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Power, Influence and Authority in Engineering Leadership - Dinosaur.js

Power, Influence and Authority in Engineering Leadership - Dinosaur.js

Leadership opportunities are available at all levels of an organization, but some are more evident or clearly defined than others. Helping an organization achieve its goals may require us to step up as engineering leaders. As individual contributors, we may be able to support our team in negotiating the scope of a feature, facilitating a meeting or looking into that part of our codebase everyone shies away from. How about improving processes, helping define the culture or even the career journey of an organization? Do we need to be managers to have explicit authority to be agents of change? Maybe ... or maybe not

This talk explores different challenges that engineering teams have through the lens of power, influence or authority from the perspective of engineers or managers. If you've ever wondered if you should step into management, this talk can give you some insight into the right tool or role needed to be an agent for positive change. After this talk, you should have a better idea of whether making the management career change can give you the tools you need to grow and help others in the process.

Juan Pablo Buriticá

June 21, 2018
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  1. Authority the power to influence others, especially because of one's

    commanding manner or one's recognized knowledge about something.
  2. Autonomy of an IC function individualContributor () { let authority

    = ['technical-domain'] if (experienced) { authority.push('own-time') } }
  3. Experience as a modifier • JR IC: little authority over

    their time • Sr Eng: some authority over their time and other's time • Staff Eng: full authority over their time and some over other's
  4. Authority of a manager function manager () { let authority

    = ['people, processes'] if (experienced) { authority.push('strategy') } }
  5. Autonomy of a manager function manager () { // ...

    let autonomy = authority.indexOf('own-time') authority.pop(autonomy) }
  6. Authority Closures function vp() { function director() { function manager()

    { function individualContributor(){ // software } } } }
  7. Authority Closures function individualContributor() { function manager() { function director()

    { function vp(){ const compensation = '$$$' const process = 'waterfall' } } } }
  8. Authority Closures function vp() { let oncall = 'rotation' function

    director() { function manager() { function individualContributor(){ onCall = 'team owned' } } } }
  9. We're part of an industry that has an abnormal amount

    of power to cause change in the world
  10. But stepping up as an IC leader is a lower

    risk way of getting experience