tl;dr:“The global maxima is the point at which we are at our most skilled, our most impactful, and the most satisfied. The global maxima may not even be a role, but a state of being where everything comes together: life, work, compensation, contribution, and happiness. Try restarting your career conversations with your direct reports by asking them what this global maxima is for them.” James shares some primer questions.
tl;dr:The disappointment frontier is the void formed from the mismatch between your team and reality. “Overcommunication, transparency, and a clear delineation between what you can and can't control will help you navigate the disappointment frontier bridging your team's world and the external reality. It's not your job to create a perfect utopia for your team. Instead, it's your job to help them successfully navigate reality with you as their guide.”
tl;dr:“Performance review season always gets people thinking: where am I going? Where do I want to be next year? Why haven't I managed to get that promotion this time around? What's the point of all of this anyway?” James discusses the patterns he commonly sees in reports and how being transfixed on a single goal can do more harm than good.
tl;dr:A good performance management system includes: (1) Clear definitions of performance expectations for each role. (2) Regular performance review processes - self-assessment, manager assessment, peer feedback. (3) Calibration to ensure fairness and consistency across the organization. (4) Performance Improvement Plan process for underperforming employees. (5) Compensation process tied to performance outcomes. James discusses how this generates a power curve over time.
tl;dr:“When you are asking people to do something, lead with a recommendation of when it should be done by. Be explicit about this, but open to negotiation. It's such a simple technique, but when you compound its usage over a year at a big company, you will be amazed at the difference it makes.” Parkinson's Law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion" and, by setting aggressive deadlines, James discusses how leaders can leverage it.
tl;dr:The initial signs of trouble in an organization are not at the center where engineering or management are situated, but at the edges. This is because people at the edges are the most exposed to the outside world i.e. where bad reviews are posted, where customers ask for help, and where social media complaints about unacceptable bugs are posted. As you become more senior in an organization, it is easy to become isolated from the outside world. James explains how to tackle this.
tl;dr:Trifectas are a group of three people from different disciplines i.e. engineering, product and UX, who work together to achieve a goal. They are often smaller teams lower down the org. James advocates and explains how and why trifectas should exist throughout the org - in senior leadership and middle management too. They ensure that the leadership team is aligned with the long-term strategy of the organization, allows for clear accountability, creates positive tension between disciplines and enables issues to be resolved quickly.
tl;dr:James proposes a principle called "the Reporting to Peter Principle:" you will rise to a point where you will experience extreme internal conflict with the way that your manager does their job. This will manifest as disappointment, frustration, and a feeling that you should be doing their role instead of them. This represents a key inflection point in your own development as a senior leader and presents you with two choices, which James outlines.
tl;dr:"The default outlook for middle management is to look up and down the org chart, but not sideways. Because you are so focused on your own team and your own manager, you often forget that you have a peer group at all! That is, until you need something from them. At this point, the underinvestment in your peer group becomes apparent: you have limited rapport and trust with them, and an ask to transfer some of your engineering capacity to them is met with hot flushes and heavy and furious typing." James prompts us to think about these peers, and how we can approach building relationships with them.
tl;dr:"The pertinent question is whether you should manage senior managers and senior ICs differently. After all, they have different roles and responsibilities, and so it would be natural to assume the way that you manage a Staff Engineer would be different than the way that you manage an Engineering Manager. Right? Nope, that assumption would also be wrong. Sorry. You don't need special approaches for managing both roles. In fact, you can apply the same strategy to both, and not only does this simplify your approach, it actually encourages the best behaviors from both roles." James discusses his approach.