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Found 5 Skills
Equips engineering managers with persuasion techniques and positioning strategies for getting things done without direct authority — produces tactical methods (Nemawashi, Decoy Pricing, Reverse Psychology, LMDTFY, Engineered Serendipity), conversation techniques for disarming resistance (Label the Concern, Get to "That's Right"), a headcount argument framework, and a three-level visibility/trust model. Use when the user says "how do I convince," "persuade," "get buy-in," "stakeholder management," "influence without authority," "get approval," "calibration," "nobody takes me seriously," "how do I get headcount," or "organizational politics." Do NOT use when the issue is the user's relationship with their own manager (use managing-up).
Covers the full meeting lifecycle for engineering managers — produces guidance on whether to schedule a meeting, how to run it well, how to protect team focus time, how to kill recurring waste, and how to evaluate a past meeting from a transcript or description. Use when the user says "too many meetings," "meetings are a waste of time," "how do I run this meeting," "meeting agenda," "meeting culture," "nobody comes prepared," "meetings go nowhere," "how do I decline meetings," "distractions," "focus time," "engineers can't focus," "context switching," "protect engineering time," "review this meeting," or "transcript."
Helps engineering managers write messages, announcements, and stakeholder updates that land well — produces a 3-Step Writing Framework (Prepare / Write Simply / Run a Garbage Collector), the Async Re-Explanation Trap (calling out missed messages), and the Compression/Decompression model for diagnosing why messages are misunderstood. Use when the user says "draft a message," "write an announcement," "communicate this change," "how do I word this," "message for my team," "write an update," or "how do I communicate X." Do NOT use for verbal feedback or difficult conversations (use `feedback` or `difficult-situations`).
Guides engineering managers through the specific challenges of managing top engineers — produces a four-quadrant ability/confidence diagnostic, the Rock Star vs. Superstar distinction, common mistakes to avoid, a stagnation diagnostic (Diminishing XP), and a Pusher vs. Puller framework for managing burnout and team friction. Use when the user says "rockstar engineer," "superstar," "high performer," "brilliant jerk," "wants promotion," "hardest to manage," "overconfident," "my best developer is burning out," "engineer is frustrated," or "my best developer is pushing me." Do NOT use for standard underperformance (use performance-reviews) or general motivation questions (use engineer-motivation).
Score an Engineering Manager's coverage across all 12 cells of the EM Grid based on their calendar and Slack. Use this skill whenever someone wants to understand where they're spending their management energy, find blind spots, get a monthly self-reflection on their EM focus, or hear phrases like "score my EM grid", "where am I spending time as a manager", "what are my blind spots", "analyze my calendar as EM", "which EM areas am I neglecting", "how balanced is my management focus", or "check my EM grid coverage". Always pull live calendar data — never ask the user to describe their week manually.