Inside and Outside Leadership in Software Engineering: Part One — Mastering Inside Leadership
As an engineer, I always believed my value came from my ability to build the most elegant and efficient applications. And for a while, it was. My hard skills were my calling card. But as I transitioned into management, I quickly realized that leadership requires something very different.
At first, I rode the coattails of my technical expertise, but over time, the relevance of my hard skills started to fade. I was no longer in the trenches, writing code day in and day out. Leadership demands more than technical prowess — it requires the ability to communicate, make decisions, and strategize. The truth is, if you don’t shift focus to developing these soft skills, the ticking clock on your hard skills will ensure you either plateau or fail.
This graph illustrates the inevitable transition. As time goes on, the value of hard skills starts to decline, while the importance of soft skills rises. For technical leaders, this shift can be disorienting. After all, your hard skills are what got you here. But if you cling too tightly to them, you risk being left behind.
This realization is what led me to develop the concept of Inside-Outside Leadership. Inside Leadership is about setting up your team with the right talent, environment, and job design, so you can focus on Outside Leadership — staying ahead of market and tech trends, aligning with business priorities, and advocating for the needs of your team.
Leaders can’t afford to spend all their time in the engine room. Their real job is to chart the course for the future. The Inside-Outside Leadership framework gave me the balance I needed to move from the technical weeds to a broader, strategic perspective.
This dual approach has proved to be highly effective over many years. My team is now seen as the center of excellence in their specialty, outpacing their peers in similar functions within the company. This is further demonstrated by an extremely low attrition rate among full-time employees and consultants.
Lets start by exploring Inside Leadership.
The Building Blocks of Inside Leadership
I remember a time towards the end of my three-month parental leave when I was dreading the mountain of issues I’d return to. But to my surprise, my absence had resulted in little to no disruptions. My leaders had stepped up, taken on responsibilities I thought required my attention, and freed me up even further.
This experience underscored the power of Inside Leadership. Ever see a colleague responding to messages while displaying an out-of-office banner? That’s someone who struggles to take even a few hours off without things going wrong.
Inside Leaders want to take a two-week vacation sipping frozen drinks on a beach without worrying that the company will implode. When you have the right people in place, foster a supportive team environment, and thoughtfully designed roles, you create a system that allows your team to function smoothly without constant oversight.
Inside Leadership is composed of three key elements: Talent, Team Dynamics, and Job Design. The right talent sets the foundation, the right team dynamics strengthen it, and the right job design provides a supporting framework for both individual growth and team collaboration.
In this series, I’ll explore how Talent, Team Dynamics, and Job Design work together to build a high-performing, self-sufficient team:
Part 1 on Talent: Cultivating Adaptability and Commitment: A Guide for Engineering Managers to Drive Team Performance and Resilience
Part 2 on Team Dynamics: Fostering Healthy Conflict, Accountability, and Purpose: An Engineering Manager’s Guide to a Resilient Team
Mastering Inside Leadership
Looking back on what made these concepts successful in practice, I likely overlooked a few things. That’s where you come in. Test these ideas, share your experiences, and help me refine this framework for future leaders. Your feedback will not only influence my perspective but also enhance this guide for others.
But remember, Inside Leadership is only half the story. Without Outside Leadership, the framework is incomplete. In the next part of this series, we’ll dive into Outside Leadership. Stay tuned!
