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At Mcgraw-hill, I manage diverse engineering teams spread across multiple locations and some are remote. Last year, I noticed one of our remote team members, Maggie has great potential. She is a senior engineer, an exceptionally talented individual whom I hired in 2020. And during my regular 1:1’s also, she had also expressed frustration during our regular 1:1s when I was discussing and probing about her career plans. because he felt her remote status limited her career advancement opportunities."

Recognizing Maggie’'s potential and understanding that every team member's growth contributes to the success of the whole team, I made it my goal to mentor and coach her to get her to the next level.

I initiated a series of actions tailored for Maggie's situation. First, I increased the frequency of our one-on-ones and used video calls to establish a stronger connection. I also introduced her to key projects that required cross-team collaboration, ensuring she had a high-visibility role with increasing complexity and scope. Moreover, I matched her with another senior remote mentor who had successfully climbed the career ladder.

Stretch goals

• More 1:1 facetime and frequency for remote members - It’s a great tool for me and my reports to get better alignment, strengthen relationships, build and earn trust. It enabled and taught me to improve my coaching and active listening skills with empathy, and to provide feedback.

I want to ensure the person is successful and are ready for the next role and level

• Leverage Communication and collaboration tools
• Remote Networking opportunities / Matched to a remote mentor as part of our DEI WLI
• Advocated her to Visibility and inclusion in important projects and creating stakeholder opportunities - GoReact Video assignment project which involved multiple teams across locations, is a high-visible critical initiative for our customers before the new semester starts / stretch goals
• Created opportunities for bi-monthly travel for in-house meetups with team and stakeholders

As a result of these initiatives, In about a quarter and half, Maggie's performance improved dramatically—she led the critical GoReact Video assignment project that succeeded on schedule, and also increased system integration efficiency by 25%. Within five months, she was promoted to EM role, despite the remote geographical barriers. And happy to say that she is thriving and doing great in her new role.

When planning a project across multiple teams, my approach focuses on clear communication, setting shared goals, and ensuring alignment on key milestones. For example, in a previous project, I coordinated with cross-functional teams to deliver a product launch on time by holding regular alignment meetings and using project management tools to track progress and dependencies.

As an Engineering Manager (EM), my role would be to facilitate collaboration, remove blockers, and ensure resources are available. In a past role, I helped resolve a critical technical issue by connecting the team with the right expertise and streamlining communication. To maintain team morale, I’ve organized team-building activities like hackathons and offsite retreats, which fostered better collaboration and trust within the team. This helps create a positive and motivated environment, leading to greater productivity and innovation.

At Octane, I had the following three steps. One is, I had a Confluent page wherein I would have the project up-to-date status on the stories, the features we are working and the state of each of the stories along with detailed explanation of where we are at, the risks the project carries, and also any test cases which have been passed. The second point of communication was via weekly status report wherein I would have a detailed status of where the project is trending, what are the risks associated, and identify the stories which was done in the previous week. The third part was, we had a bi-weekly communication wherein I would present the project status to all the stakeholders, including the leadership, to help them understand where the product is at, and are there any risks associated, and if so, how I'm trying to address it, and with whom I'm collaborating to get the risks addressed. By following these three steps and also being open to communicate on Slack, I had all the different channels open for communication with my stakeholders and leadership.

I believe that any top performer needs 3 things, autonomy, purpose and learning from a project. I would generally involve my top performer in a challenging project, so that he/she is challenged enough and finds the work interesting. 

metrics to measure top performer: 

1. Deliverables timelines - a top performer would be able to deliver projects faster than others. 

2. inspiring the team 

3. helping other members of the team and outside of the team grow. 

4. Code quality