Be a leader who eliminates problems

When I was thinking about engineering leadership the other day, it occurred to me that this is a good perspective to keep in mind as a leader:

Be a leader who eliminates problems

People generally don’t like problems, whether customers, the C-suite, product, or your reports. You can be the problem-zapper that your organization needs. See a problem? Make it go away. This one framework can describe so much of what effective managers do.

It almost feels like a video game to show up at work and eliminate problems. Problem-zapping can require different approaches. Sometimes relationship-building is needed. Sometimes you need to speak up to take initiative to address something. Sometimes you need to proactively address tech debt.

But in the end the result is a problem being gone.

From the other side, be careful that you are not creating problems as a manager.

It’s been a simple mental shorthand for me to remember what my ultimate role is as an engineering manager.

Let me know if you agree or what you think!