Performance Management As An Engineering Manager

In this episode, we’ll dig into how managers can balance output, impact, and quality, set meaningful goals, and coach engineers toward growth — not just manage them. We’ll also tackle how to handle underperformance, keep top talent motivated, and build teams that stay engaged without burning out.

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Neo4j

NODES 2025 is a free online conference focused on graph-driven innovations, with content for all skill levels. Its 24 hours are packed with 140+ interactive technical sessions from top developers, AI engineers, and data pros worldwide, covering a broad range of topics and use cases. 

The event tracks include:

• AI Engineering–  Build software with AI. Delve into the latest AI-driven software development trends, from knowledge graphs to multi-agent systems. 

• App Dev – Discover tools and best practices to create graph-powered applications and APIs with any software stack and programming language. 

• Data Intelligence –  Explore how data scientists and ML practitioners drive innovation through better data, smarter algorithms, and graph-powered insights. 

• Knowledge Graphs – Uncover new ways to create, visualize, integrate, and analyze knowledge graphs with powerful tools and scalable techniques.

Don’t miss your chance to hear about the latest graph-powered implementations and best practices for free on November 6 at NODES 2025. Go to Neo4j.com/NODES to see the full agenda and register.

Show Notes.

• 02:04 - Why do we measure engineering performance?

• 03:40 - How to measure engineering performance

• 11:08 - SMART goals

• 18:39 - Handling underperformers

• 27:00 - Motivating and retaining high performers

Resources.

• The Coaching Habit

• The Advice Trap

Transcript.

We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here!