Invest in documentation
Documentation plays a crucial role in helping new hires onboard more efficiently and effectively. When new team members join, they are often faced with a steep learning curve as they try to understand the company culture, coding and development processes, and infrastructure and architecture used by the team. Clear and comprehensive documentation can help reduce this learning curve and get new hires up to speed more quickly.
Here are some more ways in which documentation can help new hires onboard:
Provides a clear roadmap: Documentation provides a clear roadmap for new hires to follow, especially in their first two weeks. Outline the steps they need to take to get set up with the tools and processes that they will need to be productive. This roadmap can help new hires save time and feel more confident in their ability to navigate the onboarding process, and reduce their reliance on other team members for guidance, which also saves your team members' time.
Ensures consistency: Documentation helps ensure that everyone on the team is following the same processes and procedures, which can help avoid confusion and mistakes. This is particularly important for technical teams, where consistency in coding and development processes is critical to the success of the project.
Facilitates collaboration: Documentation can also help new hires understand how their work fits into the broader picture of the team's goals and objectives. This can facilitate collaboration and help new hires contribute more effectively to the team's work.
Clear and comprehensive documentation is essential for helping new hires onboard more efficiently and effectively. By providing a clear roadmap, ensuring consistency, and facilitating collaboration, documentation can help new hires feel more confident and productive, and help the team achieve its goals more effectively.
Embrace changes to your role
As a technical leader, your role will inevitably change as your team grows and evolves. While you may have started out as a hands-on technical contributor, you will need to shift your focus towards management and leadership as your team size scales up. Embracing this change and adapting to it can be challenging, but it is essential for the success of your team. It's an important opportunity to grow and develop new skills.
Delegation is crucial for effective team management, as it allows you to focus on broader-scope tasks while ensuring that your team is making progress on their work. Here are some practical tips for guiding team members in a hands-off fashion:
Set clear expectations: When delegating tasks, be sure to communicate clear expectations about what needs to be done, the time frame for completion, and any specific guidelines or requirements. This will help your team members understand what is expected of them and work more efficiently.
Provide support and resources: While you may not be directly involved in the task, it's important to provide support and resources to help your team members succeed. This could include providing access to tools or software, connecting them with knowledge holders or customers, or offering guidance and feedback as needed.
Trust your team: Delegation requires trust, so it's important to have confidence in your team members' abilities to handle the task at hand. Be available to answer questions and provide guidance, but avoid micromanaging or interfering in the process.
By delegating effectively, you'll be able to free up your time for management and leadership tasks, while your team members will have the opportunity to develop new skills and take on more responsibility.
Consider delegating leadership, too
As your team grows, it may become necessary to create specialized sub-teams to manage certain areas of responsibility. For example, you might create a team focused on infrastructure and architecture, another team focused on coding and development, and a third team focused on testing and quality assurance. By delegating leadership to people on these specialized teams, you can ensure that each area of responsibility is managed effectively, while also allowing yourself to focus on the bigger picture and ensuring you still have time to dedicate to one-on-one meetings.
Here are some tips for delegating leadership effectively:
Choose the right people: When delegating leadership, it's important to choose team members who have the right skills, experience, and motivation for the role. Look for team members who have demonstrated leadership skills in the past, or who have a strong interest in the area of responsibility you are delegating.
Set clear expectations: Make sure that you set clear expectations for the sub-team you are delegating leadership to. This should include goals, timelines, and metrics for success. Be sure to communicate these expectations clearly and regularly to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Provide support and resources: Delegating leadership doesn't mean abandoning your team members. Continue to meet frequently with sub-teams to learn how they're doing firsthand, and whether they need additional guidance or resources.
Take it to work today:
Invest in documentation: Writing comprehensive internal documentation is crucial for helping new hires onboard more efficiently and effectively. By providing a clear roadmap for new hires to follow, you can save time, ensure consistency, and facilitate collaboration.
Embrace changes to your role: Recognize that as your team grows and evolves, your role will need to shift towards management and leadership. Embrace this change and adapt to it to ensure the success of your team.
Consider delegating leadership: As your team grows, consider creating specialized sub-teams to manage certain areas of responsibility. Delegating leadership to these sub-teams can help you manage your workload more effectively, and free up time for other important tasks. Be sure to choose the right people, set clear expectations, and provide support and resources for your sub-teams to be successful.
As a technical leader, scaling up a high performing team requires you to invest in comprehensive documentation, embrace changes to your role, and consider delegating leadership to specialized sub-teams. By investing in documentation, you can help new hires onboard more efficiently and ensure consistency in your team's processes. By adapting to your changing role, you can ensure that your team is set up for success as it grows and evolves. And by delegating leadership to specialized sub-teams, you can free up time for important tasks and manage your workload more effectively. These three tenants can help ensure that your team operates more efficiently and effectively as it grows and develops, and continues to achieve long-term success.