Help! I just became an Engineering Manager
If you recently transitioned from an engineering role to a people manager, you may be struggling with the psychological shift that comes with pivoting your focus from computer science to people science. Even if you’ve managed the move so far with ease, mastering a few key techniques and foundational skills can ensure you feel more prepared and confident leading your technical team. In this full-day workshop, you will learn how to successfully navigate the complexities of Engineering Management as we complete interactive activities and coursework covering topics including:
- (1 hour) Purposeful leadership - gain self awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses of a technical leader through 2 interactive activities
- (1 hour) Time management - discover techniques to effectively prioritize your time to ensure you are focusing on the things that matter
- (1 hour) Social styles - discover your own social style to understand how your actions and decisions might be perceived by others, and learn more about the social styles of those you work with and lead
- (30 minutes) 1:1s - practice facilitating straightforward, productive, and enjoyable one-on-one conversations
- (1 hour) Giving feedback - learn and practice a high level approach to giving effective and actionable feedback
- (30 minutes) Career conversations - discover ways to empower team members to ensure they reach (and surpass) their full potential
- (1 hour) Diversity & inclusion - learn about the importance and practice strategies for fostering diverse and inclusive software engineering teams
- (30 minutes) Recruiting, interviewing, & onboarding - learn tips and tricks to attract diverse candidates and build effective developer onboarding experiences with modern tools and frameworks
- (30 minutes) Relationships (politics) of management - learn how to build and strengthen key relationships to help your team succeed
Interactive group exercises will help you practice these new ideas and techniques in a safe and engaging environment.
Virtual "breakout room" functionality has been a wonderful way to mimic the in-classroom group discussions and meaningful connections. After each breakout activity, the larger group can seamlessly come back together to discuss and recap the topics.
You will leave with new perspectives on Engineering Management, as well as handouts and plenty of resources to grow and further develop skills in your daily work.
This course is for you if you are:
- Already formally/informally leading people
- Seeking a future leadership role
- Simply passionate about learning new approaches to technical leadership
Kate Wardin has always been passionate about the people side of software development. She is a currently a Senior Engineering Manager at Target Corporation in Minneapolis, MN. Outside of her day job, she helps organizations around the world build strong Engineering teams which starts with developing confident, purposeful and inspiring leaders.