As a manager, what helped your team to deliver more? Achieve leadership targets? Get you promoted? Changes in scrum, sprint? 1-1? How did you get your team to hit targets?
My team has delivered work the best when I’m extremely hands on and break things down into 2-3 day tasks and assign them directly. I think this is more because it helps them avoid ambiguity than anything else. Unfortunately the way promo works at google that’s not going to get anyone on the team promoted. I haven’t quite figured out how to get things done as well while letting L3s and L4s work independently just yet (but I have gotten some promoted) Maybe do the hands on thing until people proactively start working more independently?
Hands on management is always fastest but it requires more work from the manager. Hands off, and building independent teams, only works when you have the budget / headcount to support that strategy. Even then, the m1s will move things faster by being hands on.
@ google I like the idea of hands on approach until team becomes self sustaining. Do you break down tasks during sprint planning or scrum or offline continuously?
To get to M2, I need to see you grow high performing teams and not just ICs. Yes, this is dependent on scope and headcount as well. Promotion is just about business need as it is about ability.
I read the question more like driving things at M1 not as promo to M2 but might be wrong.
IC here, but can chime in what my manager did to create a high performing team: Find out people’s strengths and pair people working on projects correctly (e.g. pair a TL 6 with a 4 to keep things in check and let 4 handle independently), fight for the right scope and give people good ratings, give them clear promotion paths and build trust by actually caring about people, and being flexible. Get to know peoples strength and weaknesses (don’t put a new joiner with the guy who’s very strong technically but bad at communicating) Help people who are not a right fit, to find another team. Hire the right people (you need a combination of ambitious hard working and chill laid back folks, don’t be a stupid manager who hires the first person who’s interested)
Set targets and goals, explain importance for businesses and team and track regularly. Never micromanage and trust people to deliver.
Say you’re new to a team, how do you set achievable targets without much previous information?
Forgot, be empathetic and help unblock your team, work close with them. If they stretch you stretch too. Leading by example.