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Carving success: How empathy and strategy shape winning engineering teams

Aligning human needs with technical ingenuity for resilient, high-performing teams

Dunya Kirkali
5 min readFeb 12, 2025
Photo by Dominik Scythe on Unsplash

Much like a skilled carpenter who selects, studies, and shapes wood into a beautiful piece of furniture, an effective engineering manager must recognize that the most vital material in their craft is people 🙋. While tools and technologies often capture our attention, the true cornerstone of success lies in the well-being, motivation, and growth of your team.

The essence of this approach is simple: if the individuals in your care are not content and healthy, no strategy or technological edge will propel your team forward. Pushing your team without due attention to their physical and emotional needs will eventually lead to instability, much like constructing a table from damp wood that has not been properly dried. It is crucial to match a structured technical approach with genuine care and empathy for those you lead.

Understanding human needs

Effective management starts with an understanding of what fundamentally drives people. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs serves as an invaluable framework in this regard.

Physiological needs

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Dunya Kirkali
Dunya Kirkali

Written by Dunya Kirkali

I'm an engineering manager passionate about empowering engineers to deliver exceptional work through collaboration and innovation.

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