Comment by majormajor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by majormajor | Hacker News Reader

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> The next time I will require the role to be some type of director or IC/distinguished engineer hybrid that is operating with an authority level above that.

I've seen this go roughly. A director who brings in a lot of new technical views, challenging the perspectives and opinions held by the team, might not have an easier time than a staff engineer. The director was largely right, but dealt not just with technical resistance but with more political fallout of having disgruntled employees reporting to them.

Forcing change isn't easy. It can pay well, when upper management knows someone needs to take on that role, and doesn't have anyone already doing it, but authority alone won't solve your problems. Especially if your management doesn't want to be seen as the bad guy themselves.

Authority certainly helps. It's not everything but without authority you almost have no chance.

There's kinds of authority. "personal authority" can easily work better than "org chart" authority since it usually has respect and trust attached - which no mere org chart can grant.

Admittedly some org charts do grant "respect" - the same sort you give a rattlesnake.

There is the saying “always speak softly but carry a big stick”. It’s good to build up personal author but in the end it’s good to have the final say. Hopefully with buyin from everybody else.

The difference is usually in terms of negotiating details about the budget & resources you’ll have when you join, your own much larger severance package or equity package with acceleration provisions, etc.

Based on the degree of resources they put into you at a director level, the option is disallowed for other people to fail to work constructively to onboard your new ideas / approaches.

Definitely still may not work out, but it’s a different ballgame than a high level engineering hire, which (however foolish) many companies will still view like they are sweetening some pot just with the title and don’t have any plans to honor the agreed nature of the role.

If it is going roughly that's on the director. Soft skills come into play when trying to make changes. IMO, "forcing" change means there are already leadership skill gaps with the director.

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