Lessons from Growing a Software Leadership Team

"We set up consistent weekly or biweekly syncs where they'd hold each other accountable, reminding each other of the most important things and reallocate ICs to help on the most critical projects for the organization, even when that was not necessarily the best thing for their direct squad."

"A major epiphany was realizing that his role wasn't just about being part of the boss's leadership group and rituals, but also about intentionally building a leadership group beneath him. They started with an off-site where managers and senior ICs shared personal struggles, like repeated incidents or scope confusion, and also aligned on priorities and goals for the next cycle as a team in a format similar to a Lean Inception."

"By investing in that leadership team's coherence with clear scopes and a sense of making their peers their first team, they became multipliers of culture and performance. Rather than me being the bottleneck, they are helping each other, giving each other feedback, deciding what to promote and what to push back, and discussing and iterating on visions & strategy."

Thiago Ghisi emphasized that effective leadership requires intentionally building a strong leadership group beneath you rather than just participating in the boss's leadership rituals. His approach included off-sites where managers and senior ICs shared personal struggles and aligned on priorities using Lean Inception methods to build empathy and trust. Consistent weekly or biweekly syncs held leaders accountable to organizational goals, enabling them to reallocate resources to critical projects. Expectation calibration at cycle starts ensured managers agreed on performance standards at each level. This coherent leadership team became multipliers of culture and performance, reducing bottlenecks and enabling peer feedback, promotion decisions, and strategic iteration.

Read at InfoQ