Relationship Building

At Level 1, relationship building focuses on developing strong, respectful connections within your immediate team and project group. You're learning how to collaborate, show reliability, and engage in ways that build trust and comfort with those you work with every day. You're not expected to have a wide network yet—but your curiosity, presence, and consistent follow-through set the tone for strong working relationships.

At Level 2, you begin to actively grow relationships beyond your immediate team. You engage with peers across the engineering org and other closely related functions, learning how to build connection through shared work, empathy, and follow-through. You're not networking for the sake of networking—you're building bridges that support better outcomes and more resilient collaboration. Your relationships help you get context, solve problems, and contribute to a more supportive engineering culture.

At Level 3, you develop and sustain strong relationships across departments and functions. You operate with empathy, diplomacy, and clarity—building trust not only within engineering, but with product, design, marketing, support, and beyond. You navigate complex interpersonal and team dynamics with grace. You're often the person people turn to when relationships feel strained or misaligned because you bring calm, curiosity, and a collaborative spirit.

At Level 4, your relational impact extends across teams, time zones, and functions. You are a steward of organizational trust—someone who shapes how connection happens at scale. You anticipate relational friction before it appears and create structures that help people relate across differences. You invest in others' capacity to build strong relationships, and you mentor those navigating complex interpersonal or team dynamics. Your work strengthens the organization's culture—not just its output.

At Level 5, you define how trust and connection are embedded into the operating system of the organization. You're not just building relationships—you're shaping how others think about relationships, at every level. You lead through influence, humility, and vision. You craft organizational norms, design programs, and mentor senior leaders to promote relational health in every corner of the org. You don't just scale connection—you scale the ability to connect.