How to Become a Great Manager (Cohort-Based Course)
This course offers four highly immersive sessions that will help you become a great engineering leader. In achieving greatness, we identify two major areas to address: becoming an effective leader and genuinely loving your job. To accomplish this, we will explore various reasons for pursuing a management career path, the essential behaviors that great leaders exhibit, where to acquire and how to master these skills, common mistakes to avoid, and then engage in a full day of practice that will cover the typical challenges encountered by engineering leaders in the workplace.
Designed to assist individuals in becoming effective and fulfilled engineering managers, this course is priced at $799 and includes a year of Taro Premium for ongoing growth and collaboration.
(Existing Taro Premium members will see a discounted price.)
If you fall into any of the following categories, this course is for you:
- You're transitioning into engineering management for the first time.
- You're an engineer with aspirations of becoming a manager one day.
- You're a manager seeking to enhance your skills and further your professional growth.
- You feel stuck in your engineering or leadership career.
- You have insights that can help others in their growth journey.
This course is intended to provide value beyond the two weeks of live sessions. You will learn essential skills and practice them to help you grow in your role and find more enjoyment throughout your entire career. I would be happy to answer all of your questions and provide individual advice.
Additionally, each student will receive a complimentary Taro Premium membership ($400 value) to expand their network and stay connected with course members.
About Igor
I am a senior engineering leader who derives immense satisfaction from assembling high-performing teams to deliver exceptional products. My experience spans diverse environments, including startups (with teams ranging from 2 to 300 people), mid-sized companies like Zoox, Netflix, and Snapchat, as well as industry giants such as Google, Meta, Samsung, and Motorola.
With 13 years as an engineer and 6 years as a manager, I've acquired a deep understanding of the distinctions between bad, good, and great engineering leaders. I am eager to assist you in becoming one of the latter.
More about my career and vision:
Course content
This course consists of 6 hours of live classes, sessions from 5:30pm - 7:00pm PT on the following days: December 5, December 7, December 12, and December 14. You'll receive calendar invites after enrolling.
Session 1: What makes a great engineering manager, and should I become one?
- Review the right and wrong reasons for aspiring to be an engineering manager.
- Identify key areas to focus on when transitioning from an individual contributor (IC) to an engineering manager (EM).
- Explore the strengths that need to be developed.
- Collaborate in groups to discuss personal inspirations and strategies for achieving them.
- Discuss the primary responsibilities of great managers and how to fulfill them.
- Examine the core behaviors that managers should cultivate and how to love this job.
Session 2: The Manager's Path: What Do Great Managers Do?
- How to establish a team's culture, hire the right people, develop the talent, and determine when to let people go.
- What is the right team structure and when/how to perform re-orgs.
- Explore fundamental concepts of coaching and providing feedback to team members.
- Discuss performance management and essential team leadership rituals, including planning, 1:1 meetings, and team gatherings.
- Learn strategies to ensure team happiness, satisfaction, and motivation.
- Discuss methods for supporting team members at different career/performance stages and enthusiasm levels.
- Work in groups to develop a vision and strategy for building a self-sufficient team.
Session 3: Common Mistakes & Misconceptions
- Break into small groups to discuss common mistakes observed by managers.
- Receive insights into my top mistakes and advice on how to avoid them.
- Explore the development of trust within a team, particularly in challenging situations, such as overcoming past leadership issues.
- Cover important aspects of a manager's career, including reorganizations, team composition, and managing upwards.
- Discuss effective approaches for supporting individuals with a cynical or challenging disposition.
- Conclude with a review of top leadership books.
Session 4: Practical Scenarios: Situations Great Leaders Often Face
- Dedicate the final day to hands-on practice in small groups.
- Work on day-to-day activities, including conducting 1:1 meetings, facilitating constructive feedback sessions, and resolving interpersonal conflicts.
- Simulate the effective onboarding of a new engineer into the team's culture.
- Hold a constructive and inclusive technical discussion meeting.
- Conclude the course by addressing interview approaches, selecting the best candidates, and effectively closing the hiring process.
In addition:
- In the middle of our course we will have the Ask Me Anything session with an Engineering Director from Disney
- After each live session concludes, Igor will stay with the class for an additional 30 minutes to answer any and all questions.
- After the course concludes, Igor will do a free 1:1 coaching session for each student.
If you have further questions about this course, please email to: igor.podkhodov@gmail.com
After enrolling, you will receive:
- Calendar invites to each of the 4 sessions.
- A code to redeem one year of Taro Premium if you're not part of it.
- An invitation to the exclusive Slack channel with other course attendees.
