The next phase

or, why I decided to go into eng leadership coaching and consulting

I’m now providing coaching and consulting for engineering leaders, helping them navigate the transition and find their authentic and effective leadership style. Here’s a little bit about how I decided that this would be the next part of my journey.

Five years and a few months ago, I joined a little company called The Obvious Corporation (precursor to A Medium Corporation). I wore many hats during my time there, took two maternity leaves, and helped grow the engineering team from 5 to over 60. When I joined, I was a product-focused engineer shipping features; late last year, I was managing 15 engineers and leading engineering on a product team of 12 engineers.

When I made the decision to move on, I thought about the parts of my job I found most rewarding, and I kept coming back to the role I played for many people as a coach and mentor. The feedback loop was initially longer than the dopamine rush of getting code working and merged (and deleting code — never underestimate the therapeutic value of code deletion), but I came to find immense joy in equipping people with the tools and mindsets to solve problems on their own.

In my own transition from engineer to engineering manager, I’m grateful that I had a trusted manager as well as other engineering managers I collaborated with and used as a sounding board. In speaking to many other companies, I found that most engineering leaders don’t have much support. They suddenly have to give feedback, deal with under-performers, restructure a team — all while being accountable for shipping product and increasing efficiency in product development. This can be a negative experience that contributes to low morale and team attrition.

A lot of coaches focus on executive coaching, but I’d love to also work with newer engineering managers, getting them a stronger trajectory earlier in their career, and more immediately positively influence all their direct reports. My approach is a mix of coaching methodologies and eng-org-specific best practices to help engineering leaders find solutions to the problems they face. Investing in coaching for leaders can help companies scale more seamlessly and promote internally with smoother transitions, boosting engagement and retention.

Most of my major life decisions have been made when something I’ve been mulling on subconsciously suddenly emerges with great clarity. This decision was no different. In my transition from engineer to engineering manager, knowing that I could have a bigger impact by moving out of the code and focusing on empowering others helped me wrap my head around my new role. So even though this new phase of empowering and leveling up engineering leaders across the industry feels very different — and honestly, scary, after almost a decade of full-time employment — it also feels like a very natural progression in expanding my own impact.

If you’d like to invest in your engineering leaders, I’d love to chat — email me at jean@jeanhsu.com.