You have 1 article left to read this month before you need to register a free LeadDev.com account.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Motivated and satisfied engineers do great work.
However, only 20% of developers are generally happy in their workplace. A deeper dive into surveys and stats suggests that most people want to grow and achieve their goals, and when they don’t get that, they leave. Or worse, they stay, become unhappy, and stagnate.
Enabling the growth of your engineers is crucial to the success of your organization. To achieve this, you must focus on guiding mid-level engineers toward fluency through a breadth of adaptable technical expertise.
From proficiency to fluency
Fluent engineers are any team’s aces. Their code, technical comprehension, and execution are high. They use this expertise to move fast and bring extra value through their adaptability, solving problems, and getting things done. This is invaluable in accelerating a team or organization.
Proficient engineers have been writing and shipping code for a while but are not yet fluent. They can debug and solve problems and have developed some expertise, but they still operate with support and lack the broad detail and context of software development.
The source of fluency
Technical fluency is sourced from a broad understanding of how technology works and knowing which tools solve what problems. An engineer who operates with this breadth of understanding is an example of a comb-shaped generalist.
Source: Forget the T-shaped skillset: Try being a comb instead!
An engineer with a wide range of expertise is able to apply their technical fluency to many situations, using what they know to learn and apply new technologies.
Growing technical fluency in your engineers
An engineer looking to grow fluency needs to ensure their engineering knowledge base is both broad and deep. As a manager, it is your role to help them grow and develop in this manner, advising them on the “what” and “why,” with a little of the “when.”
That’s not enough though. The raw knowledge also needs to be processed to turn it into adaptable, transferable capability. Time needs to be spent practicing and reflecting on how technologies combine and what makes a solution good.
You can achieve this in four steps.
Step 1: Give them routes to guide their progress
Many companies have competency or progression frameworks that help standardize and guide promotion. These set the bar that employees are measured against, but provide little guidance to help someone progress.
To provide clear routes toward the goal, engineers will need to be provided with support. Skills ladders can help with this.
Skill ladders and skills matrices
A skill ladder provides guided training on a subject. Each rung offers a step of advancement. The higher someone climbs up the ladder, the more expertise they hold.
When grouped together, a set of these ladders forms a matrix of skills an engineer can use to develop themselves.
Design a set of ladders that represent the skills needed to operate well in your engineering org and you will provide your engineers with a guide towards fluency.
How to build useful skill ladders
Skill ladders, in this context, represent progressive steps of learning in a technical vertical. Each rung represents a new skill, such as web security or software design.
You need to design ladders that represent the key capabilities that will make an engineer more fluent in your organization and division. Be guided by the set of needs for building and operating your products. This may be detailed in your progression framework, but I’d recommend also speaking to the folks who run your teams.
Don’t build ladders that are too tall. Your engineering skill ladders are looking to build fluency, not deep expertise; that comes later in their engineering journey.
Focus on the 6-8 skills per ladder that will help an engineer to own, collaborate, and get things done with ease. Each rung should be a solid step toward advancement, covering a useful engineering practice.
Find a balance between the specific competencies needed at your organization and an individual’s core engineering skills. Your skills ladders should ensure your engineers succeed at your company, whilst providing the concepts of software engineering that all engineers need.
Step 2: Put them in the driving seat
Skills ladders allow engineers to be selective and focused in their growth at the right pace for them. It also creates room for you as their manager to guide and support them.
Once you’ve outlined your ladders, help your reports plan their next steps to learn their new skills. At this stage of development the focus should be on skills exploration and development, big growth steps through sponsorship comes later.
Have a 1:1 to understand their interest and curiosity and to make choices together about what rungs they will work on. It helps if they have some growth goals in mind. Ask them to do preparation and look at the opportunities ahead in their team and how that could match the skill that they want to explore.
Steer them away from biting off more than they can chew or over-focusing on one area. Help them make choices that fill gaps and round out their skills.
As your engineers progress, let them take on ownership completely. The more autonomy they hold, the more motivated they become.
Step 3: Encourage practice and reflection
Skills alone are not enough for fluency. Help compound newly gained knowledge into solid usable expertise through mentoring.
A regular catch up cadence is essential. Help them stay focused on growth and on their goals.
Be wary of rushing. Doing is a key component of learning. Advise them to spend time practicing what they are learning, soak up knowledge, and not rush.
Mentor them to actively reflect on what they are learning, so they build capability. Help them see common patterns and anti-patterns. Lead them to build a larger technology worldview from the parts they are adding though sharing your experience.
Encourage more advanced engineers to take on mentoring and tutoring responsibilities themselves as this will help them with information retention. By reflecting on what they know through teaching others, they can solidify their knowledge.
Step 4: Cultivate growth mindsets, autonomy, and ownership
A growth mindset frames failure as a point of learning instead of a setback. Ensure that your engineers know that studying and doing the work is as important as “smarts.” Whether they succeed or fail, applying their knowledge to tasks will build the connections in their brain that brings fluency. Help them to frame failures as information providers that adjust their assumptions. Ask them to bring you stories of failures and what they are learning.
Grow autonomy by transferring ownership of choice and progress to them. Let them own their journey, allowing you to become their supporter and sponsor. Once they have traction and progress, change your meeting style to one where they lead. And when it comes to selecting the next set of ladders or rungs, give them the challenge of setting goals and telling you why.
Not only can autonomy be an engine that will drive them forward; but developing their ownership will lead them to maintain their skills as they keep growing.
Final thoughts
Growing fluent engineers requires structured learning and thoughtful guidance. A set of skills ladders gives you and your growing engineers something to collaborate around, allowing a flow of control to the engineer as they develop. By sharing control, you can effectively support your engineers’ progression from proficiency to fluency.
