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Freestyle your leadership

Zbyszek Mockun
Zbyszek Mockun

It is a story of reorganizing line management and leadership in my teams. The motto of this change was We are all engineers. It describes a transformation that happened inside me, a shift from a narrow perspective (the Head of QA) to a wide scope of engineering (business, delivery, architecture, solution), and caused a move to the Engineering Manager role. What you will hear about: - How to kill silos? - How to assess your line manager? - How to empower line managers and - How to encourage employees to take responsibility for their development?

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Freestyle your leadership A story of reinvention
Agenda 1. Starting point 2. Restructure 3. Empower Line Managers 4. Summary
Starting point
Typical Line Management structure - Line Managers rarely work with mentees - Employee assessment based on gathered feedback as they do not work together - No frequent contacts / small talks, rather official bi-weekly meetings
Scaling up issues - Variety of Line Managers who are rather subjective - Head unable to challenge the assessment, as does not work in projects anymore - Line Managers not seen as leaders/mentors anymore - Siloses (we called them practices) concentrate on narrow specialization, not delivery - And each Practice believes to be the most important one
Ongoing change confuses Line Managers - Diversity makes the excel rules ineffective due to an increased number of exceptions during the assessment process - Career path not up to date as the company and business change constantly - Ongoing change turns annual objectives into a fiction
Delivery model issue - Practices over We are all engineers philosophy - Lack of equality on senior levels across practices
Restructure Let the change begin
Choose your leader rules - It is employees responsibility to 鍖nd a line manager - Look wide, even outside your practice (silos) - Choose someone who allows you to make another step in your career - It is ok to change line manager if it helps you to make that step
Choose your leader as a game changer - Majority of the seniors choose line managers outside of their practice to grow as engineers - QA picked by developers - Good managers (from the Heads perspective) were passed over - People need a leader not a parent - The 鍖rst step was taken to kill practices (siloses) - Alignment between practices (its not easier to be a senior anymore) - Long-term: QAs transform to leadership & engineering roles (Engineering Managers, Technical Leads, )
Empower Line Managers
Its all about employee happiness
All roads lead to Rome - Each engineer has a di鍖erent experience and needs, and requires a di鍖erent approach - Each Line Manager is free to choose their own Ways of Working with a mentee - No need for paperwork (annual objectives, appraisals, )
Employee assessment - Line Managers have a say in the assessment of each employee, not only their people - Assessment is carried out collectively by LMs from all practices - Common de鍖nition of grades (senior, ) - Far more objective assessment - Supporting the Engineering approach (T-Shape, M-Shape)
Summary People can take care of themselves And make smart decisions if you give them the freedom of choice
Freestyle your leadership

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Freestyle your leadership

  • 1. Freestyle your leadership A story of reinvention
  • 2. Agenda 1. Starting point 2. Restructure 3. Empower Line Managers 4. Summary
  • 4. Typical Line Management structure - Line Managers rarely work with mentees - Employee assessment based on gathered feedback as they do not work together - No frequent contacts / small talks, rather official bi-weekly meetings
  • 5. Scaling up issues - Variety of Line Managers who are rather subjective - Head unable to challenge the assessment, as does not work in projects anymore - Line Managers not seen as leaders/mentors anymore - Siloses (we called them practices) concentrate on narrow specialization, not delivery - And each Practice believes to be the most important one
  • 6. Ongoing change confuses Line Managers - Diversity makes the excel rules ineffective due to an increased number of exceptions during the assessment process - Career path not up to date as the company and business change constantly - Ongoing change turns annual objectives into a fiction
  • 7. Delivery model issue - Practices over We are all engineers philosophy - Lack of equality on senior levels across practices
  • 9. Choose your leader rules - It is employees responsibility to 鍖nd a line manager - Look wide, even outside your practice (silos) - Choose someone who allows you to make another step in your career - It is ok to change line manager if it helps you to make that step
  • 10. Choose your leader as a game changer - Majority of the seniors choose line managers outside of their practice to grow as engineers - QA picked by developers - Good managers (from the Heads perspective) were passed over - People need a leader not a parent - The 鍖rst step was taken to kill practices (siloses) - Alignment between practices (its not easier to be a senior anymore) - Long-term: QAs transform to leadership & engineering roles (Engineering Managers, Technical Leads, )
  • 12. Its all about employee happiness
  • 13. All roads lead to Rome - Each engineer has a di鍖erent experience and needs, and requires a di鍖erent approach - Each Line Manager is free to choose their own Ways of Working with a mentee - No need for paperwork (annual objectives, appraisals, )
  • 14. Employee assessment - Line Managers have a say in the assessment of each employee, not only their people - Assessment is carried out collectively by LMs from all practices - Common de鍖nition of grades (senior, ) - Far more objective assessment - Supporting the Engineering approach (T-Shape, M-Shape)
  • 15. Summary People can take care of themselves And make smart decisions if you give them the freedom of choice