THE FIRE I management that sparks new leaders NICK CALDWELL - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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THE FIRE I management that sparks new leaders NICK CALDWELL - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Jul 11, 2023 450 likes •1.01k views

IGNITE THE FIRE I management that sparks new leaders NICK CALDWELL @nickcald Chief Product Officer VP of Engineering I General Manager MBA Comp Sci., Elec. Eng. Board Member EARLY CHALLENGES AT REDDIT Triple the team size I

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IGNITE THE FIRE

management that sparks new leaders

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I

NICK CALDWELL

Chief Product Officer VP of Engineering General Manager MBA Comp Sci., Elec. Eng. Board Member

@nickcald

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EARLY CHALLENGES AT REDDIT

  • Triple the team size
  • Timeframe: 1 year
  • Tech Leads vs Managers

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VOIGHT KAMPF TEST FOR ENGINEERING MANAGERS

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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

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RESULTS AND A NEW CHALLENGE

20

Managers and Directors

10

Architects

50%

Promoted from Within

90%

Accuracy after 1 Year

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LEADERSHIP AT SCALE

Specialization and Focus Politics and Boundaries Ownership

Microsoft Org Chart

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  • Lower Productivity
  • Lower Retention
  • Lower Development
  • Poor Delegation
  • BURNOUT

IMPACT OF MISSING LEADERSHIP

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How can we scale leadership?

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How can we scale leadership?

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LEADERSHIP ISN’T MANAGEMENT

1.

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LEADERSHIP VS MANAGEMENT

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Leadership is working with goals and vision. Management is working with

  • bjectives.

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“ “

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MANHATTAN PROJECT

The most closely guarded military

  • peration 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

  • ther a manager.

5 Managers

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ROBERT OPPENHEIMER

“He knew how to organize, cajole, humor, soothe feelings - how to lead powerfully without seeming to do so. He was an exemplar

  • f 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
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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 my part all

  • ver again I would select Groves as boss.”
  • Lt. Col. Kenneth D. Nichols
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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

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To scale we must get

  • ur employees to look

for opportunities to lead instead of

  • positions. It’s what

they want!

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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

  • rganization 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

MANAGER TOOL: LEADERSHIP BREADCUMBS

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INDIVIDUAL TOOL: THE GOLDEN QUESTION What would you do if you had another pair of hands?

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ANYONE CAN BE A LEADER

2.

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Do traits define a leader? An entire industry wants you to think so!

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$24B

Spending On Leadership Training Every Year

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Books - $20 Conferences - $500+ Classes - $2,000+

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Leadership Seminars - $10,000

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MBA - $100,000+

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Top 5 Leadership Traits But is this actually true? Let’s test… 1 Vision 2 Empathy 3 Empowerment 4 Charisma 5 Expertise

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STEVE JOBS APPLE Visionary, Charisma Empowering

Apple Org Chart

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Empowering JEFF BEZOS AMAZON Empathy

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Expertise ELON MUSK TESLA, SPACEX, … , ETC. Burnin’ Out

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Vision, Expertise MARK ZUCKERBERG FACEBOOK

SMILE

Charisma

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LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL How are we supposed to know?

Nerd Lawyer Stoner with an Unfortunate Hat

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Nobel Prize Winner Nobel Prize Winner

LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL How are we supposed to know?

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Quiet Tony: A short story about looking for leadership traits

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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

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Instead of traits, look for passion

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Blue Flame:

Perfect alignment between individual passion and

  • rganizational needs.

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MANAGER TOOL: BLUE FLAME CHART Intrinsic Motivators Extrinsic Motivators

What you do if no

  • ne 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

  • rganization?

What does your manager talk about during 1:1s and team meetings? Are there new industry trends on technologies that could help the team?

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INDIVIDUAL TOOL: FEEDBACK

Intrinsic Motivators Extrinsic Motivators Team Member Feedback

“What do you think I’m good at?” Because no one can see themselves clearly

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CREATE LEADERSHIP MOMENTS

3.

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WHY POTENTIAL LEADERS DON’T SPARK?

The first rule of leadership is everything is your fault

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Problem is culturally embedded 18% Lack of incentives 14% Manager indifference 14%

Fear of being held responsible for failure 47%

Other 7%

What is the biggest obstacle you face toward taking greater responsibilities?

Survey: American Management Association International

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LEADERSHIP STEP FUNCTION

Individual Contributor Leader

Training? Pressure? Mentors? Moment.

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A short story about my leadership moment

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CREATE LEADERSHIP CULTURE

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NORDSTROM EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK

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SPONSORING OVERCOMES FEAR AND BUILDS CULTURE

Opportunities to sponsor

  • Spare time
  • Hack days
  • Dedicated schedule

Push the idea like it was your

  • wn! (But give away the credit)
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LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITY

PASSION

PERMISSION

FIRE OXYGEN FUEL SPARK

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RESULTS

What happens when you put all of these techniques together?

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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, development, and low attrition

  • Employee mentoring program
  • Deep Learning Training Guild + Tensorflow
  • Reddit for Good

LEADERSHIP RESULTS REDDIT AND LOOKER

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MODERN LEADERSHIP TIPS

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LEADERS EMBRACE CHANGE

Web UI Development 1999-2016

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The most valuable coding language you can learn is English Over time: People and Relationships > Code Code a depreciating asset, your network is an appreciating asset

YOUR NETWORK IS YOUR NET WORTH

Networking and Connecitons 70%

On- Campus Recruiting 10% Job Posting Websites 20%

How did you find your last job opportunity?

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THE TALENT PIPELINE HAS CHANGED

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Leaders make new leaders

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CHECK THESE OUT

AMA Session

10:35am Manhattan Ballroom 8th Floor Follow @nickcald Developing black tech leaders http://devcolor.org

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I THANKS!