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Tech workers say poor leadership is number one cause for burnout

blog.teamblind.com

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Re: Tech workers say poor leadership is number one cause for burnout

#91

Post by dsajames »

vladgiverts wrote: post #61
vinceguidry wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In absence of leadership, the tool firms use to solve coordination problems is management. A leader from this perspective is simply a better manager. Better at all the tasks of coordinating human activity, reading when people are feeling down, better at inspiring them, better at breaking apart complex tasks into routine ones that the ICs can more easily understand. But leaders are practically impossible to reliably h…

I agree that leadership isn’t “teachable” in the same sense that a skill or piece of knowledge is. But it can be supported and cultivated. It’s what I do for a living as a leadership coach. I don’t actually instruct anyone how to lead, but rather give them them the opportunity to discover it for themselves. I’ve seen pretty meaningful shifts for people on the timescale of 3-6 months.

Leadership is very teachable. The military and other large organizations that need leadership that can't be gotten off the street invest in it.

Few orgs want to teach it because it costs money and the ROI is poor if the subject jumps ship. The military doesn't have this problem to the same degree for obvious reasons, but for companies that require common skill sets, it's a tough decision.

Re: Tech workers say poor leadership is number one cause for burnout

#92

Post by tabtab »

There's not enough bottom-up feedback in selecting and rewarding managers. Top-down-only evaluations skew behavior. An org should survey EVERYONE about their boss(es) every 6 months or so, and the bosses should be held accountable for improving their weak areas.

Re: Tech workers say poor leadership is number one cause for burnout

#93

Post by dang »

beeskneecaps wrote: post #27
beeskneecaps wrote: post #26

I have seen evidence that Blind is a major source of toxicity at many companies. I would recommend not installing the app as it only serves to make you feel burned out.

Lol @ the downvoting blind employee

Please don't.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Tech workers say poor leadership is number one cause for burnout

#95

Post by vinceguidry »

dsajames wrote: post #91
vladgiverts wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that leadership isn’t “teachable” in the same sense that a skill or piece of knowledge is. But it can be supported and cultivated. It’s what I do for a living as a leadership coach. I don’t actually instruct anyone how to lead, but rather give them them the opportunity to discover it for themselves. I’ve seen pretty meaningful shifts for people on the timescale of 3-6 months.

Leadership is very teachable. The military and other large organizations that need leadership that can't be gotten off the street invest in it. Few orgs want to teach it because it costs money and the ROI is poor if the subject jumps ship. The military doesn't have this problem to the same degree for obvious reasons, but for companies that require common skill sets, it's a tough decision.

People join the military for much different reasons than they join a corporation, reasons that generally mean they're going to choose to stay over leaving when the time comes.

Re: Tech workers say poor leadership is number one cause for burnout

#96

Post by dagw »

mmt wrote: post #82
Retric wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compensation is really two things. A) The work you do is valuable but your poorly compensated because of management issues. B) You’re compensated well for the work you do, but you’re capable of doing more valuable work elsewhere. Moving due to B is only needed in small companies, large ones generally have room for people to grow.

Although I agree that there exist (at least) these two compensation situations, I disagree with the subsequent assertion: > Moving due to B is only needed in small companies, large ones generally have room for people to grow. I have personally found, as have, I'm sure, many other people with an affinity for startups, that large companies can be quite limiting to growth, especially for certain careers/specialties.

especially for certain careers/specialties

I've found that while smaller startups are great if you want to learn to do 'everything', larger companies tend to be better if you want to focus on growing within one specific niche.

Re: Tech workers say poor leadership is number one cause for burnout

#97

Post by mmt »

dagw wrote: post #96
mmt wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I agree that there exist (at least) these two compensation situations, I disagree with the subsequent assertion: > Moving due to B is only needed in small companies, large ones generally have room for people to grow. I have personally found, as have, I'm sure, many other people with an affinity for startups, that large companies can be quite limiting to growth, especially for certain careers/specialties.

especially for certain careers/specialties I've found that while smaller startups are great if you want to learn to do 'everything', larger companies tend to be better if you want to focus on growing within one specific niche.

I'd agree with the first part, that smaller (earlier) startups may be better for learning more breadth, but there's still a pretty substantial range of sizes before reaching "large".

Startups, VC-funded in particular, tend to have the characteristic of very rapid growth, which can provide even specific/niche opportunities otherwise unavailable (on anywhere near the same time scale) at a large company.

Re: Tech workers say poor leadership is number one cause for burnout

#98

Post by fatnoah »

throwawayamzn7 wrote: post #35

I know of a team (~20 devs, a handful of managers) in the middle of a fantastic experiment in burning out the developers. First, a new remote senior leader took over. He doesn't visit the team or understand them well. He puts pressure on the managers to deliver projects that make his bosses happy by looking sexy, even if they cause more operational issues for the customers. Operational issues = oncall hell, so more d…

That basically happened to my startup. I led an fairly high-performing Engineering team in an east coast based startup. We were acquired by a west coast company and shortly thereafter, I got pushed into an IC role and a new manager moved to the east coast temporarily to oversee things. A year later, the new manager moved back so all management is now on the west coast and the formerly high performing teams went from releasing every 2-4 weeks at time of acquisition to a grand total of about 5 releases in 18 months. On an average day, about 50% of the office population is "working from home" and every couple months another team member moves on to greener pastures.

Re: Tech workers say poor leadership is number one cause for burnout

#99

Post by vladgiverts »

dsajames wrote: post #91
vladgiverts wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that leadership isn’t “teachable” in the same sense that a skill or piece of knowledge is. But it can be supported and cultivated. It’s what I do for a living as a leadership coach. I don’t actually instruct anyone how to lead, but rather give them them the opportunity to discover it for themselves. I’ve seen pretty meaningful shifts for people on the timescale of 3-6 months.

Leadership is very teachable. The military and other large organizations that need leadership that can't be gotten off the street invest in it. Few orgs want to teach it because it costs money and the ROI is poor if the subject jumps ship. The military doesn't have this problem to the same degree for obvious reasons, but for companies that require common skill sets, it's a tough decision.

It depends what you mean teachable. When a leader is when faced with a serious challenge, the crux of great leadership is being able to set one’s own ego aside and act from a place of groundedness and a clear and objective view of reality.

When human beings are in a difficult situation they all too often try to comfort themselves by seeking praise/affirmation, stability/safety, connection/relationship, etc. And in those moments we see everyone around us as a means to the end of getting one of those things that we feel is missing for us. Our ego _is_ our personality. We’re fused with it and most of the time aren’t even aware that we have these impulses.

Great leaders are the ones who develop an awareness of their inner world and are able to set it aside when they need to act.

Can you teach this? Sort of. There are people who do. You can call what people like me do as a kind of teaching. But it requires someone more than just instruction and practice. The person doing the “learning” has to be willing to let go of parts of themselves that had been with them for most of their life.

I’ve found mere desire to be a better leader is not enough. People’s psychology is riddled with land mines and powerful defense that won’t let them abandon a deeply held belief just because someone taught them that it was somehow counterproductive.

The people that make the leap are usually feeling “stuck” or having some kind of recurring breakdown that they just can’t bear anymore and don’t know what else to do.

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