How do you identify and nurture potential leaders within your software engineering team? What signs do you look for, and how do you encourage your staff to develop into leaders?
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CEO in Software3 months ago
The first thing that comes to mind is increasingly putting them into internal and external customer-contact situations. That starts with attending and shadowing to co-running to being shadowed, then solo. The analogy is pilot training, where the people we serve are the different planes we want them to be able to fly safely. I've been surprised both by who's turned out to be an ace and who would have crashed if the instructor wasn't there to save them.Director of IT3 months ago
Identifying and nurturing potential leaders in a software engineering team involves observing key traits and fostering growth. Look for team members who take initiative, solve problems creatively, communicate effectively, collaborate well, and have a continuous learning mindset. These qualities often indicate leadership potential. I tend to find that if a team member can communicate well and can think outside the box in a strategic way, the rest falls into place.To nurture these individuals, I like to provide opportunities for them to lead projects, pair them with mentors, and offer leadership training. Regular, constructive feedback and recognition of their achievements are essential. I think it's important to encourage autonomy by allowing them to make decisions and take ownership of their work, building their confidence and accountability. I also think that growing leaders need to learn how to be strategic. So many engineers are accustom to looking at the day to day, or within a sprint, but it takes coaching to help them see a strategy that extends to a quarter, a year, or three years. I believe this is crucial to effective leadership.
VP of Engineering in Software3 months ago
The environment that we usually set to identify the rising starts is by providing them autonomy on making decisions and allowing them to execute up to some point on those. Usually the folks who can:- talk their mind and share their opinions with the reasoning behind it(not just "I think")
- provide alternative solution instead of challenging the ones presented
- who go on and invest their time and energy in researching some ideas in depth
- pick up the right idea(solving the right problem)
- and present their findings as a POC
- or take ownership to try it in existing projects(as it might fail)
rather than the ones who:
- are expecting validation every step of the way
- expecting guidance
- not assessing alternative solutions
are the ones who seem to have the right treats to start with.
Then comes the hard part: are they able to do this constantly and sustainable ? Are they able to project some of their key treats over more junior colleagues ? Are they able to "sell" their ideas and get larger teams onboard ?
All these questions will start with a maybe answer and is the place where we give them more responsibilities and where we are providing mentoring and supervision. And during this phase you realize some people are very comfortable being experts and leading engineers on solution design while others become leaders that will take larger management roles which will take them away from engineering.
1. Leadership Development program. Managers select high potential candidates who are invited to participate in the program. It lasts for 1 year and involves rotations, mentorships, group projects that emphasize getting work done through others, etc.
2. DEI groups provide multiple leadership opportunities in a safe and nuturing environment. People volunteer for this positions once every year. Leaders are provided with coaching, mentorship support and networking guidance. Sponsors highlight their accomplishments in various forums and provide them with additional leadership opportunities that sometimes translate into career advancement.
3. Managers are encouraged to work with their directs on development plans. When staff express a desire to lead, we typically encourage them to start with technical team leadership followed by leading multiple teams as tech leads and scrum masters. Success in these roles may result in additional leadership and career advancement.
Regardly of approach, we try to provide future leaders with mentorship, business acumen training, networking guidance and support and soft skills training in areas of communications, interpersonal dynamics, networking guidance, mentorship and advocay.