No more Theatre: How I embraced failure as an Engineering Leader

My secret recipe for huge and immediate impact on delivery speeds that I've been sharing with my best coaching clients. It brings out the best in them, helping their teams enjoy work once again.

A handful of years into my career I was bluntly told my technical skill was sufficient but needed to work on my presence as a leader. This feedback didn’t land with me at first. It was information I didn’t know how to process or work with.

At the time I derived my confidence and self-esteem from knowing things and showing understanding.

Technical mastery was a game I knew how to play very well. I was always really good at it. But technical mastery alone didn’t improve my team’s fulfilment, joy or delivery speeds. There was more to learn 💡

I went from being a clumsy, shy team lead who couldn’t make eye contact to a manager and now coach capable of bringing out the best in people. The learning journey was quite hectic for me personally.

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This article is an essay in helping you reframe what your role as an engineering leader is and what it could be.

• Why does the team need a leader at all?

• Continuous Delivery without Project Management Theatre

• Deal with what’s in front of you

I treated all problem-solving academically to begin with: closed, private and only sharing findings when they spoke of success.

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In hindsight, it is as obvious to me as it is to you that what I resisted was failure. Particularly talking and sharing our failures. To present them as learning opportunities without the fear of reprisal or judgement.

What inspired me to become a coach rather than pursue a career in FAANG was to help engineering leaders who face this same conundrum on a larger scale. It only dawned on me later that the principles I was replacing our company rituals with were the originally intended continuous delivery and agility practices.

Let’s dive in.

Why does the team need a leader at all?

Teams are slippery. It is trivial to create illusions of control and stability. Only to be reminded of the human elements that show the surprising aspects of working with feeling, loving, creative team members.

The temptation for the leader to micromanage is strong. It certainly creates stability. But that is an illusion, undermined by the environment of low psychological safety it brings.

It is the Leader’s power and obligation to set boundaries for the team.

• What is the mission?

• What does it take to be part of the team?

• What are the team’s values?

• What is expected of members?

The rubber hits the road when reality kicks in and the every day activities don’t quite match the bold statements written on the wall and internal memos.

On the members’ side the temptation to externalise issues and blame is the kryptonite that disbands even the most technically adept teams. It is also the challenge that shapes the best teams should you surmount this obstacle.

It is the Leader’s duty to emphasise which failures are worth learning from and to reframe issues as learning opportunities and challenges.

The title of team lead, tech lead or engineering manager is not necessary. In smaller orgs this responsibility is shared between the formal leader, usually CTO and an informal tech lead. The titles change. They are not important. But they can help. This is an aspect of wider organizational maturity that we shall not go into today.

Instead, let us focus on the aspects of a great leader.

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Continuous Delivery without Project Management Theatre

All engineering leaders who reach out to me for coaching—and I don’t say this lightly, all of them—follow a book. It might be the scrum book. It might be EM guidebook. SAFe. Agile. Certifications.

They might not have read it entirely. They may not fully agree with it. But they carry a very strong set of assumptions.

Ultimately you all want the same thing.

• Deliver faster while reducing stress

• Create a joyful and fun environment while also being profitable

• Help team members grow while dealing with your own impostor

During coaching, week one for every new client is…