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Leadership Coaching for Engineering Leads
“Why is this so hard, and what ACTUALLY is the point?”
If you’re being pushed to do “more with less” and deliver “one complete AI” but can’t quite find the motivation or tools to push things over the line, I can help.
Why is this so hard?
Taking the step into leadership isn’t a career promotion; it’s a complete career change.
As an engineer, you only really have one lever to pull: you try to increase the impact of the technology you and those close to you build.
When you move up to leadership, you’re immediately presented with an overwhelming set of new levers and a smiling manager saying, “You just need to find your leadership style!”
The complexity of the system you are dealing with explodes overnight, and the number of non-deterministic elements (people & organisations) increases.
If you feel like everything has become completely unpredictable, you’re right.
Feel familiar? I can help.. Book a Free Call
What’s actually going wrong?
Almost all challenges that you face as an engineering lead can be understood by focusing on three root causes.
1. A trust problem
Every individual approaches trust in a very different way. Some engineers will look at your engineering process and (possibly mistakenly) trust that you are the right person to lead the team. Others might be sceptical and require you to build their trust.
2. Misaligned expectations
Tell everyone in a room to imagine “a fish”, and they’ll all picture something different. Now apply that to “MVP”, “done”, or “this feature is simple”.
If you don’t align expectations between yourself, your engineers, and your stakeholders, you’ll get surprises, rework, and arguments instead of delivery.
3. Missing motivation
Very few engineers started coding to “maximise shareholder value”. For all but a lucky few, that’s what we’re here for. Often this is hidden behind a fluffy, motivational company mission and discretionary benefits and treats.
Engineers’ default behaviour when they start to sniff out this deception is to either become demotivated or bury themselves in the technical task.
If you don’t understand what really drives your team—and how to map that to the business reality—you’ll see burnout, quiet quitting, and teams doing the bare minimum instead of pushing for excellent results.
How my leadership coaching for engineering leads works
Every person is different, but the process usually follows four (plus one) simple steps.
Step 0: Analysis & Goal Setting
We’ll discuss your problem and identify what you’re really trying to achieve. Together, we’ll set achievable, measurable goals for you and define a plan for how you’ll start moving towards them.
Step 1: Purpose Definition
By defining your purpose, the things you actually care about, we can align the goals we set with your internal motivations.
By defining your purpose – the things you actually care about – we can align the goals we set with your internal motivations.
Disclaimer: The chances that you’ll conclude you want to be a sheep farmer on a remote island are pretty high at this point.
Step 2: Dependency Map
We all love to think we are in control of our own destiny. But in reality, multiple factors push and pull us in unpredictable directions.
Your team, your stakeholders, even your friends and family, have an impact on the systems that drive your success.
We’ll map out those dependencies and help you understand the external inputs that factor into achieving your goals.
Step 3: Action Plan
We’ll define a simple action plan together that will help you move towards your ultimate goals. We’ll agree on clear steps you’ll take and what success looks like for each step.
Step 4: Deliver, Review, Repeat
Then, if you’re confident that you can achieve your goals with the plan we’ve built, I’ll leave you alone to fly your own path.
Alternatively, we can set up periodic check-ins to keep you accountable and help you stay prepared for pivots along the way.
Let’s kick things off.
If you’re ready to give yourself a real chance to succeed, let’s talk.
We’ll look at your situation, your team, and whether this kind of leadership coaching for engineering leds is the right lever for you to pull.
Or, if you prefer, Contact me to ask questions first.