--- title: "How to Excel in Engineering management | 1:1 mentoring" description: "Stay focused and invest your time into improvements of a bigger scale. Don’t stay at the level of resolving small daily issues, which results in hundreds o…" url: "https://www.marian.coach/blog/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management/" lang: "en" image: "https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-covers/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management.webp" --- ![How to Excel in Engineering management](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-covers/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management.webp) For a Software Developer, it can feel unrealistic to think of [being the Engineering Manager](https://www.marian.coach/blog/should-i-become-a-team-lead/) of, say, dozens of people in the future. Time passes by. The [future](https://developers.mews.com/how-to-build-career-framework-like-an-rpg/) turns into the [present](https://developers.mews.com/find-the-purpose/). One day you realize that being a manager has the potential to [dramatically increase the influence](https://www.marian.coach/blog/how-to-influence-my-manager/) you have. Together with your teams, you can achieve much more compared to working on your own. I believe the set of principles below will **help you to become a leader worth following in a shorter time frame**, particularly in the Software Engineering world. ## 1st principle: Make changes happen Stay focused and**invest your time into improvements of a bigger scale**. Don’t stay at the level of resolving small daily issues, which results in hundreds of items in your Trello to-do list. ### Mission ![Long escalator running down a lit metro tunnel toward a single distant passenger](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-archive/2023/08/image-7-jpeg.webp) To avoid the trap, form a Mission Statement and transparently articulate what you plan to achieve on a mid to long-term basis. Make people collaborate on it. Having the Mission Statement, you will ditch the majority of out-of-scope items. The other trick is to refer to your company values to evaluate which initiatives are most aligned with them. Tip: **If you manage your priorities right, you’ll end up with up to eight different goals underlying your Mission**, spread over months or quarters. Make sure you ship one bigger change every six weeks on average. People will spot and follow your example of making improvements often, as well as being consistent in the direction. ![Jar of big rocks over gravel and sand: fill it with gravel first and the big rocks no longer fit](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-archive/2023/08/image-12.png)Source: [Mindful Ambition](https://mindfulambition.net/big-rocks-first/) Communicate what is the next Mission iteration to be accomplished and provide progress updates as much as you can. In parallel, ask for feedback (i.e., NPS score) and evaluate whether the direction helps people and the company to grow in the most realistic way. A senior manager doesn’t feed his satisfaction demands by completing small, insignificant to “seems to be urgent” tasks just to get a false feeling of accomplishment. ## 2nd principle: Make people the center of the Universe You are nothing without your people. Deserve to [gain their trust](https://developers.mews.com/how-to-build-trust-with-engineering-teams/). ![Marian Kamenistak in a 1:1 mentoring session.](https://www.marian.coach/_astro/mentoring-05.BrINwYEC_1HLXlg.webp) Making people the center of the universe starts with time on the calendar for them. **Get comfortable spending 3/5 of your time talking to developers, your peers, and top managers, both informally or straight to the point.** ![The Milky Way spread across a night sky, dense with purple and blue stars](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-archive/2023/08/image-9.jpeg) Learn to delegate. Help others resolve most of the upcoming issues. In case the problem is complex, step-in, use the divide and conquer strategy, or [create the Tiger team](https://www.marian.coach/engineering-teams-productivity-audit/) responsible for wiping the problem away. **Great managers move from doers to facilitators.** Ask what obstacles prevent people from resolving the situation. Then remove the impediments and ask them to build the change. Most importantly, make sure you have a follow-up on whether the situation was resolved. Praise or ask to improve. If there’s failure, make everyone learn from it and blame yourself. ## 3rd principle: Understand the Product Ensure you do your best to learn the Product end-to-end: Why our solution brings Value to customers and what is the differentiator. Companies have usually several sources of Knowledge. Look for the videos, release notes and wikis in the first please. Secondarily, talk to all the Product managers and domain experts to deepen your knowledge and answer questions. ![Wall of numbered library shelves packed with old leather-bound and cloth volumes](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-archive/2023/08/image-8-jpeg.webp) Having the product knowledge, you will understand why feature X is of higher priority, including customer impact. You can also enter the product discussions, which ultimately increases mutual trust. ## 4th principle: Step outside Leading the software development department is not about having all the teams and internal processes work like a charm. Such an approach makes you focused on a local optimum only (typically Jira tickets with [low lead time and high throughput](https://www.marian.coach/blog/better-than-dora-metrics-team-productivity/)) and paves the road for failure. Instead, step outside of your bubble. **Focus on cooperation and outcomes.** ![A hand holding a glass lens ball at sunset, the sea and sky flipped upside down inside it](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-archive/2023/08/image-5-jpeg.webp) In addition, make sure you have valuable relationships with your managerial peers, and Product Managers in particular. In the work environment, people copy behavioral patterns from the top. **Managers with great relationships lead departments with great cooperation.** ![Marian Kamenistak speaking to a full room of engineering leaders at an ELC meetup.](https://www.marian.coach/_astro/talk-02.s8OR-HcL_YeVPK.webp) Stepping outside the team bubble: the same relationships, at community scale. Excellent Engineering Managers are the ones who, only when necessary, create simple contracts between departments to help people handle situations seamlessly (can be input/output queues capacity caps, clear priority definition, an SLA response time in 4 hours during the workday, or features with average lead time). Context-switching is very expensive. Such agreements are an efficient way to prevent firefighting situations and keep people balanced and focused in the long-term. ## Bonus: Master the Essence of Management In the context of Engineering Management, I prefer the definition of Managing the Risk. Risk of increased tech debt, of missed deadlines, of losing a developer, of making a bad decision. Risk is the variable that we, as software developers, aren’t used to taking into account due to the binary essence of programming. Either the feature works 100% or not. Either the code passes the code review, testing, and gets deployed or not. ### Take the risk ![Two people standing on brightly lit escalators cutting diagonally through a dark concrete hall](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-archive/2023/08/image-6-jpeg.webp) **Experienced Managers know that 80% success in decision-making and goals completion is a hell of a good achievement**(i.e., in hiring, team reorganization, method boost, responsibilities change) **.** Don’t fall into the trap of creating the ultimate processes and methods for your people that cover 100% of cases. By the time such a solution is almost complete and described in wiki pages nobody will read, it becomes irrelevant and dies. From that perspective, a good example could be to create the features flow delivery pipeline which handles 80% of requirements seamlessly. The other 20% coverage is costly, of rare occurrence, and can be managed on-demand instead. ### Visualize The other tip is just to visualize the problem in the form of a simple dashboard pointing to the issue, compared to the complex process creation. **When the report becomes visible to all, the root cause tends to disappear**, as people start naturally paying attention to it. ![Roadmap Contribution history stacked bar chart, on-roadmap share of work climbing to 48%](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-archive/2023/08/image-13.png) This article covers the first three principles which will make you stand out from the crowd and succeed in the end. Yet, there is more to talk about, such as decision-making, [hiring and firing](https://www.marian.coach/blog/3-performance-criteria-every-leader-needs/), alignment with the top management, and the Learn or die principle. More to come in the next blogpost 🙂 1:1 mentoring ## Ready to move this from advice to action? 1:1 mentoring for engineering leaders. 300+ mentees since 2019. Pay-as-you-go or a 6-session pack. First intro is free. [Book a free 30-min intro →](https://www.marian.coach/mentoring/) ## Read next - [ ### Should I Become a Team Lead? A 6-Dimension Answer Six dimensions predict whether the team lead role will fit you, drawn from 3,400+ mentoring sessions. Take the 3-minute test, get a straight verdict. 22 July 2026 · By Marian Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/blog/should-i-become-a-team-lead/) - [ ### 10x Your Market Value: The Tech Leader’s 8-Step Playbook Learn how to 10x your market value as a tech leader with 8 proven steps to boost your impact and become an irreplaceable asset in any company. 1 July 2025 · By Marian Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/blog/10x-your-market-value-tech-leader-8-steps/) - [ ### Hiring A Software Engineering Manager? 10 Interview Questions to Help You Make the Right Bet. How do I onboard an Engineering/Tech Manager ace ♣️ in just 3 months? Do this: 1️⃣ Decide how much of Technical/Delivery, Leadership and Process scope you… 16 February 2024 · By Marian Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/blog/10-interview-questions-to-hire-the-right-engineering-manager/) ### New posts, straight to your inbox. Your emailSubscribe You're on it. Nothing hits your inbox today. First send goes out once the list is live, and you're already on it. [Connect on LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariankamenistak/)[See the free tools →](https://www.marian.coach/ai-coaching-tools/) ## Structured data ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ProfessionalService","name":"Marian Kamenistak | Engineering Leadership Mentoring","url":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management/","image":"https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-covers/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management.webp","description":"Stay focused and invest your time into improvements of a bigger scale. Don’t stay at the level of resolving small daily issues, which results in hundreds o…","serviceType":["Engineering leadership mentoring","Engineering manager coaching","CTO coaching","Fractional CTO","Leadership development for software engineers"],"hasOfferCatalog":{"@type":"OfferCatalog","name":"Engineering leadership mentoring and advisory","itemListElement":[{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"1:1 engineering leadership mentoring","description":"One-to-one mentoring for engineering leaders from Staff Engineer to CTO. 60-minute sessions, weekly or bi-weekly.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/pricing/"}},{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"Engineering manager coaching","description":"Coaching for first-time and experienced engineering managers: delegation, performance, hiring, team scaling.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/engineering-manager-mentor/"}},{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"CTO and VP Engineering mentoring","description":"Mentoring for CTOs, VPs of Engineering and Heads of Engineering running 30-200 person organisations.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/cto-mentor/"}},{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"Mentor in Residence","description":"A dedicated onsite mentor for your engineering organisation, booked by the quarter.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/mentor-in-residence/"}},{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"Fractional CTO","description":"Part-time CTO engagements for companies without a full-time technology leader.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/fractional-cto/"}}]},"telephone":"+420 736 519 879","email":"marian@marian.coach","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariankamenistak/","https://www.youtube.com/@engineeringleaders","https://github.com/marian-kamenistak","https://www.engineeringleaders.io/","https://twitter.com/marian_coaches","https://www.elc-conference.io/","https://www.marianslist.com/","https://www.mentoringhub.io/"],"address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"Varšavská 715/36, Vinohrady","addressLocality":"Praha 2","postalCode":"12000","addressCountry":"CZ"},"geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":50.0734418,"longitude":14.4385757},"openingHoursSpecification":[{"@type":"OpeningHoursSpecification","dayOfWeek":["Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday"],"opens":"09:00","closes":"17:00"}],"priceRange":"361–430 EUR","areaServed":[{"@type":"Place","name":"Europe"},{"@type":"Country","name":"Czechia"},{"@type":"Country","name":"Slovakia"},{"@type":"Country","name":"Poland"},{"@type":"Place","name":"North America"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://www.marian.coach/#person","name":"Marian Kamenistak","url":"https://www.marian.coach/","image":"https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-covers/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management.webp","jobTitle":["Engineering Leadership Mentor","Engineering Manager Coach","CTO Coach","Keynote Speaker"],"hasOccupation":{"@type":"Occupation","name":"Engineering Leadership Mentor"},"worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Engineering Leaders Community","url":"https://www.engineeringleaders.io/"},"alumniOf":[{"@type":"Organization","name":"Mews"},{"@type":"Organization","name":"Manta (acquired by IBM)"},{"@type":"Organization","name":"Databricks"}],"knowsLanguage":["English","Czech","Slovak"],"knowsAbout":["Engineering leadership","Engineering management","Scaling engineering teams","CTO mentoring","Engineering org design","VP of Engineering role","Engineering director role","CTPO role","Team lead development","Staff engineer career path","Fractional CTO engagements","AI-assisted engineering leadership","Conference keynotes on engineering leadership","Panel moderation","Podcast guest — engineering leadership"],"homeLocation":{"@type":"Place","name":"Prague, Czechia"},"sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariankamenistak/","https://www.youtube.com/@engineeringleaders","https://github.com/marian-kamenistak","https://www.engineeringleaders.io/","https://twitter.com/marian_coaches","https://www.elc-conference.io/","https://www.marianslist.com/","https://www.mentoringhub.io/","https://www.crunchbase.com/person/marian-kamenistak","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q140488098","https://developers.mews.com/author/marian/","https://startupdisrupt.com/speakers/marian-kamenistak/","https://theorg.com/org/engineering-leaders-community/org-chart/marian-kamenistak"]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","url":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management/","name":"How to Excel in Engineering management | 1:1 mentoring","inLanguage":"en","dateModified":"2023-08-15T00:00:00.000Z"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"How to Excel in Engineering management","description":"Stay focused and invest your time into improvements of a bigger scale. Don’t stay at the level of resolving small daily issues, which results in hundreds o…","inLanguage":"en","articleSection":"career","datePublished":"2020-09-29T00:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2023-08-15T00:00:00.000Z","author":{"@id":"https://www.marian.coach/#person"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Marian Kamenistak","url":"https://www.marian.coach/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.marian.coach/favicon-192x192.webp","width":192,"height":192}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-covers/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management.webp"},"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management/"},"keywords":"career, compensation, engineering-management","wordCount":1216,"timeRequired":"PT6M","isAccessibleForFree":true} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://www.marian.coach/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blog","item":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How to Excel in Engineering management","item":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/how-to-excel-in-engineering-management/"}]} ```