How to Let Your Manager Know About Your Goals and Aspirations
❗Very important: You should let them know ASAP, I'll tell you why!
Senior Engineer to Lead: Grow and thrive in the role (24 hours left to enroll!)
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In the course, we will particularly focus on the development of much needed people / communication and leadership skills in order to grow from engineer to leader!
If you are not enrolled yet, you have 24 hours left!
I’ve also received a lot of messages from you, that you can’t make it to July Cohort, so I decided to open a second cohort in September!
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For all other readers, you can get the course for 25% off!
Use code ENGLEADERSHIP for 25% off or use this link: Senior Engineer to Lead where the code is already applied.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Let’s get back to this week’s thought.
Intro
There are a lot of different types of managers, some may be easier to talk to and some may be a lot harder.
But one thing is certain, no matter what kind of manager you have, you should let them know about your goals and aspirations as soon as possible.
I’ll tell you why next!
You should let your manager know about your goals and aspirations ASAP
The reason is that if your manager doesn’t know about your goals and where you wish to grow, they won’t be able to put you in the position to showcase the skills needed to grow to that position.
And it’s not just important what you say, but how you say it as well.
We are all human beings and we react much differently when we sense excitement, motivation or drive.
So make sure to do exactly that. Let them know about all of the books that you read, newsletters that you read, courses that you are taking + any other resources from which you are learning.
So, how should you approach your manager?
My advice is to do that in a 1:1 meeting.
Share your excitement with them about your goals and aspirations and ask about direction on how you can get there. Here are two examples that you can get inspiration from for your case:
Example #1:
I’ve been reading about technical leadership for some time now! I have also taken the course on how to grow from Senior Engineer to a Lead role.
I really believe that the position of tech lead would fit me well and would be really great to try myself in that position someday.
What would be the steps to take in order to do that?
Example #2:
I have been learning a lot about management lately, reading different books, reading a lot of articles and I am also thinking about taking a course!
I really believe that this might be the right path for me. Is there any way I can try myself?
What would be the steps to take to become a team lead?
When you say it, make sure to say it with excitement, it matters a lot!
Doing the pre-work makes the approach easier
If you are already considered a credible person with a good reputation, the overall percentage of success is much higher.
But I do recommend telling your manager sooner rather than later. Don’t wait to do all these things first and then ask.
My recommendation is to ask first and focus on all of these things, then you can potentially follow up on your ask.
Here are some of the things, which would help you:
Build a good relationship with your manager (ask them a couple of questions non-work related at the beginning of the 1:1). Read more about how to have great 1:1 meetings with your manager here: How to have great 1:1 meetings with your manager (paid article).
Build your credibility (focus on on your skills and how people perceive you). Read more about how you can do that here: How to build credibility in the engineering industry (paid article).
Build a good reputation for yourself → become the go-to person for a certain domain. Read more about how to do that here: Become the go-to engineer in your organization.
Keep a brag keep list of all the wins that you achieve. Read more about how you can do that here: Keep a brag list of the wins you achieved, thank me later (paid article).
Become a team player and a great person to work with. Read about the importance of this here: Great teams build great software (paid article).
Propose an impactful improvement to the codebase and own the implementation. That showcases you as someone who can find impact on their own and have the perseverance and drive to finish it.
Become a business and product-minded engineer. Read more here: A good engineer thinks like a product manager + 🎁 Notion template: List of questions to ask before making a technical decision included (paid article).
🎁 Notion Template: Tell your manager about your goals and aspirations
Use this template to help you define your pitch to share your goals and aspirations with your manager.
Paid subscribers, you can get it here: 🎁 Products for paid subscribers.