Lean into your peer group
Hey!
Welcome back to another week of musings. This week has been particularly hot in my apartment, so I took out all the summer clothing.
This weekend, we got to Dogsit for some friends, so we had one more dog at home.
I hope you had a restorative weekend.
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I was recently going back and forth on a topic I felt I was not correctly getting out of the problem.
Instead of ruminating, I started asking peers for advice and brainstorming ideas. Those conversations helped me overcome my problem and get outside my head.
Shared problems
Having a peer group always helps with access to sharing anecdotes and problems with other people. Sometimes, we want advice. Other times, we want someone who might have lived in a similar situation to listen.
Extending Network
Another good thing about having a close peer group is accessing their network and peer group. You can find a mentor or help with another team (if your peer group is inside your organization).
Accessing an extended network of people creates a lot of leverage for you!
Empathy
One thing that happens as you move higher on the ladder is fewer people in the same situation. For example, when you're a junior or senior engineer, there are fewer staff engineers, principals, etc.
You can help newly promoted people, or more tenured folks can help you.
Sharing similar problems is a great way to feel that you're not alone.
Finding your peers
When I started looking for people similar in scope, I looked at my manager's peers to see if they had an IC who reported to them.
I reached out via Slack, asking questions about how they operated or with questions about their team and how they fit the organization.
From those initial conversations, I managed to keep the conversation going with a few people who have become people I can rely upon.
Keep the conversation going
When I sync with my peers, I can call them one-on-ones, like the one with my manager. I scheduled them as "coffee time" or, in general, tried to keep them informal for the most part.
One way to have this relationship is through give-and-take or what we each bring to the table. I was mostly looking for people to share experiences, good and bad, so I tried not to make the whole thing too formal.
Your turn!
Are you syncing with your peers? Are you even aware of who they are? Let me know by replying to this email!
Happy coding!
Things I discovered in the past week
- I've been listening to the sessions a local record shop puts out here in SF. Enjoy some Latin sounds
- The Looking Glass: Holding Up the Mirror is a post by Julie Zhuo (author of The Making of a Manager) around feedback, tips, and tricks.
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