Learn concepts like management skills, working with different people, and working out who our team is and what they do.

Become an Effective Engineering Manager

The technology industry is facing a skills crisis. It’s because we don’t know how to manage people. This module aims at improving our managing skills. In this module, we’ll start with learning concepts like managing ourselves, interacting with humans, having one-on-one meetings with managers, and choosing the right person for the job. Next, we’ll learn how to deal with different people and projects. In the end, we'll touch upon the modern workspace concepts and life cycle of startups.

Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager

Take a moment and consider a piece of confidential information. What comes to mind? A redacted dossier leaked from the FBI? The inside of Area 51? The salary information of your direct reports? As a manager, you’re going to have access to all sorts of sensitive information, whether you like it or not. In your one-on-ones, you’ll talk about confidential topics, professional and personal. Additionally, as a manager, others may divulge secrets to you, knowing that they can come to you in confidence. Or worse, they may spread rumors to attempt to curry favor with you.

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Before we dive into covering how to share just enough information and how to handle workplace politics, let’s look at two concepts related to information to glean some insights into how you should think about the information that you collect as a manager.

Let's start with a sexy topic: espionage. Spies are cool, right? James Bond escapes the exploding train via the window with merely seconds to spare, clutching the laptop that's storing the nuclear launch code. Ethan Hunt scales the Burj Khalifa while being battered by heavy crosswinds. But what actually _is_ spying? According to Wikipedia, espionage is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information or divulging the same without the permission of the holder of the information. It's a high-risk, high-reward activity.

Although you may not find yourself abseiling down the Hoover Dam or hacking into the mainframe of the CIA any time soon, as a manager, you do have some similarities with spies. You obtain and handle sensitive information that is of the utmost importance. It just might not be as important as the nuclear codes. Although it may seem bizarre to compare ourselves to spies, by doing so, we can highlight some important points:


- We should never attempt to obtain information without the permission of the information holder. 

- We should never attempt to obtain information for the benefit of another party.
- We should never attempt to obtain information using deceitful means. 


# Not to be a spy

Hang on, doesn’t all of this sound entirely obvious? Well, yes. Perhaps, it does when you read it, but isn’t spy-like behavior tempting sometimes? Once I was accidentally sent a spreadsheet from Finance containing the salary information of everyone in the engineering department, rather than the filtered version showing only my teams. What did I do? I told them what they’d done and deleted the spreadsheet without opening it. I didn’t have permission to see it, despite having been sent it. You may find yourself in similar situations, and you’ll need to remember _not_ to be a spy.

The inverse is also true. People may try to extract information from you for their own or others’ gain. Be careful of conversations after work at the bar. Be aware of others who may try to pry to find out various pieces of secondary information that they can piece together to infer what they really want to know. Just be cautious.

Learn how you fit into the roles of spy and gatekeeper for your company.

Spies and Gatekeepers

Access to sensitive information