Examples

Scenario: Building a New Engineering Team

You've just been promoted to Engineering Manager. You're inheriting a team of 5 engineers who previously had no dedicated manager — they reported to the CTO. Morale is mixed, priorities are unclear, and two senior engineers are considering leaving.

Phase 1: Assess

/leadership:assess platform-engineering-team

Assess the current state of the team and your own leadership approach.

Sample output snippet:

Team dynamics: High individual skill, low collaboration. Engineers work in silos — no code reviews, no shared standards. Two seniors frustrated by lack of career growth and technical direction. Leadership style assessment: Your natural style is "coaching" (develop people) — good fit for a team needing growth paths. Gap: need to be more "directive" initially to establish clarity.

Phase 2: Vision

/leadership:vision platform-engineering-team

Define the team's purpose, values, and culture.

Sample output snippet:

Team purpose: "We build and maintain the platform that every product team depends on. Our work multiplies the productivity of the entire engineering org." Values: Reliability first, Teach over gatekeep, Ship small and often Culture norms: Default to pairing on complex work. Write ADRs for architectural decisions. Celebrate production stability, not just new features.

Phase 3: Build

/leadership:build platform-engineering-team

Define roles, responsibilities, and delegation frameworks.

Sample output snippet:

RACI Matrix (key activities):

Activity	Alex (Senior)	Priya (Senior)	Team	You (EM)
Architecture decisions	R	C	I	A
Production incidents	C	R	I	A
Sprint planning	C	C	R	A
Hiring decisions	C	C	I	R/A

Delegation: Alex leads architecture, Priya leads reliability. Both get "Tech Lead" title and mentoring responsibilities.

Phase 4: Develop

/leadership:develop platform-engineering-team

Create growth plans for the team.

Sample output snippet:

Alex's growth plan: Goal: Staff Engineer in 12 months. Key results: Lead 2 cross-team architecture initiatives, mentor 1 mid-level engineer, publish 1 internal tech talk per quarter. Development focus: stakeholder communication and written proposals (current gap). Priya's growth plan: Goal: Decide between IC Staff track or EM track by Q3. Key results: Shadow 3 EM 1:1s, lead 1 sprint as acting SM, present reliability metrics to VP Engineering.

Phase 5: Sustain

/leadership:sustain platform-engineering-team

Establish rituals and ongoing team health practices.

Sample output snippet:

Team rituals:

• Monday: 30-min team kickoff (priorities, blockers, announcements)
• Wednesday: 1-hour architecture review (rotating presenter)
• Friday: 15-min wins & learnings (celebrate progress)
• Monthly: Team health check (8 dimensions, anonymous)
• Quarterly: OKR review + career development 1:1s

What You End Up With

.metapowers/leadership/platform-engineering-team/
  01-assess.md      ← Team dynamics, leadership style, current state
  02-vision.md      ← Purpose, values, culture norms
  03-build.md       ← RACI matrix, delegation framework, role definitions
  04-develop.md     ← Per-person growth plans, OKRs, development focus
  05-sustain.md     ← Rituals, health metrics, continuous improvement

A leadership system — from understanding your team to sustaining high performance — not just a one-time plan.