How to become a Business Leader in Software Engineering??

Over the years I have seen some Engineers becoming very successful in managing large teams and others – who are equally competent – unable to make the transition. What is it that makes two people, with similar skills and competencies, attain different results??In this article, I have tried to capture some of those observations gleaned over the years. In addition, partnering with HR, we have also attempted to upskill our Engineers in some of these areas. I know many young Engineers would love to have someone help them navigate their career. This requires an enlightened HR leader’s support. Fortunately, we have a great partnership with our HR team and with their support we have accomplished some small wins which I would like to share with you all.??

A leader leads, a boss drives?

A team’s growth is conditioned by their leader. A true leader empowers the team by creating a culture that fosters skill development. With timely feedback they turn the mistakes committed into opportunities of learning.?

Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head

As an organization we have always invested in enabling Napierites to boost their skillsets. To this end we created a transition plan for our individual contributors to ensure success in leading their teams. In this transition program, which lasted three months, these Napierites attended multiple sessions on leadership and team management. As they progressed through the trainings, they learned and introspected and later created action plans on their identified areas of improvements. There was a continuous feedback cycle throughout to assess the progress of each individual. ?

As they later presented their learnings and the areas where they would want to improve,? some common themes emerged:??

1. How do I create a one-on-one connect with my team in a remote / hybrid work environment??
2. How do I give feedback to my team and what should be the frequency??
3. How do I enable to my team to learn and grow??
4. How do I ensure the team members have clarity of their role’s expectations??
5. How do I hold my team accountable for deliveries and timelines??
6. How do I delegate instead of trying to do everything myself???

While there are no single approach or solution for above questions, we have certain guidelines in order to prepare our leaders to tackle them. With the assessments and progress, we were able to prove to ourselves that our leaders were indeed imbibing these qualities. Personally, it was a very satisfying moment to see these individuals making such progress in such a short time.?

Culture and “connects” matter?

One of the biggest changes that we observed are the one-on-one “connects”. The team-leads regularly connect with their team members on a weekly/fortnightly basis. This discussion includes a genuine inquiry about the team member’s general wellbeing, instead of being focused solely on work. With this personal touch we are trying to go away from the general IT industry trend where team members are considered as resources in a project...just a number so to speak and purely from a planning and tracking perspective. In fact, everyone who attended these training started referring to their team members as people, team, instead of just terming them as “resources”. ?

Extending the ladder of opportunity for everyone?

One positive outcome of this training was decentralized decision making. We are now empowering the next levels to step up and play the roles of scrum masters and involve them in strategic discussions relating to design and planning. This exposure is surely preparing them for the next level in their career. This is an important aspect of preparing the individual contributors for a leadership role.???

Key Performance Indicators are a “must have” for fairness, accountability and ownership. We believe in a performance driven organization and are ensuring that the team members get timely feedback. To assist this goal, we are building a culture of monthly self-review of KPIs by every team member which they must then discuss with their managers. The team members thus get timely feedback which helps them to measure their performance and chalk out a plan for focus areas in the near and far future. ?

Excellence is a habit?

We are witnessing increased team morale in a short span of time. Many team members are proactively upskilling themselves and participating in knowledge sharing sessions thereby improving their skills as well.??

About the Author : ?Prashantha Sawhney is the Head of Engineering at Napier Healthcare