Coaching Corner Volume 4
Welcome to Cameron's Coaching Corner, where we answer questions from readers about leadership, career, and software engineering.
In this post, we'll look at a question posed by Bastien in the Engineering Manager's Slack Group on how to praise your team.
Context: New to Engineering Manager, managing 5 people and working in a 5 person team. My managees are not 100% on my team.
Details: OK, so I've quickly learnt how to spot mistakes and follow up improvements to both teams (one I manage and one I work on). I'm confident taking actions and communicating on all of that. But there is the other side -> congratulation and following up on behavior/action.
Example: The current team has low velocity. They recently finished the specs and review. It didn't happen for months (always late on that), but it's their "normal" velocity. I congratulated them, but I'm wondering if I should have since they "just did their job".
How do you congratulate your coworkers? Specifically
- Do you? Why or Why Not?
- How?
- On trivial/exceptional stuff?
- When and Where?