Resilient Management
Resilient Management by Lara Hogan
Author: Lara Hogan
Published: 2019
Pages: 152
Quick Summary
Resilient Management is a practical guide for engineering managers and leaders navigating the complexities of building and supporting high-performing teams. Lara Hogan, former VP of Engineering at Kickstarter, distills her experience into actionable frameworks for managing people through change, growth, and uncertainty.
Key Highlights
BICEPS Model for Human Needs: Framework identifying six core needs at work - Belonging, Improvement/Progress, Choice, Equality/Fairness, Predictability, and Significance. Understanding which needs are threatened helps managers support team members during change.
Four Management Styles: Coaching, Sponsoring, Mentoring, and Delivering Feedback. Effective leaders flex between these modes based on what their team members need at different stages of growth.
Grow Your People: The book’s central tenet is that a manager’s primary job is to grow their team members. This means understanding their career goals, creating opportunities, and removing blockers.
Meeting Your Team Where They Are: Different people need different things at different times. Use regular 1-on-1s to understand individual needs and adjust your approach accordingly.
Managing Through Change: Change is inevitable in tech. The BICEPS model helps identify which core needs are threatened during organizational changes and how to address them proactively.
Practical Takeaways
For Principal Engineers Leading Teams:
- Use BICEPS to diagnose team anxiety during architectural changes or tech migrations
- Balance sponsoring (creating opportunities) with coaching (developing skills) when growing senior engineers
- Track which management mode you’re using in 1-on-1s - are you defaulting to one style?
- Create explicit career development plans that map technical growth to business impact
Quick Implementation:
- In your next 1-on-1, ask: “Which of the BICEPS needs feels most important to you right now?”
- Identify one team member to sponsor this quarter - what visibility opportunity can you create for them?
- Practice delivering feedback using the situation-behavior-impact framework from the book
Why It Matters
For technical leaders transitioning from individual contributor to multiplier roles, this book provides concrete tools for the “soft skills” that drive team effectiveness. The frameworks are particularly valuable for engineers who prefer systematic approaches to human dynamics.
The BICEPS model alone is worth the read - it transforms vague team anxiety into specific, addressable needs.
Recommended for: New engineering managers, Staff+ engineers taking on leadership responsibilities, Principal engineers building or growing teams