#21 | Sunday reads for EMs
My favourite reads of the week to make your Sunday a little more inspiring.
👋 Hey, it’s Stephane. This is a new series in which every Sunday I share with you my favourite reads of the week. To accelerate your growth see: 50 Notion Templates | The EM’s Field Guide | CodeCrafters | Get Hired as an EM | 1:1 Coaching
Paid subscribers get 50 Notion Templates, The EM’s Field Guide, and access to the complete archive. Subscribe now.
Never forget how to delegate. This is the easiest framework for engineers.
tl;dr: Map delegation depth to the structure of a one-pager (Problem/Goal/Solution/Risks) and decide which “floor” to stop at based on the person’s experience. Staff+ engineers get just the problem, seniors get problem+goal, mid-levels get the full how, entry-levels get the how in addition to alternatives and risks associated with each.
The Silent Career Killer Most Engineers Miss
tl;dr: You think everyone’s aligned in meetings, but silence just means “uncertainty you haven’t uncovered yet”. Five practical signals to catch it early: “yeah makes sense” with no follow-up, quiet rooms with only 2-3 people talking, never-ending “what about” questions, public agreement but private venting, and constant “let’s take it offline”. The fix suggested here is ending meetings with written next steps, follow up 1:1 with quiet people, and reward disagreement instead of punishing it.
How to Be High Agency at Work
tl;dr: A playbook on the difference between engineers who wait for perfect conditions versus those with high agency. Covers mindset shifts and 20+ concrete examples. Eg. building throwaway tools to unblock yourself, creating mock-ups instead of debating in meetings, doing small delegated tasks yourself when writing the request takes longer than the work.
Stop Caring So Much About Your People
tl;dr: Argues that optimizing for team comfort over company health creates “spoiled pros” who can’t handle accountability. Delayed feedback compounds into organizational debt, and the nightmare scenario in your head (eg. someone quitting) rarely happens. Most people are professionals who can take direct truth.
Running 1:1s for Engineers
tl;dr: People/Product/Process framework for weekly 1:1s with scripts and Notion setup you can copy. ”How are things with the team?” / “What have you been working on?” / “Anything to make you more productive?” Write down their work updates visibly in a shared doc during the meeting to create accountability, never reschedule 1:1s, and keep Product section smallest since this isn’t a status meeting.
Most popular from last Sunday
Advice for New Principal Tech ICs (i.e., Notes to Myself)
If you enjoy articles like these, you might also like some of my most popular posts:
What did you read recently that you would like to share?