In general, I like the leadership of each team to define specific expectations for each level of their roles. Going through this exercise many times, I’ve noticed a pattern / ladder that cuts across all teams, and outside of technology too. It boils down to problem solving and decision-making ability but I think there are dimensions of empowerment, ownership, and execution as well.
- When someone is early on in their career and they are posed a problem, they are typically unsure what solutions exist and ask for help coming up with list of possibilities.
- As they progress in their career, they will start to understand what possible solutions exist, but not fully understand or feel confident enough to select an option. They would then propose possible options to their manager and ask for help deciding which one to choose.
- At the next level, they are able to come up with the possible options quickly, and have a preferred solution but still run all of the options by their manager, with their preference, and ask for approval on which way to go.
- Continuing on, they no longer discuss all of the possible options, they know which one is the best one, and simply ask for approval to move forward on the single best option.
- At the final rung of the ladder, approval is no longer needed. The individual knows what options exist, chooses one themselves, and executes on it without asking.