| Yes: you need trust so people on the team feel safe to share what they think. I’ve personally tried to earn as much trust with actions as possible. E.g. this was my approach in having (eventually) all team members lead projects [1]. For example, on the projects people led, I gave them free hand on most, if not all things. People were free to decide how to do standups (or not do them at all, like some did) and hopefully these experiences helped them both shape their opinions and share these more freely in other situations as well. As an engineer, I also hated being micromanaged and remembered situations when I was not comfortable speaking up. I tried to remember all of these and create and environment where this does not happen - eg never shoot down anyone’s idea, don’t assume I know better just because I have a manager title. Basically, try to live up to the manager I would have wanted back in the day. And yes, managers’ words always carry more weight, which is the nature of a hierarchical dynamics (as much as I wish it was less so). I don’t know how to counter that beyond trying to foster a safe place where criticising the manager (me) is also completely fine, and to be celebrated (as it takes courage) and never result in any real or perceived retaliation. [1] https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/a-team-where-everyone-is-... |
This will never be the case. Never. Engineers can sometimes be slightly more open in technical arguments... senior engineers to much lesser extent - seniors learned that sharing what everyone truly thinks is prohibitively expensive to their career, no matter how much amazing boss you think you are.
Anything more than technical stuff, especially management style -- forget it. No one will share what they think, unless the situation is beyond repair, and at this point junior engineers will rather share to the skip level manager or HR (futile, thus junior engineers), and seniors will just a) check out or b) leave.
> foster a safe place where criticising the manager (me) is also completely fine, and to be celebrated (as it takes courage) and never result in any real or perceived retaliation
Cute.