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Three (!) updates:
I’m no longer appending my newsletters with lesson numbers. I’ll be going back through and removing the earlier ones as well. It’s cleaner this way.
The first cohort for my course, Building Influence for Engineers & EMs, was a huge success! Cohort 2 is now available for registration and will run from 12-2 PM ET April 2-4. You can learn more here and sign up here.
I’m raising $5,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital while training for my first marathon (2024 Bank of America Chicago Marathon in October). I have less than $500 to go! Support my fundraiser here.
Navigating through failure
Navigating through failure is an inevitable part of the journey for any engineering leader. Maybe you missed the mark or maybe your team did; to be honest, it really doesn’t matter where the failure occurred. No one individual will ever have a perfect track record.
So if you know you’re going to mess up at some point, what should you do? Your energy should of course be partially spent on preventing mistakes before they occur, but where I see leaders thrive or fall apart is how they react in the face of failure. It's not just about the setbacks themselves, but how you rebound from them that can set leaders apart. Let’s talk through a few things I recommend doing.
Embrace the fact that failure’s going to happen and treat it as a learning opportunity. This goes for both you and your team. First off, accept that failure is not the opposite of success; it's a part of it. In a fast-paced tech world, not every project or initiative will pan out as expected. We all know how difficult it is to capture every possible item within a scope of work and to properly estimate it. What matters is how these moments are utilized to foster a culture of innovation and resilience. Acknowledge the failure, dissect it without assigning blame, and focus on the learnings it provides.
Foster a safe environment for taking risks. As a leader, your reaction to failure sets the tone for your team. If you treat setbacks with a sense of curiosity rather than frustration, you encourage a culture where team members feel safe to take calculated risks. I’ve seen some leaders who are either far too quick to blame for a situation that occurred, or if they’re the ones who messed up, they will avoid talking about it altogether. When your team knows that failure won't lead to punitive measures, they're more likely to think outside the box and contribute groundbreaking ideas.
Lead by example. Demonstrate resilience. Share your own experiences with failure, what you learned, and how you bounced back. This not only humanizes you but also reinforces the message that it's okay to fail as long as you learn from it and move forward. Your team will respect and respond to this transparency, fostering a closer, more communicative group dynamic.
Focus on solutions, not blame. When a project doesn't go as planned, it's easy to fall into the blame game. Do whatever you can to resist this. Shift the conversation from who is at fault to what can be learned. It’s okay to pick apart a project and break down the actual chain of events that occurred. When I have to go through this exercise with my team, I often preface these conversations with the fact that we’re looking for opportunities to improve our processes. Is there something I can do better as their manager to ensure a project stays on track? Encourage your team to come up with a post-mortem analysis that focuses on insights and future strategies. This approach not only aids in personal and team growth but also helps in quickly pivoting to the next possible solution.
Apply your learnings and your next moves carefully. Once the lessons have been learned, follow through on these lessons. If you identified process changes, actually enact them. Otherwise the lesson you’re working through with your team is purely lip service and they’re going to notice nothing has changed. Adjust your goals or rethink your approach. Test it out and see what works as a leader and team.
Navigating through failure as an engineering leader isn't about avoiding setbacks; it’s about learning how to leverage them for growth. Failure sucks. None of us like messing up. When this occurs, it’s your chance to really step up as a leader and help your team through the next steps.
What I’m reading
I honestly haven’t been reading much. Mostly Throne of Glass. I need to get back to it, but it’s always hard for me to read business and leadership books while traveling.
Check out the full book list for recommendations and an ever-growing reading list. This is due for an update - I’ll be doing that soon!
Note: Links to books in this section are affiliate links to help support the purchase of the rest of my books :)
What I’m working on
Still in policy hell, but at least I’m working on it while traveling. Leaving London today for Madrid for the next week!
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This reminds me a lot of the blameless post mortems we do at Yelp! Everybody brings the site down eventually, it's not about which individual caused harm, but what can the team learn!
In your experience, what are the right questions to ask after a failure?