The New Managers Guide to Leadership Success (Part 2): Communication and Collaboration

This is the second part in a five part series where I create a guide for new engineering managers. To read the first part go here.

When I first became an engineering manager, it was a couple of months into the COVID pandemic. Once working full-time in an office, we were now working full-time remotely.

There was worry, uncertainty and confusion amongst everyone. I was forced to learn communication the hard way, early in my management career. I made mistakes, and as always with management the people affected was the engineers and people I was meant to be leading.

A Critical Role

You cannot have a high-performing team without deep-rooted communication and wilful collaboration.

It’s the superpower of potential team disruption. It gets everyone on the same page, reduces misunderstandings, aligns the team and gets stakeholders bought in.

The impact is not limited to team cohesion and the individuals. It has a correlation on projects. Communication and collaboration help manage expectations, increase efficiency (therefore delivery) and reduces unwanted surprises (this is impossible to truly eradicate).

It’s Not Just Telling People Stuff

Communication is not just telling someone something. What matters is the message that was received more than the words delivered.

You need to check for understanding so that what you thought communicated is actually received by the listener.

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