Baby steps into Leadership
Behaviours of budding leaders
Leadership, whether through leading projects, or in actually leading people is expected in software engineering roles. However, in the absence of guidance on what leadership means, it could be frustrating to find out what you are missing. In this post I talk about what leadership looks like at junior levels (<5 years of experience) in software engineering. I intend this as a guide for engineers to develop leadership attributes, and for managers to identify and coach budding leaders.
For each leadership attribute below, we will first look at the mindset behind it. This mindset is a core belief that remains unchanged across levels of leadership. We will then discuss which behaviours driven by this mindset that are shown by budding leaders.
#1: Leaders bring ideas
Mindset
To lead, one first needs to know where they are going.
While it is necessary in any technical domain to know “how” to build something, the first sign of a pivot to leadership is having an opinion on “what” to build. What at senior levels of leadership becomes a “vision for the future” starts as small ideas about how to improve things.
Behaviours
- Budding leaders differentiate themselves by developing either a deep technical knowledge, or a deep understanding of user needs. Both of these help them generate ideas, start projects and create a space for themselves to lead.
- Much before they start to influence what their team or organisation does, leaders start to influence their own work. They generate and vouch for ideas they want to work on. Influencing what they work on, instead of just implementing others’ ideas is a key pivot into leadership.
#2: Leaders assume broad responsibility
Mindset
Leaders are results oriented. They care so deeply about the overall end result that they aren’t satisfied with delivering just their part. Instead, leaders get involved and assume responsibility of any area that needs help.
Behaviours
In addition to their assigned responsibilities, budding software engineering leaders:
- are often found working in the space where two software components (e.g. client and server), or teams interface. This space often does not have well defined responsibilities, and leaders step up to fill the gap.
- build a mental model of how the whole system works. This equips them with the knowledge necessary to root cause issues, especially when they lie outside of their defined scope.
#3: Leaders delegate, with empathy
Mindset
Leaders understand that meaningful results are achieved not by individuals, but by teams. While strong engineers usually have high personal throughput, it is the realisation that they cannot do everything, and the understanding of which parts to delegate that sets budding leaders apart. Delegation often starts as a necessity. Budding leaders need to delegate parts of projects to make space for the broader responsibility they assume.
Delegation could be tricky, especially for budding leaders who don’t have formal authority. Use this as a compass to guide your decisions: When done right, delegation creates a win-win scenario. It frees up space and time for the delegator, and creates a growth opportunity for the delegatee.
Behaviours
- Budding leaders build good rapport with their team and are often already seen as “mentors” by other engineers. This trust that their team places in them gives them informal authority, which they leverage to delegate effectively.
Summary
To build leadership muscle:
- Develop deep knowledge and use it to generate ideas
- Vouch for ideas and influence your team’s plans
- Hold yourself accountable not just for personal deliverables, but for the success of the wider effort
- Build rapport and delegate parts that are beneficial to other team members.
