Episode 25: Being a leader first, then a manager with Sarah Abrantes
Jul 6, 2024
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Experienced VP of Engineering, Sarah Abrantes, discusses the importance of being a leader before a manager, managing areas without background, and countering authority differences. She shares insights on transitioning to managing other managers, navigating unfamiliar territories in tech management, and the challenges of stakeholder management in leadership roles.
Act as a leader before becoming a manager to set the right foundation.
Establish open communication and personal connections when managing managers to ensure effective leadership.
Deep dives
Sarah Abrantes' Leadership Journey and Transition to Management
Sarah Abrantes shares how her leadership journey started as an individual contributor, emphasizing the importance of acting as a lead even before having an official management title. She discusses the natural progression from leadership roles to official management positions, highlighting the distinction between leadership and management.
Sarah Abrantes' Experience Managing Other Managers at N26
Sarah Abrantes reflects on her experience managing other managers at N26 during a period of significant growth, where she had to establish new structures and delegate responsibilities to tech leads and engineering managers. She emphasizes the importance of building a supportive community of managers before officially hiring them, showcasing her proactive approach to leadership.
Challenges and Surprises in Managing Other Managers
Sarah Abrantes acknowledges the difficulty of letting go in a managerial role, highlighting the challenge of transitioning from executing tasks to being accountable for them. She discusses the shift in responsibilities, emphasizing the need to empower managers to bring their own ideas while maintaining accountability for team performance.
Strategies for Maintaining Connection and Visibility as a Manager of Managers
In navigating the complexities of managing managers, Sarah Abrantes underscores the importance of maintaining open communication, fostering personal connections, and proactively addressing stakeholders' needs. She emphasizes the significance of setting clear expectations with managers and stakeholders, leveraging regular reporting channels, and prioritizing visibility and personal connections to support effective management.
In this conversation with VP of Engineering, Sarah Pimentel Abrantes, we cover the importance of being a leader before being a manager, the challenge of letting go at different stages, how to counteract authority differences in skip levels and also managing areas where you don’t necessarily have that background and much more.
Guest Biography:
Sarah Abrantes has experienced a lot of different tech roles over her career. She’s collected knowledge from development, business analysis, process engineering, testing and management, all acquired in a vast range of company and team sizes.She has played senior management roles and helped level up engineering leads over the last years in organisations such as GoEuro, N26, GetYourGuide and Tier Mobility, having recently joined Adyen as VP of Engineering.