In my opinion, this is really what differentiate a Principal from a Staff and a Staff from a Senior Engineer.
Softskill-wise, there’s no better predictable of someone’s maturity level and capacity to influence an organization at scale & to grow than those 3 macro-skills:
1. Sponsorship (truly supporting other people's ideas),
2. Selfless & Egoless way of leading (Don’t be a politician: Say “I don’t know” & admitting your mistakes)
3. Be Open to Influence (To lead, you have to follow. To influence, you have to be influenced)
I know, I know, what about accountability and ownership? What about the ability to drive things and make them happen quickly? What about the ability of distilling complex and ambiguous problems into a simple solution? What about coaching and mentoring? What about the super deep expertise? What about the ability to navigate and coordinate efforts across the org to deliver big cross-area projects? What about thinking strategically and planning for the long-term?
These are super important too, they are crucial. But, in my experience, they are not the best predictable of what is going to make someone succeed and scale their impact and their career beyond the Staff Level.
Confidence to sponsor other folks ideas even when they are super shiny or bold ideas and even when you would probably solve slightly differently without “cookie leaking” and without getting credits to yourself.
Selfless and egoless way of leading. You are an engineer, You are not a politician. Admit your mistakes and what you got wrong as a Senior Engineer, your team will respect you a lot more (and be a lot more influenced by what you share) in the long run.
Give your support quickly to other leaders who are working to make improvements. Even if you disagree with their initial approach, someone trustworthy leading a project will almost always get to a good outcome. If there's something you disagree with but only in a minor way, let others take the lead figuring it out. A helpful question here is, "Will what we do here matter to me in six months?" If it won't, take the opportunity to follow.
Great questions to ask:
- Tell me the last time you supported one of your more junior engineers ideas
- Tell me about the last time you admitted a mistake you made to your team
- Tell me about the worst technical mistake you made over the last couple of years as a Staff in the company
- Tell me about the last time someone on your team changed your mind