Multi-Project Management | Global Software Engineering Team Leadership | Agile Development
As a Manager, don't just focus on hiring for technical skills to solve immediate problems. Approach team-building like constructing a house: start with a strong foundation. Your initial hires should be well-rounded, possessing both technical know-how and essential soft skills like communication and teamwork. This balanced approach will make your team easier to manage, more adaptable, and better prepared for future challenges.
Director of Cloud at Namecheap | 🤓 Author of The Hybrid Hacker (30k+ Subscribers), a newsletter about Engineering, Leadership, Career Growth and Productivity
As a first-time Engineering Manager, one of your primary duties is to hire great people. Especially if you were an outstanding engineer who just transitioned into the manager role, it's easy to focus on seeking technical talents to address the specific challenges of the moment. As your team begins to scale, more technical talents join to solve more problems. But at some point, you realize these talents: - 🤯 Are hard to manage - 🔍 Are specialized in specific areas and either don't know or don't like the rest - 🥊 Are competing with each other - 🤐 Communicate poorly What went wrong? You focused on solving immediate technical problems without thinking about the bigger picture. Been there, done that. When you start building your team, approach it as if you were building a house. The foundations of the team are the most important. To establish strong foundations, you should hire people who: - 🗣️ Have excellent communication skills - 🎯 Are responsible and take ownership of their tasks - 🌱 Can become good mentors for others - 💓 Possess empathy - 🤝 Are team players, not difficult individuals - 📝 Appreciate the importance of documentation (believe me, this is invaluable) - 💡 Have good (excellent isn't necessary) technical knowledge in various areas Once you've hired two or three of these individuals, your team will be future-proof. You can then consider hiring technical talents for specific problems or areas, always keeping an eye on their soft skills. #hiring #management #leadership #talents #softskills --- 🔔 Want to see more posts like that? Follow me here → Nicola Ballotta ♻️ Found it useful? Please repost! 🤓 Consider subscribing The Hybrid Hacker newsletter, you can find the link in my bio.
