Manage Yourself First

Technical managers are asked to deal with complex problems across a wide range of expertise. A quick list of issues that might pop up in a single day includes:

• Talking to a client after the late delivery on a project deadline

• Consultation with the sales team on new business proposals

• Onboarding a new hire

• Mentoring a project lead

• Meeting with a software partner to discuss working together

• Scheduling resources to handle client requests

• Helping a project manager define the scope of a project

• Working with the DevOps team to define a deployment workflow

• An HR complaint filed by a member of the team

• Receiving feedback about your own job performance

Context shifting can be extremely detrimental to your success as a leader. So too can making rash, hasty, or quick decisions. It is critical to understand how your attitude affects your teams and your clients. 

In this session we’ll look at a few self-training tools that you can adopt to help you manage all the different factors of technical leadership. We’ll discuss real-life situations and how different approaches can have different outcomes.

Our focus will be on practical resources for managers, including:

• Building trust with teams and clients

• The role of emotional intelligence

• Empowering teams to solve problems

• Finding and nurturing your own motivation

This session is designed for technical leaders, their supervisors, and those who wish to become technical leaders.

Ken Rickard is the Director of Innovation at Palantir.net. He’s been managing software, editorial, project management, and sales teams since 1998. He’s been an active Drupal contributor since 2005.