,
11 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
Lots of thoughts around coaching engineers 1x1. Who should do it? How much should it cost? Can it scale?
Re: who. I had a manager tell me that their director wouldn’t approve an outside coach because the manager’s job description included “coaching”. Why should the company pay someone else to do the manager’s job?
Here’s the thing. The coaching isn’t the same. A manager has a half hour once a week (at best). This makes sense because 1) they have a broad scope to cover and 2) the opportunity cost of their time is high.
When I’m primarily a coach, there is no opportunity cost to my time. I’m doing what I’m being paid to do. I can dig in for an hour or more on a technical, project management, or relationship blocker. I can follow up in a couple of days to accelerate the learning.
So, as to who, managers can be coaches. I can be a different kind of coach.
Price: this is a tough one because what I’m talking about doesn’t have many analogs. Executive coaches cost upwards of $1000/hour. What I’m talking about is more specialized than that.
What is the value of an effective technical leader over an effective technical contributor? The market thinks there is a difference. If I can help someone grow from contributor to leader in a way that might not happen otherwise, how much “should” I collect?
I don’t have an answer to this question. The numbers that make sense to me leave prospects gasping. The numbers they quote back don’t make sense to me. If there’s one lesson I keep learning, it’s, “Don’t do business that doesn’t make sense.”
Scale? Yes it can, but it’s not automatic. Many senior engineers can become effective coaches. However, the organization must be prepared for the opportunity cost of a senior engineer coaching instead of coding.
Coaching is a learnable skill, given foundational skills like empathy, self-acceptance, and story telling. Coaching also is great practice for those skills.
The Coaching Bonus? The coach learns more than the student. Makes it impossible for the student to catch up. At least until they become a coach :)
