A special episode of this podcast.

Like many of you, during the tech downturn of the last 2 years, I've been trying to understand the real data beyond anecdotes and bold news headlines, on questions like:

• What does the tech industry look like now?
• How exactly have organizations and their priorities changed?
• What impact and influence do AI actually have, beyond the hype?
• And what is it like to be, become, and interview to work as a leader in this changed environment?

I'm happy to share the data with you today in this episode: In The Engineering Leadership Report 2024, which I'm publishing in collaboration with tech events & publishing company LeadDev.

Join me for this conversation with LeadDev's editor-in-chief Scott Carey, an experienced tech journalist. Together, we ran a survey and heard from over 1,100 engineering leaders on:

• Leading in organisations: How companies changed, what they prioritise

• Being and becoming a leader in 2024: The impact of those changes on leaders, interviewing, and roles & time spend

• Industry trends and outlooks: What engineering leaders are excited & concerned about, and the influence of AI

Note: This podcast goes live while Scott and I present a talk version of our conversation at LeadDev London - this is for everyone of you who can't be in person with us.

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Download the full report at ⁠bit.ly/engleadershipreport⁠.

Full episode transcript.

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We want to hear from you! Email us with feedback, questions, or topic ideas; I can't promise we can always respond, but I can promise we read and care about every email! At pod@lenareinhard.com.

What should engineering leadership roles look like, and how "technical" should managers be? What's been a hotly-debated topic in tech for decades has gotten very real, very often for my guest today—because he’s always been a bit of an outlier:

My guest Jay has been an engineering leader for over a decade, has led teams of many different shapes, sizes, and disciplines all throughout the industry. And, unlike the more common path of transitioning from software engineer to management, he wasn’t an engineer before becoming a manager. In an industry that highly values "technical skills" and where there's low consensus on what skills make a good manager, he grapples with finding his place, having an impact, and how to grow his career onward.

We talk about:

• What does it mean to be "technical" as an engineering manager? How important is it?
• What makes a good manager and leader? What makes them successful?
• How are companies thinking about great engineering leadership? How's this been changing in the last years?
• Learning and teaching management skills
• Hiring and interviewing for management roles, and what companies can improve
• After our conversation, I share my perspective on what leadership roles in tech look like, and advice for any other leaders grappling with the tech industry changes and wondering what makes a good leader for their company

Links:

• Full Episode transcript
• What should engineering manager & Leadership roles look like in 2024?

This is part two of our mini series about different shapes of leadership - in the ⁠⁠last episode⁠⁠, I spoke to an experienced tech lead with a more traditional career from engineer, to tech lead, to technical lead of leads.

Thank you for joining me on Leadership Confidential.

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About this podcast & your host:

⁠⁠Lena Reinhard⁠⁠ (she/her, they/them) makes this podcast as a space for honest conversations about the hard parts of leadership that most leaders only dare to talk about behind closed doors—after all, we're supposed to be “in charge”, and “on top of things" at all times. But topics like struggling with self-confidence, imposter syndrome, growing your skills with little support, or dealing with a micromanaging boss are more common than you may think—and this is where we talk about them.

Lena is a VP Engineering, leadership coach, mentor, and organizational developer, and writer. Having served as an engineering executive with companies like CircleCI and Travis CI, and as a SaaS startup co-founder & CEO, Lena has dedicated her career to helping organizations from startups to corporations and NGOs succeed in times of high change and challenging markets.

How “technical” should an engineering manager be? And what do different paths into engineering leadership look like?—These questions have been the topic of hot debate in tech for a very long time, even more now as the industry is going through big changes with layoffs and strategy shifts.

That’s why we’re starting this podcast with a two-episode series about different shapes of leadership roles:

You’ll hear from two leaders who both have over 20 years experience, but had very different paths into the technology space and have very different roles now.

In this episode, you hear from Max, who shares his path from engineer to technical lead of leads. We talk about:

• The relevance of fruit baskets: Max’ career from a computer science graduate in the early 2000’s, to getting into his first informal, then first formal lead role

• New skills to learn, new fears to face: How he adapted to his new roles, changed his approach from direct involvement to empowering his teams, and how he dealt with the emotional and practical aspects of ~leadership~.

• Knowing if you’re doing your job well, a.k.a. “When You Do Things Right, People Won’t Be Sure You’ve Done Anything at All.” (Futurama)

• Guidance for Aspiring & New Leaders: Practical advice for everyone in technical roles considering or new to a leadership path.

Find the full transcript for this episode on the podcast website.

Additional resources:

• LeadDev Engineering Leadership Survey: How exactly have tech leadership roles changed? Spend 5-10 minutes sharing your experiences anonymously, and help create more clarity for the engineering leadership community. The survey is still open until Apr 12, 2024.

• How to work with your peer leaders as a “first team” and why it matters

• StaffEng - reports from staff+ engineers in different companies about the different shapes of the role

• Book: Tanya Reilly, The Staff Engineer’s Path

• Book: Will Larson, Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond The Management Track

Hear more about different shapes of leadership roles and paths next week, from an engineering manager who moved into this role without prior engineering experience.

Thank you for joining me on Leadership Confidential.