Engineering Leadership Styles

For engineering managers, leadership style has become an essential way of establishing and distinguishing who you are and which teams you are suitable to lead. Because of this, leadership style has become a frequent topic of interest in engineering management circles, making appearances in writings and talks. But style can seem like a vague term that doesn’t convey a lot of meaning about what the concept includes or why it holds such a central role in the lives and livelihoods of engineering managers.

In this chapter, we will demystify what an engineering leadership style is and why it matters. We will review the origins of leadership styles and where they come from as relevant to modern software development. We will introduce common engineering leadership-style archetypes and discuss their effectiveness. We will close the chapter by learning how to develop your own style with intention and authenticity.

By the end of this chapter, you will...

What is an engineering leadership style?

Whether intentional or not, every engineering manager has a leadership style. This is because an engineering leadership style is no more than salient beliefs reflected in actions over a period of time. Let’s break down this definition.

Leadership styles reflect salient beliefs. If your strongest belief is that engineering managers’ role is to serve their teams, you will develop a servant leadership style. If your primary belief or interest is in mentoring and teaching your team, you will develop a coaching leadership style. If your primary belief or concern is controlling your team’s actions, you will develop a commanding or micromanaging leadership style. Everyone holds many beliefs, some of which may be conflicting or competing, so it is the salient beliefs that tend to win out and define your leadership style.

Beliefs must be reflected in actions to become a part of your leadership style. Your actions develop and...

Leadership styles and their origins

We have learned that on an individual level, leadership styles stem from beliefs and abilities, but what broader trends should we be aware of? Can the origins of leadership styles provide us with useful information today?

In this section, we will explore these questions and provide a brief overview of what we know about leadership styles from studies and writings. We will cover three foundational views of leadership styles and how you can incorporate the teachings from them into your efforts to develop an effective style for yourself.

We will briefly review the following:

• Leadership styles in nature
• Leadership styles in philosophy
• Leadership styles in management theory

Each of these views has something to teach us about leadership styles and why they exist. Let’s start with leadership styles in nature.

Natural origins

Leadership is not unique to humanity; it can be seen across the majority of the animal kingdom...

Engineering leadership style archetypes

Most of us have had at least some exposure to the vast world of thought on modern engineering leadership styles and their best practices. There are seemingly endless sources presenting sets of leadership styles for engineering managers. It can be overwhelming to dig through this information. How can we approach these styles with intention and avoid just adopting whatever feels easiest?

In this section, we will learn what defines classic engineering leadership styles and in which circumstances they are most useful. You will learn how to look at these styles as a continuum instead of distinct personas. You will learn how to approach these styles as sets of practices that can be layered together to form a comprehensive style of your own, suitable to the needs of your engineering team.

To that aim, this section is broken down to compare and contrast leadership styles in the following subsections:

• The commander and the servant
• The...

What is the right leadership style for me?

Back in Chapter 1, we learned how engineering managers spend their day and how this can be adjusted to the context of their position. That context can also be applied to your leadership style. An engineering leadership style is more personally driven than day planning, but context is still an important consideration. Your leadership style must be appropriate to your company culture, engineering culture, and team goals. You can have your own leadership style, but in cases where it conflicts with your company culture or engineering culture, it may become confusing for your team or unsustainable for you. There may be some cases where you can fly under the radar and break with company culture in service of creating a healthy atmosphere local to your team, but in practice, this can be difficult to maintain in the long term.

Contextualizing your leadership style to team goals means that you may need to lean into or away from some aspects of your...

Summary

In this chapter, we learned what engineering leadership styles are, along with their foundations and historical context. We learned what defines leadership styles we commonly see in engineering teams, along with the benefits and drawbacks of those styles. Finally, we learned how to fine-tune our leadership styles over time.

We looked at the following key concepts:

• An engineering leadership style comes from salient beliefs reflected in actions over a period of time
• Leadership styles have a multitude of origins and are contingent on the industry practices and zeitgeist of the time
• Common engineering leadership styles today can be applied to suit varying levels of leadership purpose, guidance, and vision
• Your own leadership style can also be adjusted for workplace context, feedback, and results

Your engineering leadership style is a powerful tool for building consensus and connections with your team. Maintaining awareness and intentionality in your...

Further reading

• Management’s Three Eras: A Brief History by Rita McGrath (https://hbr.org/2014/07/managements-three-eras-a-brief-history)
• Is Your Leadership Style Right for the Digital Age? by Jerry Wind (https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-right-leadership-style-for-the-digital-age/)
• Finding the Right Balance — and Flexibility — in Your Leadership Style by Jordan, Wade, and Yokoi (https://hbr.org/2022/01/finding-the-right-balance-and-flexibility-in-your-leadership-style)
• Does Your Leadership Style Scare Your Employees? by Nihar Chhaya (https://hbr.org/2019/07/are-your-employees-scared-of-you)