What are the types of engineering management?

Engineering managers play a very important role in every organization as they are the bridge between different cross-functional stakeholders. They are also the pillars of the team that help drive the work culture. Having spent over a decade in this role, I may sound biased but I feel I had the same views even in my previous software engineering roles.

Each organization has its own way of identifying and grooming engineering leaders, but still, every engineering leader or manager has its own identity and style of working that is based on their professional journey. Even though I am listing some of the types of engineering managers I have seen in my career, these are just their prominent qualities that stand out at a specific time in their careers.

In reality, we all learn from our experiences and evolve from one type to another. I can safely identify myself with more than one type at different times in my career.

I had already covered five types of engineering managers in my previous post. Let’s look at five more types and how to connect with them.

This type of manager is someone who is in a rush to get the next promotion. They usually don’t care about the people, process, or even ethics to get their work done. Many times you may see a bit of aggression in their behavior. Whether it is a high visibility project or a client presentation, they will do everything in their power to excel in it.

They also know how to make the best use of the resources. They will always be hanging out with the people that can help them succeed in accomplishing their goals. They are not afraid to take shortcuts or to find loopholes in the process to achieve their targets.

One of the main issues while working with such managers is that they have a very short-term vision and often work for individual targets, ignoring basic leadership principles in the process. Sometimes it can be very tricky working with such managers. If you are contributing to the success, you may not always get the credit, but in case of failure, you will definitely be the scapegoat.

If you are also ambitious, then you may just hit it off right away with this type of manager. Keep an eye on the goals and targets for yourself as well as the team. Always make sure that you are not the one missing deadlines or responsible for that defect a client has escalated.

Look for opportunities to work on high-visibility assignments or projects, even if they are risky or complex. Once you get into the good books of your manager as someone who is needed for accomplishing their goals, they will take care of you.

In most cases, this category of a manager is a seasoned leader, one who has spent many years in the role. They don’t react to situations and don't show their emotions easily. They are highly observant and have a good grasp of the big picture.

They will make a note of every situation and will have it ready when they need it, whether it is the performance review or any other meeting. They can be good mentors and often provide good guidance for career growth if requested. They also have a tendency of asking open-ended questions. They will just absorb all the information and add it to their knowledge bank.

You may be left wondering if what you said was okay with the manager or not. A selected few may be able to get in the inner circle and get some coaching from them. Since these managers do not try to indulge in the technical complexities of the work, new engineers may even question the need for such managers. However, the maturity and experience of these managers are what drives the success of the work.

As it turns out, it requires a lot more work to connect with these types of managers, as they do not show their emotions or react to situations. So you have to always display your best behavior.

This is extremely difficult, so the secret is to know the people who are already in the inner circle and connect with them. These are the influencers who can actually make or break your rapport with your manager. The other things you should do are to seek guidance from them on the topics you know they either enjoy or have a good understanding of.

It can be anything, workflows of a legacy system, best practices for performance improvement, or even new client requirements. Show them some appreciation for their experience and that will open the door for seeking mentorship and subsequent growth.

In the technology world, they are very common and you can clearly identify them from their prior experience. In the “pre-agile” world, it used to be project managers who started managing engineering teams, and in recent times, a little over the last decade, it is the scrum masters who have taken up that role.

In most cases, these managers have either forgotten their technology past or feel that over-emphasis on the process topics can help them become established in their management role. These types of managers frustrate the programmers or software engineers the most. Many of the programmers in general find different processes as a waste of time and when someone is constantly enforcing them, it is definitely not appreciated.

It would be chaos if there are no guidelines or processes, but the key is to have the right balance so the processes don’t lose their relevance. Some of the process-focused managers do not get into the details or reasoning and care only about the metrics and reports.

In technology-focussed organizations, they quickly lose their relevance. You will find them mostly in large conglomerates where things move slowly and the focus is more on the process, audits, and organizational compliance aspects.

The best way to connect with them is to understand the processes relevant to your role. Even if you despise writing documentation or creating a root-cause analysis spreadsheet, just learn to do it.

If you are performing well for your technical role and show understanding of the processes, these managers see this as a sign of future leaders. You don’t have to become another process geek, but it is always good to have an understanding of it as a stepping stone and additional knowledge always helps in making informed decisions.

This is the type of manager who is out there only to win the popularity contest. They will know everybody and everybody loves them except for a few unlucky ones who end up paying for their heroics. They cannot say no to anyone and often end up over-committing work for their team. They will find someone else to blame for it, but in reality, they are the ones responsible for the scope creep and extra work.

They often avoid any uncomfortable situation whether it is with a difficult employee or an upset client. They also shy away from giving any constructive or critical feedback to any of their employees. They are always smiling and often make everyone comfortable around them. They will never confront anyone and try to give a false impression that all is well everywhere. Even most of the team likes them as they are easy to talk to and usually always positive. Now, I said most of the team, as the ones who have worked long enough with them, know that all you get is the pleasing talk and nothing more for your career growth.

I have a whole article about People Pleaser Managers published on Medium some time back if you want to read more about them.

People pleaser managers like people who are exactly like them. You should brush up on your interpersonal skills if you have a manager like this. Most of these managers lack assertiveness and feel that the management role is all about making sure everyone is happy around them. Even though that is not true, you have to make sure that you still project yourself as a pleasing personality.

It also means is that you need to be a good team player and be always ready to help internal or external stakeholders. The key to success is how much praise you can garner from outside of the team. Even though such managers do not confront difficult employees, they also do not think highly of them and prefer to work with people who are just like them — pleasing everyone around them. In the end, being helpful and pleasing is always a good quality to have, provided it is combined with sound judgment and logical decision-making.

This category of managers is more common in the middle or upper management level. These are the managers who show up only when something is broken or there is a huge problem. They have little or no understanding of the issue but are always in a hurry to solve the problem. They are not involved in the day-to-day activities of the team and so may even have less understanding of the actual work.

Some self-managing teams may consider it even a positive aspect as they get more operational freedom. However, this type of manager is least popular with their teams. They lack empathy and have a false sense of authority over everyone else. The team avoids interactions and their 1-on-1s with direct reports are often very quick if it happens at all. Their persona is typically the textbook version of what not to do as a manager.

This kind of manager requires a lot of work on your part if you really want to connect with them. As they are not too involved in day-to-day activities, you have to make sure you use every interaction as an opportunity to highlight the work that you do. You should prepare for every 1-on-1 like a client meeting with all the points that can trigger discussion and work in your favor every way.

This is all good for your day-to-day work but when there is a real problem and the manager is looking for a solution, that’s when you have to do the most work. You need to be extra prepared with each and every detail of the problem and the proposed solution. You should document everything to ensure you do not get blamed, which can also be a huge opportunity to shine if you can help them solve the problem as these one-off situations are the ones that they remember — so better make it a positive memory.

This concludes the second part of my two-part article on the types of engineering managers. I would like to reiterate that even though certain qualities stand out for certain individuals, there is a lot more that goes behind the scenes. In today’s competitive environment, it is not easy to become an engineering leader and perform at this level. It requires years of hard work and experience (I know there can be exceptions). I have just listed some conventional types here, based on their prominent or visible qualities, but every individual has other strong qualities that they have chosen not to highlight.

Don’t forget, every engineering manager was a software engineer first!

Although the article itself is on the lighter side on dealing with certain stereotypes, the suggestions are still worth considering. If you follow them wisely, I am sure you can succeed with any kind of engineering manager.

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