As an engineering manager at, it is one’s aspiration to kindle enthusiasm and motivation within your team, fostering a sense of inspiration in their daily tasks. The ultimate goal is to ensure engineers consistently excel in their performance, delivering top-notch results.
However, if you observe that your team is grappling with disengagement and a lack of motivation, this could serve as a clear indicator that it’s time to explore new management techniques aimed at propelling your team towards peak performance. In this article, we will explore 3 key strategies for managing a successful engineering team.
1. Evaluating Performance
A fundamental aspect of cultivating a high-performing team involves the measurement of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Without a clear way to gauge the impact of your initiatives, it’s challenging to determine the effectiveness of the changes you implement.
KPI metrics can be categorised into two main types:
- Qualitative Metrics
- Quantitative Metrics
An example of a qualitative metric is 360° feedback, which can help identify underperforming engineers and guide appropriate action, such as reassignment to different teams or collaboration with more experienced team members.
Quantitative metrics, on the other hand, encompass measures like cycle time and team velocity. For instance, cycle time tracks the duration the team dedicates to specific tasks, while team velocity quantifies the amount of work completed during a sprint. These quantitative metrics can be easily monitored over time so you can implement the right changes to bring increase productivity to your team.
2. Fostering Psychological Safety
Psychological safety in the workplace entails creating an environment where team members feel comfortable being vulnerable in front of one another at Hale Engineering we have adopted this environment and it as helped the team in productivity. Studies reveal that teams with higher psychological safety:
- Exhibit enhanced effectiveness.
- Contribute more to revenue.
- Display higher employee retention rates.
- Harness the power of diverse ideas from team members.
Improving psychological safety within your team can be achieved through various strategies:
- Demonstrating Vulnerability: Share personal stories about work-related mistakes and their impact on your mood. By revealing vulnerability as a leader, you signal that making errors is acceptable.
- Encouraging Questions: Initiate meetings with icebreaker questions to foster a relaxed and safe environment, promoting open communication.
- Embracing Healthy Conflict: Communicate that differing opinions are welcome and encourage team members to voice their concerns when they have doubts or questions.
- Conducting Regular One-on-Ones: One-on-one meetings provide a platform to discuss projects, review performance, address challenges, and facilitate better collaboration.
3. Enhancing Connection, Communication, and Collaboration
As individuals, our innate desire is to establish connections with the people around us. In a traditional office setting, we rely on subtle cues like body language to foster these connections, but the dynamics change when we transition to remote work.
However, maintaining a sense of connection is pivotal for building trust, and leaders must actively nurture this trust to optimise their team’s performance.
The good news is that remote teams can still foster genuine human connections thanks to the availability of tools like Zoom, which bridge geographical gaps and enable idea exchange. Zoom coffee chats and informal meetups, such as virtual pairings, are effective strategies for fostering personal connections.
Effective communication plays a vital role in conveying the team’s purpose and mission, boosting motivation. Without a shared sense of purpose, team members may not operate at their full potential. A collective understanding of how their individual contributions align with broader business goals strengthens team cohesion.
Collaboration emerges as a powerful means for relationship-building among distributed teams, fostering an environment of shared learning. For example, collaborative activities like pair programming not only facilitate bonding among teammates but also prevent the accumulation of isolated knowledge. Additionally, these collaborative efforts serve as valuable tools for onboarding new engineers.
One-on-one meetings between managers and team members are a strategic approach to ensure that expectations are well-understood throughout the team. To prevent misinformation and misunderstandings, maintaining accessible shared document repositories is essential. Encouraging team members to contribute and update these shared documents helps maintain a transparent and accurate knowledge base.
In conclusion, as an engineering manager, your primary mission is to ignite passion and motivation within your remote tech team, propelling them toward excellence and exceptional performance. When you detect signs of disengagement and fading motivation, it’s a clear signal to explore innovative management techniques. Throughout this article, we have delved into three pivotal strategies for effectively managing an engineering team. Firstly, evaluating performance through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is essential, providing you with valuable insights from both qualitative and quantitative metrics. Second, fostering psychological safety fosters enhanced effectiveness, revenue contributions, and employee retention. Lastly, emphasising connection, communication, and collaboration is crucial for maintaining trust and optimizing team performance in a remote work setting. By implementing these strategies, you can cultivate a team that consistently delivers exceptional results and thrives, even in the dynamic tech landscape, ensuring success and fulfillment for both you and your team.
By Andy Hale MIT
Director/Engineer at Hale Engineering
Inspiration from: https://adevait.com/blog/workplace/building-managing-engineering-team
