4 reasons why managers fail
Also, understanding mentorship vs. coaching vs. sponsorship and recognizing potential in tech talent.
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The digest
4 reasons why managers fail (Swagatam Basu, Atrijit Das, Vitorio Bretas, and Jonah Shepp)
Managers now handle significantly more responsibilities and direct reports, heightening the risk of failure and stress.
Lack of self-awareness, insufficient empathy, unproductive relationships, and misaligned goals are primary predictors of managerial failure.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, challenges such as inability to prioritize, lack of technical skills, unprecedented changes, and coaching ineffectiveness are not the top predictors of manager failure.
Mentorship, coaching, sponsorship: three different — and equally important — tools for developing talent (Jacob Kaplan-Moss)
Leaders must recognize when to employ mentorship for knowledge transfer, coaching for goal achievement, or sponsorship for career advancement.
How to recognize the potential in engineers (Gregor Ojstersek)
Recognizing potential in engineers goes beyond technical skills, emphasizing traits like ownership, motivation, and teamwork.
Ownership and responsibility, drive and motivation to improve, and being a team player are critical for identifying high-potential engineers.
More reads
My favorite uses of AI (Tomasz Tunguz)
Think Slow (Scott Galloway)
A little plug wouldn’t hurt anyone… This digest is sponsored by Gemography.
Gemography matches you with product-minded remote developers ready to dive in. Whether it’s for short term or long term projects, the right talent is one interview away.
About Executive Engineering
I’m Yassine 👋. I spend a big chunk of my time digging into engineering management and talent acquisition, especially where the two overlap. I share the most interesting resources I come across in this newsletter, all curated by hand.