# “Good Engineering Management” Is a Fad
[Original Article by Will Larson](https://lethain.com/good-eng-mgmt-is-a-fad/)
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## The Core Question
As I grow older, I often ponder:
> **Am I spending my time in the right way to advance my career and life?**
This is strikingly similar to what companies ask during performance reviews:
> **Is this engineering manager using their time effectively to advance the organization?**
Despite sounding related, my experience says these answers are **rarely connected**.
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## Shifting Models of Engineering Management
We’re living through a peculiar moment:
Many managers are being told *everything they did in the last decade was wrong*. Without adopting a radically new model, they risk being left behind.
If you prefer a video format, here’s a [recording of my talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q98TAMoiMI) and the corresponding [slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17lTreuVdYMNOr7k2XLzrshEJnB-StaNUzAyh9tE0b5w/edit?slide=id.g39f551c2725_0_0#slide=id.g39f551c2725_0_0).
**Great leadership is also just a passing trend.**
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### 2000s: Efficient Navigators
- I started my career at **Yahoo** (late 2000s).
- In two years, I only had two 1:1s with my manager:
- First: feedback on a colleague’s work.
- Second: telling him I was leaving to [join Digg](https://lethain.com/digg-v4/).
- By today’s standards: harshly judged.
- Yet his style mirrored *The Soul of a New Machine* era — focused on removing obstacles, finding opportunities, navigating large organizations.
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### 2010s: The Age of Hypergrowth
- Hiring strong engineers was the **bottleneck to growth**.
- Budgets were limitless.
- Managers advised to *stop coding* — it made sense then.
- Retention, motivation, and empowerment became **leaders’ primary goals**.
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### Now (2020s+): Hands on Keyboards
- Late 2022 onward:
- **End of ZIRP** (Zero Interest Rate Policy).
- **Rise of LLMs** (Large Language Models).
- Deep, complex engineering orgs replaced or reshaped.
- Flattened teams.
- Former coordination-heavy roles now expected to be **technically hands-on**.
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## Morality Tales in Leadership
After every business shift, a *morality narrative* emerges:
- **2010s morality tale:** Empowering engineers is “good.”
- Reality: Recruiting competition dictated policies.
- **2020s morality tale:** Mid-level bureaucracy is bad.
- Reality: End of cheap capital + AI optimism.
The truth? **Business fundamentals drive change** — morality tales are just attractive framing.
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## Core Message
> *“Great leadership” is often a passing industry fad.*
Shifts in fundamentals will keep redefining what “good management” means.
If you follow each morality tale literally, you may find yourself **obsolete after the next pivot**.
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## Skills That Survive Industry Shifts
Leadership skills that remain valuable **through cycles** fall into two buckets:
1. **Core Skills** – essential in any era.
2. **Growth Skills** – determine career ceiling.
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### Core Skills
#### 1. Execution
Deliver outcomes reliably.
- Examples: shipping projects, managing incidents, sprint planning.
#### 2. Team Building
Shape teams for sustainable success.
- Examples: hiring, coaching, resource advocacy.
#### 3. Ownership
Take responsibility for outcomes and progress.
- Examples: tackling hard problems, addressing systemic issues.
#### 4. Alignment
Create shared understanding across stakeholders.
- Examples: documenting priorities, crisis updates.
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## Growth Skills
#### 1. Taste
Judgment about what is “good” in tech, business, or process.
- Example: avoid risky rewrites, refine product ideas.
#### 2. Clarity
Make decisions and priorities transparent and understandable.
- Example: specify concrete solutions to complex problems.
#### 3. Navigating Ambiguity
Turn ill-defined problems into actionable solutions.
- Example: launching new business lines.
#### 4. Working Across Timescales
Balance short-term wins with long-term stability.
- Example: protect long-term goals despite short-term cost.
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## Self-Assessment Prompts
Use these questions to reflect on your strengths:
### Execution
- When did your team last overcome delivery friction?
- Most successful high-urgency project?
- When were you last pulled into an executive-priority problem?
### Team Building
- Last exceptional hire?
- Retention of your strongest players?
- Candidate demand for your team?
### Ownership
- Big obstacle overcome recently?
- Persistent problem solved permanently?
### Alignment
- Stakeholder surprise—how to prevent repeat?
- Stakeholder trust/list willingness to join your org?
### Taste
- Decision improved due to your involvement?
- Design altered by subtle input?
- Anticipated issues before they occurred?
### Clarity
- Recent difficult trade-off and reasoning.
- Decision reversals—why?
### Navigating Ambiguity
- Stalled problem you unlocked.
- Reason senior leaders bring vague problems to you.
### Working Across Timescales
- Recent short vs. long-term trade-off.
- Communication of such trade-offs.
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## Skills Can Shift Categories
Sometimes **core** skills in one era become less valued in another.
Example: “Execution” mattered less in hypergrowth than today.
Industry pivots demand broad competency to avoid sudden obsolescence.
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## Energy Management
From [*The Engineering Executive’s Primer*](https://www.amazon.com/Engineering-Executives-Primer-Impactful-Leadership/dp/1098149483/):
> The ideal allocation of work balances impact with tasks that **energize you**.
If coding motivates you, code a bit more.
If fixing clunky processes excites you, pursue that — even if efficiency gains are modest.
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## The Forty-Year Career Perspective
From “[The Forty-Year Career](https://lethain.com/forty-year-career/)”:
- **Trade-offs:** pace, relationships, prestige, profit, learning.
- Decisions early compound over decades.
- Align priorities with personal life constraints and future goals.
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## Final Thought
Without deliberate self-awareness and adaptation, a sustainable career is nearly impossible.
Stay broad in skills, balance energy, and remember: **leadership fads change, fundamentals endure**.
