Do you do this with your team?

Here’s what’s in today’s edition of The Technical Leader:

??Measuring Progress to Increase Personal and Team Motivation

??Upcoming Tech Leader Topics

Ever feel like a hamster in a wheel when you’re working through a never ending to-do list?

I know I have at earlier points in my startup journey… and I noticed that it was causing some major motivation problems (lack of motivation I should say)…

As humans, we default to solving problems.

Many of us keep working, solving problems, etc. but still feel like we’re not progressing.

Which often ends up creating a lack of motivation with yourself or your team (or both).

When we work through our “to-do” list, working towards getting stuff done and fixing problems, we usually don’t reflect on what we’ve accomplished.

When you’re down in the weeds, it can be hard to measure progress towards your mission and it can feel like a grind.

So how can you measure progress (other than tracking KPIs) to increase motivation across a team?

What we’ve implemented in Tech Leaders, is once a week, we reflect back to a week, a month, 6 months, and see how far we’ve come.

I’m not talking about retrospectives or post-mortems when you reflect on just a single project.

This is more about appreciating the small wins along the way to your overall mission, and the changes in belief or direction that can be harder to see when you’re zoomed in on the day-to-day grind.

Sometimes it helps to do this more than just once a week.

Any time you feel discouraged or lack motivation, think about all of the stuff you’ve done and accomplished recently.

Think about the number of iterations of code you and your team have gone through and how efficient your newest iteration is compared to your first.

As a tech lead, it’s your responsibility to create the culture within your team and appreciating progress is a big part of that.

Boost morale with yourself and your team by helping others see how far they’re progressing individually too.

But it all starts with recognizing your own personal growth as a tech lead so you can increase motivation for yourself, then help your team to recognize their progression.

Upcoming Tech Leader Program Sessions

Curious about our mastermind program? Click here to join us as a guest for an upcoming session at no cost.

The Tech Leader Program

This program is designed to help highly skilled technical people lean into their non-tech skills like leadership, business sense (like how to grow your own business), and technical prowess (like which tools, libraries, and programming patterns are best).

It’s a paid program for $2,950 for 6 months (with payment plans if needed).

You get access to:

? Training videos and non-technical frameworks for solving “people problems”

? Live mastermind sessions with leadership coaches and other like-minded people

? A Slack community for additional help and networking.

? When you join, you get a 1 on 1 session with Stephen Bates to develop a plan for you to reach whatever your next goal is.

This is a community where you can learn, get a sounding board from each other, and benefit from expanding our networks to create more opportunities.

If you’re ready to take your career to the next level, book a call.

— Todd Larsen & Stephen Bates