Maybe you’re not worried about anything right now except for passing your next major certification exam or finishing up your current sprint, but if you decide to continue as an individual contributor (engineer, developer, or similar), eventually you’ll reach a key decision point that can have a profound effect on your career.
Head down, nose to the grindstone
That’s basically what many of our lives looked like as we started on our engineering or developer journey. There will always be more new technologies and concepts to grasp, programming languages to master, and virtual environments to practice in. “Coming up for air” usually involved a quick meal (of questionable nutritional quality) and squinting at actual light that’s not emitted from your monitor. Life may continue like this for years… happily, I might add.
At some point though, you might be presented with a decision: continue down a path of mastery in your current technology discipline or make a career change. It could be a leap from an individual contributor (IC) to management by leading the team. Perhaps you see one path being more lucrative than another. Maybe you’re burned out staring at code for 40+ hours a week and think you coach others to avoid pitfalls you’ve faced.
There’s no “right time”
Unlike a video game, there’s no set criteria where you’ll be prompted to make a decision about what class/job to choose after completing a tutorial. A situation could suddenly be thrust upon you (manager leaving?). It could be that the growth of the team requires someone to step up and be a leader. Maybe you’ve hit the salary budgeted for your current position and need to change roles to earn more. Maybe you want to “scale” and leverage your experience to benefit other members of your team. Either way, there will come a time to weigh options and see what’s right for you.
IC to Manager
Many lifelong ICs are happy with their career choice because they have no aspirations to be managers and they like the ability to “clock out” without worrying about work (beyond the occasional emergency/overtime) after hours. Many enjoy their craft and don’t want to worry about the “big picture” concepts of the business unit’s P&L or organizational changes. To some, there’s a stigma attached to taking orders from others and they look towards management as a way to call the shots (note: managers are still taking orders from others!).
Those who aspire to management may have their own ideas on how to lead a team. It could be pure innovation and creativity, or it could be the result of learning “what not to do” from a previous manager. Some aspiring managers realize they enjoy the act of listening to and helping other teammates succeed more than their individual work output. Lastly, an important reason to lead a team is to leverage the experience you’ve earned while working “in the trenches” to help your team evolve and prevent others from repeating the same mistakes.
It’s not possible to summarize what qualities make a good manager in a single paragraph or article, but some things to consider are:
Do you enjoy helping other succeed and flourish beyond your own capabilities?
Do you enjoy listening to other’s concerns or issues and helping them find a resolution?
Do you enjoy championing a cause and representing your team to other leaders?
Do you have the ability to relate to many different types of people with their varying backgrounds?
Are you flexible and adaptable? One day, you may need to lead from the front, then be more of a servant-leader the next.
How strong are your organizational skills? You will need to keep track of multiple initiatives as they progress: team training, multiple vendors with their onboarding and initiatives, expense tracking, performance reviews, reporting up the chain, etc.
Are you willing to take the good with the bad? Managing involves many great and enjoyable activities, but also includes having to be an enforcer, at times. It could mean disciplining a former peer, or even firing them if they can’t improve their performance. I always say no one should ever enjoy terminating an employee because of the sheer impact it has on someone’s life, but it’s a necessary part of the role.
How hard could it be?
I’ve experienced the transition (success and failures) and helped coach new managers and you’d be surprised how some “common sense” things don’t immediately come to mind:
More people more problems. As you start to manage a team, you’re going to have more opportunities for issues to arise.
Your schedule is not your own. Since most everyone has “normal” working hours, they may save their issues for after hours. That means you’re going to have to be more available at different times to listen to their concerns.
You can’t please everyone all the time. I get where the “people pleaser” mentality comes from, especially if you’re used to dealing with customers. Unfortunately in this new role, you’re going to have to balance business-led decisions (that often come from above you) with the needs and desires of your team.
You will learn to be empathetic. Everyone on your team will have different types and different levels of motivation. You will need to listen, observe, and learn from them to better understand how to motivate them to achieve what the business requires.
You’re now a counselor/therapist. If you’re managing a team of intelligent people, often they just need to be heard. Often, it’s difficult for team members to have meaningful discussions with their family if they aren’t in the same role/industry. So sometimes you’ll be listening to the team “vent” but won’t need to necessarily actively fix something.
You will be scrutinized. As a leader, your team may be silently (or not so silently) judging your actions and complain to their peers (or your manager!). For example, when my team couldn’t work flexibly/remotely, I was “coming and going” because I was juggling university classes and managing the team. At the time, I didn’t realize how this negatively affected my team’s morale.
Disciplining/Firing someone is never easy. It should never be easy to negatively impact someone’s livelihood, but unfortunately it has to be done occasionally. You will see grown men/women cry, you will see them beg and plead, you will see them get angry and be in denial. Either way, you’re going to have to stay calm and guide them through what is ultimately, a business decision.
You’re not really selling me on this…
And I’m not trying to! I want to help people make informed decisions as they navigate through their career journey. As with everything, gather data and make an informed decision. Often, moving into management sounds like the next logical step, but it might not always be when you evaluate all the factors involved.
Managers can do good things, right? Right?
Absolutely. Management can be a great, fulfilling role. Imagine the ability to “give back” and help train the next generation of great engineers. You could take interns and entry-level folks and grow them via support and coaching into senior-level contributors. Maybe you also contribute to your team’s happiness by being more understanding and flexible (while still meeting the company’s needs) than their previous leader. You can be a role-model to show that hard work and experience can help people take the next step in their own careers. Lastly, you can help your company succeed through the achievements of your team. Bring your experience to bear with intelligent decision-making in ways that benefit the team and the company overall.
As always, you should never stop learning. Management, and managing intelligent people specifically, is a new type of challenge for people with technical backgrounds. Instead of learning the minutiae of a specific product or technology, now you’ll have to broaden your knowledge by learning more about empathy, people, relationships, guidance, judgement, prioritization, and more.
So even if you’re not contributing directly, you can do great things through your team by mentoring, coaching, supporting, encouraging, and enabling them to be their best.
“There is no compression algorithm for experience.”, Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, 2016