The Executive Brief
Hiring a new Vice-President of Engineering (VPE). It should be no brainer, right? After all, you were an outstanding VPE, so you know exactly what to look for. No problem!
Or is it?
Many CTOs that I’ve mentored struggle with this. Heck, I’ve struggled with it too. It’s actually a very difficult role to hire for. You want a leader, an architect, cloudops, qa, and a developer all rolled up into one person. Oh, and they have to be able to understand and support the wider needs of the business.
It can feel a little like finding a purple squirrel who excels at taming unicorns.
This week I’ll share some advice on the best two traits to look for in your next VPE hire.
Best Traits of a VP Engineering
I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with some great VPs of Engineering.
These are leaders that went on to become CTOs and take on other C-level executive roles. They made big improvements in our organization, changed the culture for the better, and delivered on significant initiatives to move the business forward.
I’ve also had to manage some leaders who were the exact opposite and kept the organization frozen and under-performing.
But let’s talk about the trait that is most common in the best of the best VPEs.
Actually, its two traits I’ve noticed:
They were great at diplomacy
They were great at managing team energy
Of course, it doesn’t mean they were perfect. In fact, one of them wasn’t the strongest on the technical details. And, another one really struggled with making presentations.
But that didn’t matter because they were 5x more impactful than their closest peers.
Here was their secret:
Diplomacy
Think about how many opinionated stakeholders a VP of Engineering has to manage in order to get anything done. And at the same time they have to be careful not to annoy anyone too much or their initiatives may not succeed.
For example, there’s their own boss, the CTO, who is likely both tech & business-savvy and probably not the easiest to handle. There’s also the head of Product who generates a huge amount of the company’s revenue and has the self-confidence to match. Then there is their own team of often times “prickly” engineers. Oh, and there’s the product team who have a myriad of their own separate priorities and objectives. And of course, in some circumstances the VPE has to work directly with the CEO, who may have a bigger ego than everyone else combined!
So, yes, diplomacy is a vital skill for VPE excellence.
The VPE has to be a clever chameleon to push initiatives through and get big work done. And they can’t hide anywhere. If they do stick their heads in the technical sandbox so to speak, either their tenure will be limited or their reputation for getting things done may take a hit.
But, how many rockstar engineers who are fast-approaching the VP level are really good at diplomacy? About 5% - 10% in my experience. So if you find one hold on to them. And if you want to be one then learn the skill of diplomacy because you’ll need it.
Managers of Team Energy
This one is even harder than being a diplomat.
Managing the energy of the team is a key skill that can make or break a VPE. Aligning everyone’s energies at the same time and pointing that energy towards the right goal is more art than science.
The VPE needs to motivate their team, get them excited, encourage them, create healthy tension for them, and get the most out of each of their unique skill sets. And they have to cultivate all of those things in exactly the right balance.
That’s super difficult.
The best leaders seem to have a knack for it though. They’re able to sense when their teams can be pushed and when it’s best to slow down the pace of work. They have a gift for understanding each persons maximum tolerances and potential.
These traits are very hard to identify during a typical VPE interview process, but it can be done. I’ll write a future article on that.
What is clear is that the best VPEs have both the skill for diplomacy and managing the energy of their teams on top of other skills like technical expertise or domain knowledge.
Here are some other articles from Technocratic that you may enjoy as well: