Random thoughts / lessons learned from a tech lead / people manager

Retrospectives are all they are hyped up to be. Reflect back on the team's performance / accomplishments regularly (monthly; set a calendar event/reminder), as it's all too easy to just continually focus on the next thing and never remembering to cherish all the good that has been done.

Retrospect with each team member on a regular cadence (e.g. quarterly; again, use your calendar), revisiting goals set in the past. This will help both of you to realize what has been done - and that needs to be celebrated! - and what has slipped between the cracks.

Collect accomplishments on each team members and the team as a whole. I have a separate file for each of my engineers, summarizing their next/immediate goals and their individual achievements. As I notice them doing something good, I jot down the date, their action and some context and then bring that up both in our weekly check-in and also in our regular 1-1. 


When you've delegated something (e.g. facilitation of a meeting), reach out immediately afterwards and collect feedback from the other members. This will give you a great indication on how things were perceived and will help your team member grow as you deliver the feedback in your next catch-up.


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