I'm being asked to move to a management role - should I take it?
I'm being asked to move to a management role - should I take it?
You need to define your own success criteria.
Sometimes, moving to management is seen as the only “way up” in terms of career progression. For example, someone starting as an intern may move to developer, senior developer, lead developer then a glass ceiling. That might be as far as Individual Contributors (ICs) can go in your current company. From here, sometimes your only choices are to stay put, move to the same role at a different company, or take the leap to management.
Why do we need managers?
I’ve heard managing referred to as “accomplishing what the company needs through others". It’s a bit of a simplification, but let’s start there.
I think most of us realize that we need managers and management overall, but sometimes it’s hard to specifically pin down where their value lies (hence the concern about becoming one). Though IT folks and developers can be classified as “intelligent people”, they are typically focused on tactical tasks like a new feature, a new application, a new design, or a new infrastructure project for a customer. These are essential and important tasks, but they’re typically not strategic.
Your company will need many of these projects happening concurrently, sometimes with the same resources, and with varying levels of prioritization. Here, a manager can step in and, through experience, help prioritize tasks and projects to meet deadlines and hopefully avoid burnout. Additionally, the manager may be guided by another layer (directors, VPs) to accomplish and prioritize certain projects for the company as a whole. For example, the company-wide ISO27001 audit may be more important than customer XYZ’s project so focus resources on completing the audit first. Or, customer ABC is highly strategic and we anticipate increasing our revenue 25x with them so let’s make sure their project has all the resources it needs.
Lastly, there are some “care and feeding” aspects that a manager has to take care of including, but not limited to: HR (timesheets, expenses), performance reviews, disciplinary actions, reporting, director-level meetings, etc.
In short, managers leverage their experience from their time spent “in the trenches” to help make faster/better decisions with the company’s goals in mind. Often, this shields the team from having to get involved in some of the tasks they might not be interested in, but it could also mean prioritizing tasks that the company feels are important but you might disagree with. Managers walk a fine line as they use their abilities to influence and guide team members with different viewpoints towards the same goals.
Does that mean I can’t be technical?
You still can be, to an extent! Some of the best managers have a technical background, but as you start to spend time doing other non-technical activities (reporting on the business, HR tasks, budget planning, etc.) you will in a sense, “lose your edge”.
Don’t take that as a bad thing, however! What you may lose from a technical perspective, can be made up by learning more about the business and how to communicate at different levels within the company. For example, now you’ll need to build new relationships with the team, your management peers, and upper-level managers/directors. Each will require a different communication style to be effective.
You’ll also learn some business acumen which is not something that’s necessarily relevant when you’re diving deep into a technical issue. You’ll start to understand (in depth) profit, loss, margin, incentives, partner programs, and overall business strategy. So yes, you can remain technical, but now your focus may be more on empowering your team to do their best work, even if that means surpassing you from a technical perspective.
Steve Jobs: “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
One quote mentions hiring the smartest people you can find and getting out of their way. You shouldn’t feel pressured to be as technical as your top engineer when you’re not working in the weeds day-to-day. Your value is now in your experience and judgement to achieve larger, far-reaching goals for the good of the company.
So I lose my technical skills and get to listen to people complain?
In reality, yes BUT that’s part of managing people. Whether you’re dealing with customers, partners, or an engineering team, if there are people involved, you can count on someone being dissatisfied. This may be another reason to take a good hard look at the potential role to confirm your fit.
Personally, I love the career development process and the “care and feeding” of intelligent people. I benefited from some good managers (and learned what not to do from bad ones or my own mistakes) that took a chance on me and I derive fulfillment from being able to do the same as people are progressing through their careers. It’s not always as fun as finding a “diamond in the rough” and watching their career take off thanks to you. Often it’s having to be the guiding (or disciplinary) hand to help others achieve their full potential. Sometimes it is literally being a sounding board to allow them to offload some of their stresses (you may be able to address some of them!). Unfortunately, much of this can happen after hours since the workday is what it is.
Lastly, disciplinary actions or firings are something that you may never get used to (and that’s OK!). It’s tough to give a person direct, negative feedback and ultimately terminate their employment and ability to put food on the table. It should never be an easy thing to do.
You’re not really selling me on this…
And I’m not trying to! My goal is to provide you more data points to make an informed decision that you’re comfortable with.
I realize management isn’t for everyone so take the time to assess what’s really important for you, your family, and your career from this non-exhaustive list.
Are you good at or willing to learn:
How to relate to people from different backgrounds and cultures?
How to deliver good and bad news effectively and constructively?
How to lead from the front or be a servant leader depending on the situation?
Time management? You will be juggling multiple initiatives for multiple stakeholders.
To set aside your personal agenda and help support the team’s members be their best?
Help guide your team to achieve the company’s goals even if you may slightly disagree?
How to really listen to people and their needs? You may be able to spot an issue before it gets out of hand.
That you can’t please everyone all the time? It may be tough to accept this at first.
How to sacrifice your time after hours if your team needs you?
That you have biases and need to be aware of them and overcome them?
If those items sound neither interesting nor appealing, maybe you are in a time/place/situation that isn’t conducive to taking on a management role. Perhaps you’re celebrating the birth of a child and your next few years will be filled with sleepless nights or your part of a band that plays gigs after work (hey, there are personal commitments that are non-negotiable). Maybe you feel like you’d prefer to be heads down and more focused on some tasks without having to worry about the “big picture”, other people’s problems, and business strategy. That’s OK - the world needs strong ICs and good managers.
Some things to consider:
Bandwidth - do you have commitments out of work that currently consume your free time? If you really value your free time, you may not want to introduce more things that can eat away at that.
Introvert/extrovert - though some introverts can be great managers, perhaps you love your personal time and prefer not to deal with more people than you have to.
Accomplishments - your goal is to be one of the absolute best in the world at what you do. You’re getting there, but you’re not there yet. Management can wait!
Ultimately you’ll have to decide (based on numerous factors) what option is best for you at this time and place. Chances are you’ve been presented this choice due to some accomplishments and even if now’s not the time, you may be ready to accept next time.
