Think Like a Software Engineering Manager

4 Managing performance

This chapter covers

• The importance of managing performance
• Best practices for performance management and expectations
• Performance reviews
• How to manage high and low performance

Performance management involves embracing employees’ strengths and being open to innovative ideas—even ones that change the status quo.

—Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Apple, Inc.

As a new engineering manager (EM) overseeing critical product features for a team, you have one engineer, David, who consistently meets deadlines and takes on additional stretch work. Jason, another strong engineer, focuses on streamlining technical processes but misses key deliverables due to this extra effort. Although Jason’s contributions have long-term benefits, ...