Tackling FOMO in engineering teams
In the last decade, I had the opportunity to build multiple teams in different organizations. The size of organization varied from 100’s to 10K. Irrespective of size of the corporation, couple of common patterns emerged.
The first one among the team members was FOMO — Fear of missing out. The attribute was more observed in young engineers compared to others who have been in the workforce longer. The definition — “FOMO is not just the sense that there might be better things that you could be doing at this moment, but it is the feeling that you are missing out on something fundamentally important that others are experiencing right now” as defined by Elizabeth Scott. The second portion of the definition is important — assumption that others are have good and important experiences right now.
The scenario that unfolded in my team. In my role, I have hired engineers who graduated from college and put them through a boot camp program to ramp up on skills, tools that are were needed to perform the job/role responsibilities. The boot camp enabled engineers to know each other and build bonds. The side effect was people started creating their first impressions about others and started judging.
After the end boot camp each of the engineers were assigned teams. The first couple of months went well. Then, I started receiving complains in 1:1 sessions that they were either excluded from meetings or their input was not considered. The narrative in engineer’s head that the other engineer might be better or they have good relationship with team lead made the feeling extremely bad. This can be attributed to confirmation bias, finding evidence to match or confirm our own narrative or thinking.
The behaviors of one engineer now soon adopted by others became a huge problem. At that the point, I took multiple measures to address the problem and lay the foundation to build the trust. Retrospectively, when I bumped into FOMO, then I was able to connect the dots. On analyzing the situations from the past, there were other senior and principal engineers who expressed concerns and feeling of insecurity.
I took on the initiative to build the self confidence in the engineers. Some of the techniques employed
Personalized 1:1 meetings: Nurturing and developing is a skill and needs effort and deliberation. I invested time in understanding each individual personalities and the preferences of how the information would stick and connect at emotional level to motivate and energize
Acknowledge and Map work: Keep the team connected with the big picture vision. Link the tactical work to company goals. Important help them understand and acknowledge how their work related. The sense of satisfaction and containment of engineers have when they hear how customers are using features is priceless. This in turn taps to their motivation and commitment to the team and the company
Role clarity: Help the engineers understand the expectations of the role. There might be cultural things in the org, assumption that engineers attend many meetings they have more responsibility or sense of being chosen. The cultural attributes are difficult to change and will take time.Making engineers part of this transition can be worth pursuing and the enough engineers fall behind, it can be wonderful and create magic.
The leaders also need to pay attention the background of the workforce. The millennials grew up with cell phones and engaging social apps facebook, instagram and twitter. They are seeking constant attention and active among friend circles. The instant gratification of someone liking your pics, quotes and tweet conditions the brain for quick validation. These habits tend to carry over to office. If the individuals see that they don’t fit in, it might lead to anxiety, fear , depression and low self esteem. The leader needs to acknowledge the gap and working with HR provide sufficient training.
Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace
The strategies dealing with senior folks is different. My personal observations are with senior IC’s is that they tend to have formed habits and opinionated. Having a strong point view is a not a bad thing, but married to it is an issue. The outcome is “my way is high way” mentality. If the leadership does not tackle this type behavior, it dents the team culture. Bad habits spread faster than the good ones. It is matter of time teams become dysfunctional.
To avoid bad culture practices spreading among teams, coach the senior IC’s to collaborate and bring along others with them. It is not an individual play, but team play.Based on the personality traits, the techniques for engagement will differ. Develop the trust and have timely check-in’s. It might be a time consuming activity, but the effort will pay off.
Conclusion: Leadership is a position of responsibility than authority. There is accountability to help team members to be happy and enable them reach their full potential. By laying the foundations right, you show the individual you care. In future, based on their own experience and how they got treated these professionals pay forward for the next generation of workforce.
