Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Here’s my approach to to help engineering leaders understand themselves. It will allow them leverage their skillsets the best.

Introduction

I have been helping a Nepali engineering non-profit shop with Product Management since 2022. When I started, I found it curious that the CEO was not a technical leader. My engineer instincts told me non-engineers leading technical folks would be disastrous. A few months in, the whole picture came into view. Technical individuals don’t necessarily make for good leaders. And good leaders don’t always have to betechnical. It’s a tough pill to swallow for engineers. Allow me to explain.

Engineering leaders need to be multidimensional, that’s not a tall claim. They need technical proficiency, and people skills. They need to communicate their inspiring vision and collaborate across organization. And so forth. I took Technical Leadership for Engineers course offered by University of Washington-Seattle’s Engineering Leadership program last year. I found the leadership frameworks offered in the course unsatisfying. They didn’t align with how I saw myself as a leader. I viewed engineering leaders in my company using a different lens. To get clarity on my thoughts, I wrote down how I saw my leaders. I wrote down what I wanted for them. That’s how I came up with an alternative framework to understand skills and roles of engineering leaders.

I found traditional leadership theories lacking when capturing the demands of software engineering. This essay introduces a framework that focuses on the multi-dimensional nature of engineering leadership. My goal is to help leaders understand how they see themselves and improve.

The Multidimensional Framework

This framework considers engineering leadership to be comprised of four distinct dimensions:

1. Spiritual: The ability to inspire vision, meaning, and purpose within the team and individual contributors.
2. Technical: The ‘hard-skills’, expertise, and innovation driving projects forward.
3. Personal: The guidance, mentorship, and interpersonal skills supporting individual growth.
4. Inspirational/Celebrity: The impact on a broader community through popular work and influence.

Leaders can identify strengths and dimensions for development, and improve on growth accordingly. For followers, the framework allows a quick way to evaluate the diverse leadership styles they encounter. This lets them find leaders who they connect with the most. They can align their individual needs and aspirations.

A leader can be good in any one of these skills, and make for an excellent example. They could do so while failing in all the others. Or they can focus on building multiple strengths, and provide well-rounded guidance to others. This framework allows for flexibility in interpreting what a good engineering leader can be.

We will now explore each dimension in depth. We explore key attributes, strengths, and potential limitations of each. There are real-world examples of engineering leaders who embody these characteristics. They will make us understand the impact of their diverse styles.

Spiritual Leadership

A spiritual leader shows the path…and vision…for the long term. They may not guide you technically, or help you in your day-to-day work. They have a strong and clear vision and and well-defined mission of what is to be done. You can’t but be allured by the possibilities. You are motivated to your work to get towards their vision. They inspire you to work. This could overcome their potential deficiencies in technical or personal aspects by finding other means.

• Key Attributes: Vision setting, purpose definition, ethical leadership, creating a strong team culture.
• Strengths: Motivates and inspires teams, creates a sense of community, drives innovation through shared values.
• Weaknesses: Can be overly idealistic, may neglect pragmatic details, potential for manipulation.
• Example: Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. He is known for his commitment to protecting the environment and sustainability, before it became trendy. He aligned his company’s mission towards his vision despite it being at odds with profitability.

Technical Leadership

A technical leader bedazzles with their technical skills. They are quick-thinking, and provide immediate assistance. They are experts in rapidly identifying the issue at hand. They gain respect by their sharpened skills in their area of expertise. They inspire others because of their sheer intelligence, work ethic and competence. The followers aspire to become as competitive and productive as they are. They might not be great at vision-setting or inspiring, or helping at a personal level, but it’s moot, because their technical expertise trumps all.

• Key Attributes: Deep technical expertise, problem-solving skills, driving project execution.
• Strengths: Builds trust through competence, delivers results efficiently, ensures technical solutions are sound.
• Weaknesses: Can be overly focused on technical details, neglect communication and team dynamics, potentially miss the bigger picture.
• Example: Grace Hopper (leading the development of COBOL and revolutionizing programming languages)

Personal Leadership

Leaders with this style incubate your personal growth. They watch out for your potential career-wise. They guide you towards tools and techniques to improve yourself. They help you perform the best you can. They support you to push yourself as hard as you can go. They clarify the worth of your work. They clear the blockers standing on your way. They help you see your personal mission more clearly. They touch you at a personal level, as a mentor.

• Key Attributes: Strong interpersonal skills, mentoring and coaching, encouraging individual growth, building trust and rapport.
• Strengths: Creates a positive and supportive work environment, helps individuals reach their full potential, promotes teamwork and knowledge sharing.
• Weaknesses: Can be overly individualistic, neglecting the collective needs of the team, potential for favoritism, might lack the big-picture vision
• Example: Anil Dash, the CEO of Fog Creek software. Somebody’s team lead, could be a great mentor!

Inspirational/Celebrity Leadership

This kind of leadership is not necessarily related to one’s field, but can be. This sort of leader has such charm, charisma, and drive that onlookers can’t but help be inspired and driven. These leaders are great at being celebrities too. They might not know you personally, but they will have changed millions of lives through charisma and ability. Steve Jobs is an obvious example. Another example is Julia Evans who who maintains an excellent tech blog. She gives public presentations too, and inspired me to start working on this website.

• Key Attributes: Charisma, public influence, motivating large audiences
• Strengths: Drives external interest and investment, attracts top talent, inspires broader social impact.
• Weaknesses: Can be susceptible to ego and fame, may neglect internal team needs, focus more on external perception than internal reality.
• Example: Steve Jobs (inspiring a generation with inspired products and hypnotic presentations), Julia Evans (for me!), Joel Sopolsky

Tips for Leaders and Followers

In this section we will discuss actionable advice for both leaders and followers within the framework:

How Leaders Can Develop Each Dimension

• Spiritual Leadership: Develop a strong personal vision, connect with team values, encourage ethical decision-making, inspire through storytelling.
• Technical Leadership: Continuously learn and upskill, collaborate with technical experts, communicate technical concepts effectively, focus on problem-solving and innovation.
• Personal Leadership: Develop interpersonal skills, be a mentor and coach, build trust and rapport, create a learning environment, practice active listening.
• Inspirational/Celebrity Leadership: Connect with the broader community, leverage your influence for good, stay authentic and humble, be comfortable with fame.

How the Framework Helps Followers

If you’re not a leader, you can still benefit from my framework. The idea is to identify your leaders’ strengths, and leverage them at their strongest axes.

• Better understanding of leaders: Recognizing the different axes of leadership allows you to better figure out your leaders. You can better understand their motivations, strengths, and potential limitations. This empowers you to:
  • Appreciate different leadership styles: Instead of judging a leader based on a single trait, you can appreciate their unique way of contributing to the team.
  • Identify your preferred leadership style: Recognizing your own needs and preferences helps you move towards leaders who inspire you in specific ways.
  • Anticipate leader behavior: Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different leadership styles helps you predict how leaders might react in different situations.
• More effective communication and collaboration: Knowing your leader’s strengths can help you tailor your communication and collaboration style to be more effective:
  • Communicating with technical leaders: Focus on clarity, data, and solutions when working with technically focused leaders.
  • Connecting with inspirational leaders: Share your personal motivations and goals to find common ground and inspiration.
  • Building rapport with personal leaders: Openly discuss your individual needs and career aspirations for better guidance and support.
• Better career growth: Recognizing different leadership styles allows you to choose mentors and role models who align with your own career goals:
  • Seeking technical mentorship: If you aspire towards technical expertise, find leaders who excel in that dimension.
  • Finding inspirational guidance: Choose role models who motivate and inspire you to achieve your personal best.
  • Learning from diverse leaders: Expose yourself to different leadership styles to understand and broaden your own skillset.
• Personal growth: Understanding leadership styles helps you become a more self-aware and proactive team member:
  • Identifying your own leadership potential: Reflect on your strengths and explore how you can contribute to the team in diverse ways.
  • Taking initiative and ownership: Proactively solve problems and contribute positively based on your understanding of the leadership needs.
  • Building stronger teams: Recognizing different styles helps you bridge communication gaps and encourage joint effort within the team.