenging Situations: Roadmap Uncertainty-Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty
- strategies for saying no, Challenging Situations: Strategies for Saying No-Don’t Prevaricate
- team cohesion destroyers, Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers-The Employee Who Lacks Respect
- tech leads not taking responsibility, Don’t Prevaricate-Don’t Prevaricate
- unhappy team members, Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team-Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
Chief Technology Officer (see CTO)
coaching, Adjusting 1-1s
- (see also mentoring)
- assessing need for, Adjusting 1-1s, Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback
- for managers, Manager Accountability, Managing New Managers, Managing Experienced Managers
- out of the company, Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers, Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers-Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers
- for senior managers, Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News, Assessing Your Own Experience
code reviews, Code Review-Code Review
coding, Tech Lead
- (see also technical skills)
- amount of, by multiple-team managers, Managing Multiple Teams-Managing Multiple Teams
- amount of, by team managers, Managing a Team, Staying Technical-Staying Technical, Collaboration Problems
- amount of, by tech leads, Tech Lead, Tech Lead, All Great Tech Leads Know This One Weird Trick, Software developer and team leader, Software developer and team leader, Software developer and team leader
- architecture review, Architecture Review-Architecture Review
- check-ins, frequency of, Frequency of Code Check-ins
- code reviews, Code Review-Code Review
- estimating time for, You have 10 productive engineering weeks per engineer per quarter
- incidents, frequency of, Frequency of Incidents-Frequency of Incidents
- postmortem, The Outage Postmortem-The Outage Postmortem
- processes for, developing, Developing Engineering Processes-Architecture Review
- releases, frequency of, Frequency of Releases-Frequency of Releases
- releases, missing dates of, Not Shipping-Not Shipping
- retrospectives for, Run Retrospectives for the Processes and Day-to-Day
- standards for, establishing, Establish Standards for Code and Systems
- sustaining engineering work, Budget 20% of time for generic sustaining engineering work across the board, Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty
collaboration
- cross-functional collaboration, Managing Multiple Teams, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Senior Peers in Other Functions-Senior Peers in Other Functions, Cross-Functional Teams-Structuring Cross-Functional Teams
- problems with, Collaboration Problems, The Noncommunicator, Managing New Managers
colleagues (see peers)
communication skills, Communicate
- (see also feedback; one-on-one meetings (1-1s))
- bad news, delivering, The Shield, Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News-Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News
- for board presentations, Consider Your Board’s Communication Style-Consider Your Board’s Communication Style
- explaining complex subjects, Managing Projects-Managing Projects
- importance of, Communicate
- information gathering and sharing, Treat the Open Sharing of Information, Good or Bad, in a Neutral to Positive Way, The Big Leagues
- noncommunicators, managing, Tech Lead, The Noncommunicator
company (see organization)
conflict management, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Conflict Avoider, Conflict Tamer-The Dos and Don’ts of Managing Conflict
control freaks, Managing New Managers
core values of organization, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player-Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Creating Your Culture-Applying Core Values
coworkers (see peers)
cross-functional collaboration, Managing Multiple Teams, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Senior Peers in Other Functions-Senior Peers in Other Functions, Cross-Functional Teams-Structuring Cross-Functional Teams
CTO (Chief Technology Officer)
- responsibilities of, Models for Thinking About Tech Senior Leadership-Models for Thinking About Tech Senior Leadership, What’s a CTO?-What’s a CTO?
- working toward, Training and Career Growth-Training and Career Growth, What’s a CTO?-What’s a CTO?
culture
- continuous feedback within, Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback-Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback
- defining and establishing, Bootstrapping Culture-Bootstrapping Culture, Creating Your Culture-Creating Your Culture
- fear-based, correcting, Ruling with Fear, Guiding with Trust-Correcting a Culture of Fear
- managers fitting, importance of, Managing Experienced Managers-Managing Experienced Managers, Managing Experienced Managers, Hiring Managers-Hiring Managers
- policies for, Creating Cultural Policy-Creating Cultural Policy
- structure and process in, importance of, Bootstrapping Culture-Bootstrapping Culture
- team members fitting, importance of, Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player
curiosity
- benefits of, Use Your Experience as a Gut Check, Conclusion-Conclusion
- with conflict management, The Dos and Don’ts of Managing Conflict
- with disagreements, Correcting a Culture of Fear
- when managing outside your skill set, Hiring Managers
- when mentoring, Be Curious and Open-Minded
- with organizational problems, Be Curious
customer empathy, Flex Your Own Product Muscles

D

Daring Greatly (Brown), Recommended Reading
data-driven culture
- analyzing dysfunctional teams using, Check the Data
- delegating using, Gather Information from the Systems Before Going to the People
- establishing, Create a Data-Driven Team Culture
deadlines (see project delivery; scheduling)
decision making
- depersonalizing, Practical Advice: Depersonalize Decision Making-Architecture Review
- factors influencing, Create a Data-Driven Team Culture
- impatience and laziness for, The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience-The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience
- manager’s responsibilities for, How to Drive Good Decisions-Run Retrospectives for the Processes and Day-to-Day
- policies for, Create Policies
- as senior manager, The Big Leagues
- tracking results of, Review the Outcome of Your Decisions and Projects
- when to delegate, Decisions and Delegation-Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
delegating
- decisions regarding, Decisions and Delegation-Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
- effective, characteristics of, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator-Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator
- goals for, setting, Use the Team’s Goals to Understand Which Details You Should Dig Into
- micromanagers’ problems with, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator
- monitoring status of, Treat the Open Sharing of Information, Good or Bad, in a Neutral to Positive Way
- standards for, setting, Establish Standards for Code and Systems
- system information used in, Gather Information from the Systems Before Going to the People
- tailored to stage of project, Adjust Your Focus Depending on the Stage of Projects
difficult situations (see challenging situations)
disrespectful team members, The Employee Who Lacks Respect
documentation
- career ladder, Writing a Career Ladder-Writing a Career Ladder
- cultural policy documents, Creating Cultural Policy-Creating Cultural Policy
- of feedback meetings, The Feedback Meeting
- onboarding documentation, Mentoring a New Hire, Encourage Participation by Updating the New Hire Documentation
- of one-on-one meetings (1-1s), Mix It Up
- performance improvement plan, Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers
- 30/60/90-day plan, Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan
drama
- external, shielding team from, The Shield-The Shield
- within the team, People Drama

E

The Effective Executive (Drucker), Recommended Reading
employees (see engineers)
engineering director (see multiple-team management)
engineering leads (see team management)
Engineering VP
- responsibilities of, What’s a VP of Engineering?-What’s a VP of Engineering?
- working toward, What’s a CTO?-What’s a CTO?
engineers, How to Be Managed
- (see also interns; new hires; new reports; teams)
- alpha geeks, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
- brilliant jerks, People Drama, The Brilliant Jerk-The Brilliant Jerk
- choosing managers, Choose Your Managers Wisely-Choose Your Managers Wisely
- disrespectful, The Employee Who Lacks Respect
- feedback, asking for, Feedback and Workplace Guidance
- management track for, Imagined Life of a Manager-Real Life of a Manager
- noncommunicators as, The Noncommunicator
- one-on-one meetings, planning for, One-on-One Meetings
- overworked, Unhappiness Due to Overwork
- promotions, asking for, Training and Career Growth
- responsibilities toward managers, How to Be Managed-Choose Your Managers Wisely
- technical track for, Decision Point: Stay on the Technical Track or Become a Manager-Real Life of a Senior Individual Contributor
- training, asking for, Training and Career Growth
- unhappy, warning signs of, Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team-Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
expectations
- for new reports, communicating, Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan, Communicate Your Style and Expectations
- for performance reviews, setting, Avoid big surprises
- for schedules, setting, Setting Expectations and Delivering on Schedule-Setting Expectations and Delivering on Schedule

F

fear-based culture, correcting, Ruling with Fear, Guiding with Trust-Correcting a Culture of Fear
feedback
- continuous, creating culture for, Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback-Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback
- manager’s responsibilities for, Feedback and Workplace Guidance-Feedback and Workplace Guidance
- from new reports, Get Feedback from Your New Hire
- in one-on-one meetings (1-1s), The Feedback Meeting-The Feedback Meeting
firefighting mode, Manager Accountability
firing people, Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers-Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers
First, Break All the Rules (Buckingham and Coffman), Introduction, Technical Elements Beyond Code
first-team focus, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Senior Peers in Other Functions
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Lencioni), Senior Peers in Other Functions

G

Getting Things Done (Allen), Managing Your Time: What’s Important, Anyway?
goals (see career growth)
Good Manager, Bad Manager sections
- Alpha Geek, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
- Conflict Avoider, Conflict Tamer, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Conflict Avoider, Conflict Tamer
- Micromanager, Delegator, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator
- People Pleaser, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser
- Process Czar, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Process Czar
- Us Versus Them, Team Player, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player

H

High Output Management (Grove), Hiring Managers, The Big Leagues, Recommended Reading
hiring, Tips for the Manager of a Mentor
- (see also new hires)
- interns, Tips for the Manager of a Mentor
- managers, Hiring Managers-Hiring Managers
- plans for, training others to do, Use Complex and Infrequent Tasks as Training Opportunities for Rising Leaders
- senior management, Training and Career Growth, What’s a VP of Engineering?, What’s a CTO?
hours worked, The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience-The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience

I

impatience and laziness, The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience-The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience
information gathering and sharing, Treat the Open Sharing of Information, Good or Bad, in a Neutral to Positive Way, The Big Leagues
- (see also communication skills)
interns
- hiring, Tips for the Manager of a Mentor
- mentoring, Mentoring an Intern-Calibrate your response

L

laziness and impatience, The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience-The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience
Leadership and Self-Deception (Arbinger Institute), Recommended Reading

M

management
- being managed, How to Be Managed-Choose Your Managers Wisely
- of engineering, compared to people management, Introduction
- of individual people (see people management)
- of managers (see managers, managing)
- of teams (see multiple-team management) (see team management) (see tech leads)
- senior management (see senior management)
management track, compared to technical track, Decision Point: Stay on the Technical Track or Become a Manager-Real Life of a Manager
managers
- alpha geeks as, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
- assessing your abilities as, Assessing Your Own Experience
- choosing, Choose Your Managers Wisely-Choose Your Managers Wisely
- control freaks, Managing New Managers
- holding accountable, Manager Accountability-Manager Accountability
- micromanagers, What to Expect from a Manager, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator
- nontechnical, working with, Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News-Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News
- people pleasers, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser
- responsibilities of, What to Expect from a Manager-Training and Career Growth, Managing People
- role, based on size of organization, Assessing Your Role-Assessing Your Role
- types of bad managers, What to Expect from a Manager, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser
- types of good managers, What to Expect from a Manager
managers, managing
- assessing your abilities at, Assessing Your Own Experience-Assessing Your Own Experience
- dysfunctional teams, fixing, Debugging Dysfunctional Organizations-Be Curious
- experienced managers, managing, Managing Experienced Managers-Managing Experienced Managers
- hiring managers, Hiring Managers-Hiring Managers
- holding managers accountable, Manager Accountability-Manager Accountability
- new managers, managing, Managing New Managers-Managing New Managers
- outside your skill set, Managing Managers, Hiring Managers-Hiring Managers
- responsibilities of, Managing Managers-Managing Managers
- schedule expectations, setting, Setting Expectations and Delivering on Schedule-Setting Expectations and Delivering on Schedule
managing up
- compared to being managed, How to Be Managed
- disadvantages of, Skip-Level Meetings, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser
meditation, Conclusion
meetings
- architecture review, Architecture Review-Architecture Review
- code review, Code Review-Code Review
- one-on-one meetings (see one-on-one meetings (1-1s))
- postmortem, The Outage Postmortem-The Outage Postmortem
- preparing for, Managing Your Time: What’s Important, Anyway?
- retrospectives for, Run Retrospectives for the Processes and Day-to-Day
- skip-level meetings, Skip-Level Meetings-Skip-Level Meetings
mentoring, The Importance of Mentoring to Junior Team Members
- (see also coaching)
- being mentored, When you are a mentee
- career mentoring, Technical or Career Mentoring-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
- importance of, The Importance of Mentoring to Junior Team Members-The Importance of Mentoring to Junior Team Members
- interns, Mentoring an Intern-Calibrate your response
- new hires, Mentoring a New Hire-Mentoring a New Hire
- possible negative outcomes, Being a Mentor
- technical mentoring, Technical or Career Mentoring-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
mentors
- alpha geeks as, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
- assessing your abilities as, Assessing Your Own Experience
- managing, Tips for the Manager of a Mentor-Tips for the Manager of a Mentor
- responsibilities of, Be Curious and Open-Minded-Make Connections
micromanagers, What to Expect from a Manager, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator
multiple-team management
- assessing your abilities at, Assessing Your Own Experience-Assessing Your Own Experience
- coding, amount of, Managing Multiple Teams-Managing Multiple Teams
- delegating, decisions regarding, Decisions and Delegation-Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
- monitoring health of teams, Technical Elements Beyond Code-Frequency of Incidents
- responsibilities of, Managing Multiple Teams-Managing Multiple Teams
- saying no, when and how to, Challenging Situations: Strategies for Saying No-Don’t Prevaricate
- time management for, Managing Your Time: What’s Important, Anyway?-Managing Your Time: What’s Important, Anyway?

N

negative people, People Drama
- (see also alpha geeks; brilliant jerks)
new hires
- mentoring, Mentoring a New Hire-Mentoring a New Hire
- onboarding, Encourage Participation by Updating the New Hire Documentation, Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
new reports
- communicating expectations to, Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan, Communicate Your Style and Expectations
- feedback from, Get Feedback from Your New Hire
- first one-on-one meeting, Build Trust and Rapport-Build Trust and Rapport
- onboarding, Encourage Participation by Updating the New Hire Documentation, Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
- 30/60/90-day plan, Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan
noncommunicators, Tech Lead, The Noncommunicator
nudging, The Big Leagues

O

onboarding, Encourage Participation by Updating the New Hire Documentation, Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
one-on-one meetings (1-1s)
- adjusting, reasons for, Adjusting 1-1s-Adjusting 1-1s
- catching up in, The Catch-up
- environment for, Mix It Up
- feedback in, The Feedback Meeting-The Feedback Meeting
- first, with new report, Build Trust and Rapport-Build Trust and Rapport
- getting to know you in, Getting to Know You
- progress reports in, The Progress Report
- reasons for, One-on-One Meetings-One-on-One Meetings
- scheduling, Have Regular 1-1s-Scheduling 1-1s
- shared notes from, Mix It Up
- to-do lists in, The To-Do List Meeting-The Catch-up
online resources
- first one-on-one questions (blog by Lara Hogan), Build Trust and Rapport
- meditation, Conclusion
- for this book, How to Contact Us
open-door policy, Managing Managers-Managing Managers
organization
- core values of, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player-Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Creating Your Culture-Applying Core Values
- culture of (see culture)
- policies of (see policies)
- processes for (see processes)
- size of, determining manager’s role, Assessing Your Role-Assessing Your Role
- startups (see startups)
overwork, Unhappiness Due to Overwork

P

peers
- cohesion of team members, Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers-Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player-Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Check the Team Dynamics
- cross-functional collaboration with, Managing Multiple Teams, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Senior Peers in Other Functions-Senior Peers in Other Functions, Cross-Functional Teams-Structuring Cross-Functional Teams
- former, managing, Collaboration Problems-Collaboration Problems
- relationships with, Training and Career Growth
people drama, People Drama
people management, Managing People
- (see also one-on-one meetings (1-1s))
- assessing your abilities at, Assessing Your Own Experience
- coaching, Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback
- compared to engineering management, Introduction
- delegating, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator-Treat the Open Sharing of Information, Good or Bad, in a Neutral to Positive Way
- feedback, giving, Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback-Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback
- firing people for underperformance, Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers-Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers
- knowing your team members, Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback
- manager’s responsibilities for, Managing People-Managing People
- new reports, adding to team, Starting a New Reporting Relationship Off Right-Get Feedback from Your New Hire
- observing your team members, Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback, Observe the Team
- performance reviews, Performance Reviews-Schedule enough time to discuss the review
- potential in team members, identifying, Schedule enough time to discuss the review-Schedule enough time to discuss the review
- promoting team members, Cultivating Careers-Cultivating Careers
- 30/60/90-day plan, Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan
- trust and rapport, building, One-on-One Meetings-One-on-One Meetings, Build Trust and Rapport-Build Trust and Rapport, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator, Treat the Open Sharing of Information, Good or Bad, in a Neutral to Positive Way, Senior Peers in Other Functions-Senior Peers in Other Functions
people pleasers, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser
performance improvement plan, Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers
performance reviews
- content of, Try to account for the whole year, not just the past couple of months-When it comes to areas for improvement, keep it focused
- continuous feedback needed for, Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback
- examples in, Use concrete examples, and excerpts from peer reviews
- potential problems with, Performance Reviews
- setting expectations for, Avoid big surprises
- 360 model for, Performance Reviews
- time required for, Give yourself enough time, and start early, Schedule enough time to discuss the review
- training others to do, Use Complex and Infrequent Tasks as Training Opportunities for Rising Leaders
policies
- for career ladders, Writing a Career Ladder-Writing a Career Ladder
- cultural policy, Creating Cultural Policy-Creating Cultural Policy
- for decision making, Create Policies
- open-door policy, Managing Managers-Managing Managers
potential, identifying, Schedule enough time to discuss the review-Schedule enough time to discuss the review
power trip, managers on, Managing New Managers
presentations
- to the board, Consider Your Board’s Communication Style-Consider Your Board’s Communication Style
- by interns, Calibrate your response
priority changes, managing, Changing Priorities-Changing Priorities
process czar, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Process Czar-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Process Czar
processes
- architecture review, Architecture Review-Architecture Review
- code review, Code Review-Code Review
- for decision making, The Dos and Don’ts of Managing Conflict
- developing, Developing Engineering Processes-Architecture Review
- impatience and laziness for, The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience-The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience
- importance of, Bootstrapping Culture-Bootstrapping Culture
- industry trends for, monitoring, Use Your Experience as a Gut Check
- limitations of, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Process Czar-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Process Czar
- postmortem, The Outage Postmortem-The Outage Postmortem
- retrospectives for, Run Retrospectives for the Processes and Day-to-Day
product roadmap
- decision making based on, Look into the Future
- unstable, Manager Accountability, Challenging Situations: Roadmap Uncertainty-Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty
professional development (see career growth; training)
project delivery
- cutting scope before, As you approach deadlines, it is your job to say no
- release dates, missing, Not Shipping-Not Shipping
- release frequency, Frequency of Releases-Frequency of Releases
- schedule expectations for, setting, Setting Expectations and Delivering on Schedule-Setting Expectations and Delivering on Schedule
project management, Managing Projects-Managing a Project, Advanced Project Management-Be selective about what you bring to the team to estimate, Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
promotions
- asking for, Feedback and Workplace Guidance, You Are Responsible for Yourself
- career ladder for, Writing a Career Ladder-Writing a Career Ladder
- manager’s role in, Training and Career Growth-Training and Career Growth, When it comes to areas for improvement, keep it focused, Cultivating Careers-Cultivating Careers, The Dos and Don’ts of Managing Conflict, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser
- recognition of, Writing a Career Ladder
- into senior management, Setting the Strategy

R

releases (see project delivery)
resources (see books and publications; online resources)
retrospective meetings, Run Retrospectives for the Processes and Day-to-Day
reviews (see code reviews; performance reviews)
risk analysis, True North
roadmaps
- business roadmap, Challenging Situations: Roadmap Uncertainty-Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty
- product roadmap, Look into the Future, Manager Accountability, Challenging Situations: Roadmap Uncertainty-Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty
role modeling, The Big Leagues

S

scheduling
- one-on-one meetings (1-1s), Have Regular 1-1s-Scheduling 1-1s
- projects, You have 10 productive engineering weeks per engineer per quarter-Be selective about what you bring to the team to estimate, Setting Expectations and Delivering on Schedule-Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty
- time management, Managing Your Time: What’s Important, Anyway?-Managing Your Time: What’s Important, Anyway?
senior management
- assessing your abilities at, Assessing Your Own Experience-Assessing Your Own Experience
- bad news, delivering, Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News-Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News
- cross-functional peers, working with, Senior Peers in Other Functions-Senior Peers in Other Functions
- CTO (Chief Technology Officer), Training and Career Growth-Training and Career Growth, Models for Thinking About Tech Senior Leadership-Models for Thinking About Tech Senior Leadership, What’s a CTO?-What’s a CTO?
- detaching from the team, The Echo-The Echo
- nontechnical boss, working with, Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News-Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News
- priority changes, managing, Changing Priorities-Changing Priorities
- responsibilities of, The Big Leagues-The Big Leagues
- technology strategy, setting, Setting the Strategy-Consider Your Board’s Communication Style
- True North principles for, True North-True North
- VP of Engineering, What’s a VP of Engineering?-What’s a VP of Engineering?, What’s a CTO?-What’s a CTO?
shallow binding, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player-Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player
shielding the team, The Shield-The Shield
shipping products (see project delivery)
skip-level meetings, Skip-Level Meetings-Skip-Level Meetings
software development (see coding; technical skills)
startups
- career ladder, setting, Writing a Career Ladder-Writing a Career Ladder
- core values for, Creating Your Culture-Applying Core Values
- cross-functional teams, structuring, Cross-Functional Teams-Structuring Cross-Functional Teams
- cultural policy, setting, Creating Cultural Policy-Creating Cultural Policy
- culture for, defining and establishing, Bootstrapping Culture-Bootstrapping Culture, Creating Your Culture-Creating Your Culture
- engineering processes, developing, Developing Engineering Processes-Architecture Review
- manager’s role in, Assessing Your Role-Assessing Your Role
Stone of Triumph, Software developer and team leader
strategies
- business roadmap, Challenging Situations: Roadmap Uncertainty-Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty
- product roadmap, Look into the Future, Manager Accountability, Challenging Situations: Roadmap Uncertainty-Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty
- technology strategy, Setting the Strategy-Consider Your Board’s Communication Style
structure, importance of, Bootstrapping Culture-Bootstrapping Culture

T

Talking with Tech Leads (Kua), Tech Lead
team management
- assessing your abilities at, Assessing Your Own Experience-Assessing Your Own Experience
- coding, amount of, Managing a Team, Staying Technical-Staying Technical, Collaboration Problems
- conflict management, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Conflict Avoider, Conflict Tamer-The Dos and Don’ts of Managing Conflict
- data-driven culture for, Create a Data-Driven Team Culture
- description of, Managing a Team-Managing a Team
- dysfunctional teams, fixing, Debugging Dysfunctional Teams: The Basics-Collaboration Problems, Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers-The Employee Who Lacks Respect
- of more senior team members, Managing a Team-Managing a Team
- multiple teams (see multiple-team management)
- new, getting up to speed, Be selective about what you bring to the team to estimate
- shielding the team, The Shield-The Shield
- technical skills, maintaining, Staying Technical-Staying Technical
team players, Be a Team Player, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player
teams
- cohesion of, Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers-Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player-Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player, Check the Team Dynamics
- conflicts, managing, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Conflict Avoider, Conflict Tamer-The Dos and Don’ts of Managing Conflict
- dysfunctional, fixing, Debugging Dysfunctional Teams: The Basics-Collaboration Problems, Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers-The Employee Who Lacks Respect, Debugging Dysfunctional Organizations-Be Curious
- former peers in, Collaboration Problems-Collaboration Problems
- monitoring health of, Technical Elements Beyond Code-Frequency of Incidents
- observing, Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback, Observe the Team
- unhappy, warning signs of, Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team-Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team
tech leads
- assessing your abilities as, Managing a Project, Assessing Your Own Experience
- balancing roles of, All Great Tech Leads Know This One Weird Trick-All Great Tech Leads Know This One Weird Trick
- coding, amount of, Tech Lead, Software developer and team leader, Software developer and team leader, Staying Technical-Staying Technical
- communication skills of, Communicate
- effective, characteristics of, Tech Lead-Tech Lead, How to Be a Great Tech Lead-Communicate
- noncommunicators as, Tech Lead
- not taking responsibility, Don’t Prevaricate-Don’t Prevaricate, Manager Accountability
- process czars as, Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Process Czar-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Process Czar
- project management, Project planner, Managing Projects-Managing a Project
- responsibilities of, Tech Lead-Tech Lead, Being a Tech Lead 101-Software developer and team leader
- technical decisions, making, Lead Technical Decisions
technical investments, overseeing, Oversee Technical Investment-Make Specific Requests
technical skills
- maintaining while managing managers, Staying Technically Relevant-Use Your Experience as a Gut Check
- maintaining while managing teams, Staying Technical-Staying Technical
- mentoring for, Technical or Career Mentoring-Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek
- micromanaging with, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator
technical track, compared to management track, Decision Point: Stay on the Technical Track or Become a Manager-Real Life of a Manager
technology strategy, setting, Setting the Strategy-Consider Your Board’s Communication Style
30/60/90-day plan, Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan
360 model for performance reviews, Performance Reviews
time management, Managing Your Time: What’s Important, Anyway?-Managing Your Time: What’s Important, Anyway?
training, Training and Career Growth-Training and Career Growth
- (see also career growth)
True North principles, True North-True North
trust, building, One-on-One Meetings-One-on-One Meetings, Build Trust and Rapport-Build Trust and Rapport, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator, Treat the Open Sharing of Information, Good or Bad, in a Neutral to Positive Way, Senior Peers in Other Functions-Senior Peers in Other Functions
Turn the Ship Around! (Marquet), Recommended Reading
The Tyranny of Structurelessness (Freeman), Bootstrapping Culture

U

us versus them mentality, Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player-Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player

V

VP of Engineering
- responsibilities of, What’s a VP of Engineering?-What’s a VP of Engineering?
- working toward, What’s a CTO?-What’s a CTO?

W

website resources (see online resources)
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (Goldsmith and Reiter), Recommended Reading