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From Doing to Enabling: The Shift for New Engineering Managers

It’s a familiar scenario: a highly successful engineer gets promoted to manager, eager to apply their technical skills to leading a team. But quickly, they find themselves drowning in meetings, context switching constantly, and feeling less effective than when they were writing code. They’re still doing – firefighting, problem-solving, and getting hands dirty – but failing to enable their team to do their best work. This transition, from individual contributor to leader, is a challenging one. This article explores how to shift your focus from ‘doing’ to ‘enabling,’ a critical step for new engineering managers.

The Trap of “Doing”​

Many new managers fall into the trap of continuing to do the work themselves. Perhaps they're perfectionists, or they simply haven't fully learned to trust their team. It feels faster and easier to fix a bug or write a quick script than to explain it to someone else. But this approach is unsustainable. It creates a bottleneck, prevents team members from growing, and ultimately limits the manager’s impact. The goal isn’t to be the best engineer on the team, but to build the best engineering team.

Defining EM Productivity: Shifting the Focus​

True productivity for an engineering manager isn’t measured by lines of code written or features shipped directly by them. It’s measured by the output of the entire team. This requires a fundamental shift in how you define success. Here's how to measure it:

  • Team Velocity: Track the amount of work the team consistently delivers in each sprint or iteration. A clear visual representation (like a burn-down chart) can quickly highlight trends and areas for improvement. This isn't about squeezing more work out of the team, but about removing impediments and improving processes.
  • Developer Growth: Are your team members learning new skills and taking on more responsibility? Track individual progress through regular 1:1s, skill gap analyses, and encouragement of opportunities like conference attendance, online courses, and internal pairing/mentorship programs. Look for increased autonomy and confidence within the team.
  • Reduced Cognitive Load: Protect your team's focus. Track metrics like time spent in meetings (and ensure they're valuable!), number of interruptions, and frequency of context switching. Survey the team regularly to gauge their stress levels and identify sources of frustration.
  • Systemic Improvements: Invest in long-term efficiency. Measure the impact of process changes by tracking key indicators like reduced cycle time, fewer bugs in production, faster onboarding of new team members, or improved code quality metrics (e.g., test coverage, code complexity).

Remember, these indicators aren't about immediate results. They're about building a sustainable, high-performing team over the long term.

Cultivating the Right Mindsets​

Shifting from ‘doing’ to ‘enabling’ isn’t just about changing what you do, but how you think. Here are some key mindsets to cultivate:

  • Delegate to Empower: Resist the urge to take on tasks yourself. Instead, identify opportunities to delegate challenging assignments to team members, providing guidance and support but allowing them to own the outcome. Example: Instead of fixing a complex bug yourself, pair with a junior engineer to help them understand the code and walk them through the debugging process. This builds their skills and confidence while freeing up your time.
  • Focus on Removing Blockers: Your primary job is to clear the path for your team. Actively listen in 1:1s to identify impediments – whether technical, organizational, or personal. Hold retrospective meetings to surface recurring issues and brainstorm solutions. Example: If the team is consistently slowed down by a slow build process, prioritize fixing the build infrastructure.
  • Embrace "Good Enough": Perfection is the enemy of progress. While maintaining high standards is important, recognize that sometimes "good enough" is sufficient, especially for prototypes or non-critical features. This allows the team to iterate faster and deliver value more quickly. Example: Don't spend days optimizing a feature that users won't even notice. Focus on delivering core functionality first and iterating based on user feedback.
  • Trust Your Team: You hired these people for a reason. Believe in their abilities and give them the space to grow and innovate. Resist the urge to micromanage and instead focus on providing constructive feedback and support. Example: Give team members autonomy over their tasks and allow them to choose the best approach to solve a problem.

A Story of Transition​

Sarah, a newly promoted engineering manager, was initially overwhelmed. She found herself constantly jumping into code reviews, fixing bugs, and attending endless meetings. Her team, while talented, seemed hesitant to take ownership of tasks. She realized she was falling into the “doing” trap.

Sarah started by consciously prioritizing her time. She blocked off time for 1:1s and dedicated herself to actively listening to her team's challenges. She started delegating more tasks, even if it meant initially taking more time to explain the requirements. Slowly, she began to see a shift. Team members started taking more initiative, ownership increased, and the overall velocity of the team improved. Sarah realized that her success wasn’t measured by her individual contributions, but by the success of her team.

The Ongoing Journey​

The shift from doing to enabling is an ongoing process. It requires self-awareness, empathy, and a willingness to learn and adapt. As a new engineering manager, embrace the challenge, trust your team, and focus on building a high-performing, empowered team. You’ll find that the rewards are far greater than anything you could achieve on your own.