Ignite the Fire: management that sparks new leaders

Calibrate 2018 keynote
Nick Caldwell
calibratesf.com

Transcript

1. I IGNITE
 THE FIRE management that sparks new leaders
2. I NICK CALDWELL Chief Product Officer VP of Engineering General Manager MBA Comp Sci., Elec. Eng.
3. EARLY CHALLENGES 
 AT REDDIT • Triple the team size • Timeframe: 1 year • Tech Leads vs Managers I
4. VOIGHT KAMPF TEST 
 FOR ENGINEERING MANAGERS
5. EXAMPLE QUESTIONS What do you care about more, people or architecture? What are your thoughts on shipping towards a deadline? Your PM tells your reports to immediately start working on a feature, what do you do? You spend one full day a week working with recruiting, how do you feel? TECH
 LEAD MANAGER TRACK ARCHITECT TRACK
6. RESULTS 
 AND A NEW CHALLENGE 20 Managers and Directors 10 Architects 50% Promoted from Within 90% Accuracy after 1 Year
7. LEADERSHIP 
 AT SCALE Specialization and Focus Politics and Boundaries Ownership Microsoft Org Chart
8. • Lower Productivity • Lower Retention • Lower Development • Poor Delegation • BURNOUT IMPACT OF BAD LEADERSHIP
9. How can we scale leadership?
10. How can we scale leadership?
11. I LEADERSHIP ISN’T MANAGEMENT 1.
12. LEADERSHIP VS
 MANAGEMENT
13. Leadership 
 is working with goals and vision.
 
 Management is working with objectives. I “ “
14. MANHATTAN PROJECT The most closely guarded military operation of World War Two. Brought together thousands of people across multiple industries in a race to develop a critical military advantage for the allied forces. Operated by two very different personalities, one a leader, the other a manager. 5 Managers
15. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER “He knew how to organize, cajole, humor, soothe feelings - how to lead powerfully without seeming to do so. He was an exemplar of dedication, a hero who never lost his humanness. Disappointing him somehow carried with it a sense of wrongdoing. Los Alamos’ amazing success grew out of the brilliance, enthusiasm and charisma with which Oppenheimer led it. ” - Edward Tellar
16. LESLIE 
 GROVES “The biggest sonovabitch I’ve ever met in my life.” “He had absolute confidence in his decisions and he was absolutely ruthless in how he approached a problem to get it done ... I’ve often thought that if were to have to do it over again I would select Groves as boss.”
 - Lt. Col. Kenneth D. Nichols
17. POSITIONAL LEADERSHIP DOESN’T SCALE DIRECTOR MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee 5 Managers 20 Potential Leaders
18. To scale we must get our employees to look for opportunities to lead instead of positions. It’s what they want!
19. At your next team meeting discuss the problems that you or other managers across the organization are grappling with but don’t have capacity to fix Provide Visibility Question the team: What should the organization do to solve these problems? 
 
 Solutions only, no complaining! Invite Discussion A leader will take your bait… eventually Wait and Repeat Immediately provide support, even if it’s just to say “let’s follow up after the meeting to discuss the details” Sponsor and Reward LEADERSHIP BREADCUMBS
20. I ANYONE CAN BE A LEADER 2.
21. Do traits define a leader? An entire industry wants you to think so! I
22. $24B Spending
 On Leadership Training Every Year
23. Books - $20 Conferences - $500+ Classes - $2,000+
24. Leadership Seminars - $10,000
25. MBA - $100,000+
26. Top 5 Leadership Traits
 But is this actually true? Let’s test… 1 Vision 2 Empathy 3 Empowerment 4 Charisma 5 Expertise
27. STEVE JOBS APPLE Visionary, Charisma Empowering Apple Org Chart
28. 
 Empowering JEFF BEZOS AMAZON Empathy
29. 
 Expertise ELON MUSK TESLA, SPACEX, … , ETC. Burnin' out...
30. 
 Vision, Expertise MARK ZUCKERBERG FACEBOOK SMILE Charisma
31. LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL How are we supposed to know? Nerd Lawyer Stoner with an Unfortunate Hat
32. Nobel Prize Winner Nobel Prize Winner LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL How are we supposed to know?
33. A short story about looking for leadership traits I
34. Instead of traits, look for passion I
35. Passion Is Leadership Fuel 1500 Participants Surveyed Chose a career for passion or money? 20 years later… 101 Millionaires Chose Passion 1 Chose Money! 1992 Study by Kriefel and Patler 100
36. Blue Flame:
 Perfect alignment between individual passion and organizational needs. I
37. MANAGER TOOL BLUE FLAME CHART Intrinsic Motivators Extrinsic Motivators What you do if no one was telling you what to do? What team problems would you try to fix? What do you want to learn? What are the major problems faced by organization? What does your manager talk about during 1:1s and team meetings? What does your boss say? Are there new industry trends on technologies that could help the team?
38. ADV ANCED BLUE FLAME CHART Intrinsic Motivators Extrinsic Motivators Team Member Feedback “What do you think I’m good at?”
 
 Because you can’t always see yourself clearly
39. I CREATE
 LEADERSHIP
 MOMENTS 3.
40. The first rule of leadership is everything is your fault I WHY POTENTIAL LEADERS DON’T SPARK? Survey: American Management Association International
41. LEADERSHIP
 STEP FUNCTION Individual Contributor Leader Training?
 Pressure?
 Mentors? Moment
42. A short story about my leadership moment I
43. CREATE LEADERSHIP
 CULTURE
44. NORDSTROM
 EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK I
45. SPONSORING OVERCOMES FEAR Opportunities to sponsor • Spare time • Proposal to execs • Hack days • Dedicated schedule Push the idea like it was your own! (But give away the due credit)
46. LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITY PASSION PERMISSION FIRE OXYGEN FUEL SPARK I RESULTS
 What happens when you put all of these techniques together?
47. Technical Contributions Performance improvements, increased developer productivity, and millions of dollars in infrastructure cost reductions • CI/CD performance testing • Kubernetes Microservices • GraphQL API port People Contributions High marks for workplace health and near-zero employee attrition • Employee mentoring program • Deep Learning Training Guild + Tensorflow • Reddit for Good REDDIT 2018 
 LEADERSHIP RESULTS
48. I FOUR
 MODERN LEADERSHIP TIPS
49. LEADERS EMBRACE CHANGE Web UI Development 1999-2016
50. If frameworks are changing all the time... 
 Code you write is a depreciating asset, your network is an appreciating asset! • Our brand, reputation, access to opportunities, and ability to influence are a function of our network. • Modern leaders can massively extend their networks by contributing value to social media platforms. 
 
 No more collecting business cards, the opportunities come to you! YOUR NETWORK IS YOUR NET WORTH
51. DIVERSITY @ INCLUSION ISN'T OPTIONAL Managers directly influence • Hiring pipeline • Culture • Retention Leaders who don’t support D&I are at risk, even executives, e.g. • Nike • Uber • Google • Netflix
52. Leaders make new leaders
53. THANKS!