Staff+ engineers hold more together than their titles show. They listen to a team that is stuck. They get several teams to agree on one design. They hand a hard problem to the right team and let that team grow. Most do this work without a name for it, and it rarely appears in a job description or a performance review. They are often the unsung heroes of their organisations. 

The name of what they have already been doing is coaching. We will understand what coaching is and how it is different from mentoring and sponsorship. 

This talk is for Architects, Tech Leads and Staff+ Engineers, and for the Engineering Managers who work with them. We look at five coaching skills for this level: listening, open questions, creating psychological safety, getting buy-in across teams and roles, and delegating problem solving so others can grow. We cover how managers can support Staff+ Engineers as the leaders they are, and what formal coaching and coaching training can add. 

You will hear from two Staff+ engineers who went on to train as professional coaches. We share what we learned, what we wish we had known earlier, and where we see the Staff+ role heading. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Recognise the Staff+ Engineering situations (stalled teams, conflicting designs, being the bottleneck) where coaching gets a better result than stepping in to solve it.
2. Leave with practical techniques per skill, such as the open question that unblocks a team or the way to hand over problem solving without losing accountability, ready to use in your day-to-day work. 
3. Tell coaching, mentoring and sponsorship apart, and know when each one helps.
4. Managers: support Staff+ Engineers with coaching and accountability, less with how-to.