Trust and Competence

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  • The trust you receive from your team will be a function of your perceived competence.
  • Your competence will be perceived as a function of your observed behaviours + observed accomplishments constantly being compared against what people expect you to accomplish, how they expect you to serve them, how they expect you to behave, and their perceptions of your role.
  • A lot of what you do and how you behave as a manager in a variety of contexts cannot and will not be directly observable.
  • Of the total sum of your behaviours and accomplishments, the non-observable ones may constitute a high percentage.
  • The trust given to you, and your perceived competence, may therefore (unfortunately) hinge on a small portion of your net behaviours and accomplishments (the proverbial tip of the iceberg).
  • As a manager, it is in your best interest to find ways to surface accomplishments that are expected to payoff in the long term, or meaningful progress made on issues that are important to the team.
Originally published May 1, 2024 | View revision history
sidshank

I’m Siddhartha (Sid) Shankar, and I am currently a Senior Engineering Manager at GitHub serving the CodeQL dynamic languages team, supporting JavaScript/TypeScript, Python and Ruby. I have had the privilege of leading and managing engineering teams since 2015. I’m at my best when engaging in opportunities that require bringing people together - often across teams - to deliver value to customers in a sustainable and pragmatic way. More about the author →

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