An unordered, likely incomplete set of activities I engage in on a weekly basis as an Engineering Director:

• Defining short- and long-term strategy
• Making and supporting space for engineers to think through problems
• Celebrating when the team delivers, including exploratory demos
• Injecting energy to help sustain a distributed team
• Consolidating redundant tools
• Highlighting and amplifying positive behaviors
• Budgeting
• Advocating for safety in word and deed
• Identifying skill gaps and finding ways to address them
• Gauging team and individual performance
  • Keeping an eye out for signs of burnout, rabbit-holing, and overall sentiment
• Trying to put a finger on the current cognitive load
• Providing constraints in an ambiguous problem space
• Soliciting feedback on projects and plans
• Establishing criteria to evaluate new tools and processes
• Nurturing an evolving Engineering org and helping it discover/define itself
• Minor administrative tasks like reviewing and approving expenses
• Remembering to eat
• Interviewing candidates
  • Shaping up interview processes to make it less stressful for everyone and more consistent in an effort to overcome biases
• Reconciling short-term goal setting with long-term forecasting
• Translating outcomes up and down the org stack
• Reading and talking about how others in the industry face management and organzational challenges