Up to this point, we’ve talked in generalities. Let’s talk about a specific application, how some tools can be applied, and how each of the three manager-curated meetings can work. Of course, your development doesn’t have to follow this pattern but it’s certainly one way to move forward!

Define Your Destination

This is typically the hardest step. Fortunately for us, if you’re an engineer, junior through lead, we have an incredible resource for you: the Engineering Competency Map.

Download a copy (please don’t update it in place, this is a shared copy) and identify your current role and the next role you aspire to (if, indeed, you do). You can remove or hide the other columns if you find that helps!

If you know that you want to take your career in a direction but don’t know what the next role looks like, chat with your manager in your Professional Development Conversation meeting. That’s what it’s there for!

In Practice

Team Member: I want to get better at being a senior engineer!

Find a Guide

In this approach, all you really need to do is let your manager and other people you know or trust that you are starting this journey!

In Practice

Team Member: Hey, can you help me to get better at my job?

Manager: Of course!

Establish Your North Star

Don’t neglect to download a copy of the Mission and Values Statement and keep them fresh in your mind. It’s incredibly important, as you develop yourself, to ensure that you do so in a way that remains true to our Values.

In Practice

Team Member: I gotta keep my eyes on our five Values!

Find a Good Sextant

Take the Engineering Competency Map and periodically look at each competency. Then, on column G, make one of three notes:

• How you RECENTLY demonstrated that competency
• What you need to be able to demonstrate that competency
• What you need to build the competency so you can start demonstrating it

If you feel that you’re already demonstrating the competency, don’t rest on your laurels! Think through how you might apply it to other areas of your work. Or how you might demonstrate it more often, more completely. Or come up with ways to help others to build the competency themselves!

Once you’ve identified where you might have opportunities to adjust or learn, talk about it with your manager in your Goals and 1:1 conversations to figure out how you can move forward.

In Practice

Team Member: I want to get better at Leading/influencing others. The competency for a senior engineer says: Contributes to influencing within team, across IT, with business, with third party vendors or systems, progressive leadership within breadth of influence and influencing without authority

Manager: Can you give me an example of a time when you felt like you could have shown up differently?

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Manager: Looks like you have some great self-insight. Have you seen the book Leadership Without Authority? It has been instrumental in my personal journey.

Partner: No, I want to check it out, let’s add it to my goals. I’ll commit to finishing it by the end of the summer.

Hoist the Sails

You’ve got a destination, you’ve got your goals, time to give it a shot! Try out a new strategy, sign up for a new responsibility, take a training course, whatever makes sense to do the thing!

In Practice

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Course Correct

Regularly pause and look back. Add more notes to the Engineering Competency Map regarding what you’re experiencing. Then bring them up in the regular 1:1s that you have with your manager; consider adding a single competency to the agenda in each of your 1:1s so you can consistently check in! Your manager should be able to help you get clarity around why you might be encountering friction, suggest alternative approaches, move organizational boundaries, or provide opportunities.

In Practice

Team Member: The other day when the team disagreed with me, I felt like the lessons I took from the book didn’t really apply.

Manager: Yea, that one was tough. What other strategies do you think you might have used?

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Manager: Sounds like we agree that, in this situation, the team might have had a point. Let’s chat about the big picture and why their suggestions were important…

Team Member: Great!

AN IMPORTANT NOTE

As you continue to make notes on the Engineering Competency Map and make the progress that you’ve identified, you and your manager may talk about how those competencies show up on a Learning > Owning > Achieving spectrum:

• Learning – you’re developing the skill or working to demonstrate consistency
• Owning – you’re consistently successful when applying the skill in your daily work
• Advising – you’re recognized by your leaders and peers as a go-to for the skill

This will help you to understand how well the skills & competencies that you’re developing / demonstrating are delivering value to the company and contributing to your progress to your ultimate destination. Keep in mind, though – much like a unit test, the L>O>A scale can be highly dynamic. If a test has gone from green to red, it doesn’t necessarily mean that delivered value is broken, just that something changed. Likewise, it’s common to move back and forth on the scale as new responsibilities or tasks are taken on. This merely serves as a tool between you and your manager to identify opportunities to focus your continued and ongoing growth!

Land Ho!!!