Peer to Lead transition - how to make it right?

So you’ve decided to leave the comfort zone and shift your career into managing others? Congratulations! After years of hands-on coding you will never look the same way at the software development process. The times of unbroken laser focus, fixing bugs, testing and refactoring are gone. The same goes for hours of staring at your screen in order to figure out why the code doesn’t (or surprisingly, does) work. Simply, you won’t have time for it. Instead prepare yourself for debugging people. Welcome ambiguity, meetings, and dealing with human drama and criticism. So have a look at how you can prepare yourself for the unknowns and consider if it’s really the right move for you.

Transition is never easy, and quite often it shows up unexpectedly: someone just realized that it’s the right time for them to leave the company. Or maybe your supervisor has left for their parental leave. Or due to hyper-growth there are too many people to deal with the tasks, but no one to set direction and manage them. Author of “Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual” John Sonmez argues that you can become an unofficial lead even without the needed credentials. If you are willing to sacrifice and pave the way for your peers, you are setting an example to follow. Taking on yourself hard and boring tasks (which no one wants to take), establishes you as a trustworthy and reliable example. By showing your best in all you do your team will excel along with you. This is what we call leading by example. So, if you want to grow you need to fix things.

Let’s be honest. Some developers are asking to be promoted in order to get a better pay. Nothing wrong with that. But some are considering the vertical move in order to see the big picture of their work and learn something new. Otherwise not seeing the impact of their actions might lead to boredom. Quite often however developers are asked to consider managing a team, because the organization needs to scale fast. Remember, that you were chosen for this role, because somebody believed in you and appreciated the value you brought into the team. Hackernoon article ironically claims that just adding the word “lead” into your job title will automatically help you in becoming a better manager. Well, probably it will. Perception management is part of your job now.

You might wonder why to consider a transition, if in return it creates more stress than satisfaction? The grass is not always greener on the other side, but certainly there are some advantages. Do you remember the person who helped you in becoming a better coder when you started your first steps in programming? Now you can become that person for others and see better how all the dots are connected. Besides helping others, by mentoring others you will also learn much quicker. Suddenly a simple rookie question can lead you to truly understand the problem and break it down into manageable chunks. That’s what leaders are supposed to do.

Words of caution

To start, get into the transition of job responsibilities mentally. Pick a weekend when you imagine yourself making the shift and think about the differences, how you should act differently now. Success in the new role means to stop doing some things and embracing new competencies. Remember, that what helped you being successful and getting the promotion (eg. coding skills) might be a downside now and won’t help you grow. Author of “The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels” offers a great example: “Julia was highly attentive to detail. Though clearly a strength, her attention to detail had a downside, especially in tandem with a high need for control: the result was a tendency to micromanage people in the areas she knew best. This behavior demoralized people who wanted to make their own contributions without intrusive oversight.”

Set yourself realistic expectations when it comes to your achievements. Hopefully you can rely on your direct supervisor to get the best advice and won’t be left alone. Additionally, managing your manager’s expectations will help you build a productive relationship. You might attempt to do too much too early rushing off in many directions at once, which will confuse the others. You won’t always have the best answer to all problems. And that is fine. Don’t jump into solutions too quickly or you might alienate people around you. Quite often they have thought about the same problem for much longer.

Cultural and political dimensions of your new role might be more pressing than learning about the technical parts. It is more about relationships. A mistake is to rely only on vertical ones. Don’t forget about your peers and stakeholders. Before understanding the connections between them you might miss opportunities in building supportive alliances. Try to build a “First Team Mindset” as Justin Wong calls it.?

Even if you’re not a natural born leader, you can still learn those skills on the job. Bear in mind, that getting power doesn’t give you liberty at shaking things up. Give yourself some 2-3 months to understand expectations the people have in you, instead of jumping into structural changes. If you prefer to start your work early in the morning, it might not be a good idea to force everyone to 8 AM meetings, or to switch from Kanban to Scrum -? just because you can’t adapt to others. Paradoxically being a leader is more about being a good servant to your subordinates. So ask for regular feedback from their side (e.g. what to continue, start, or stop?), and maybe in return they will help you develop your skills more than you expected. Quite often people just want to be heard, so you will earn more influence by listening.

Finally, it’s good to remain teachable, so find yourself a mentor. Having feedback and suggestions from such authority would help you feel that you’re not left alone. A trusted advisor is priceless. Someone who is open to listen to your problems and remains unbiased, so it shouldn’t be your manager.??

Preparing your team for a change

If you are the one who was just added to an already established team, there might be doubts on your strengths, but at least you will start with a clean slate. It might be even easier, since nobody will try to use emotional blackmail on you and no one will question your authority. If you were promoted (or hired) as a manager without a team and you have to build one -? you won the lottery as you will decide who you’ll be working with. By being the very first team member you can also set up the best practices. All these scenarios have their pros and cons, however.

A different kind of transition happens when you are promoted from within the team. The dynamics among the members will switch for sure. If you didn’t inherit the team from some other person, your job is actually easier: people already know your skills, have some understanding of your communication style, and they trust you already. However, now they might want from you even more, as they perceive you as “their person” up there. They could ask you to influence decisions at higher levels saying “Won’t you help your colleagues?” Well, you can’t promise that once you’ll start leading nothing will change between you and them. You know it will. So maintain the boundaries on a personal level, which is also good for growth.?

First of all, you should have a conversation with your colleagues about upcoming changes and try to sense their feelings. You are familiar with the way the team works, so you can set up clear expectations. But you also have to manage the performance feedback and evaluations, which for some of your colleagues might be troublesome. What is worse, you could have some hidden enemies - those who considered leading the team, but for some reasons didn’t succeed. They might work hard to undermine you, so expect that they will test your authority from time to time.?

Determine how you might deal with resistance. Not establishing limits will cost you regrets and it can mean considering personal changes within the team. You won’t know the true motives of people you are responsible for, as hierarchy creates too much distrust between you. Uncomfortable situations could be avoided by preparing your team for what’s ahead. Tell them that it’s normal, if they don’t know how to behave around you. Offering them trust and support should win you the same from their side. Perhaps agree on a 3-6 months transition period with monthly feedback loops.

You have to be seen as a mature and decisive leader; forget complaining about management, since now you are one of “them”. Now you are on the spot, carefully observed for the slightest act of misjustice, prejudice or dislikes. You can’t help their discomfort, since questioning the boss' decisions is their privilege. Being warm is still fair, but you should also be firm in your decisions. You won’t be appreciated for being fun that often. And don’t even try to get involved in the old camaraderie. Team might test your call at any time. The way you react will make it, or break it. Indulging yourself in gossip is never a good idea as a manager, so stay away from it. Anyway, you will have much less time for anything, so your attention should be focused where it matters most. Your calendar will quickly be filled with never-ending meetings, so start learning how to block your time now. Otherwise, you will end up working weekends to catch up. Read this article to see the differences in scheduling between maker and manager. Your team will appreciate your understanding of their productive cycles since you’re also coming from the maker’s background, right?

You need to be sure that everyone’s voice is heard. Skip the individual bonding, otherwise someone might feel less worthy. Now you can’t have preferred colleagues and maintaining those friendships might be a challenge. That’s why clear boundaries should solve the doubts. Do you remember your own past thoughts: “If the management only listened and asked questions…”? Now is the time to be the biggest fan of your team. Listening well means understanding the meaning behind the words you hear. Ask what they regularly do, what could make their job easier, faster and more productive and you’d be amazed.

Building your credibility

You might think that now your job is about delegating effectively to keep producing great results. However, doing what you know how to do, only more, won’t help you in the long run. High quality output work was the reason you were promoted, but you can’t force anyone into becoming your “Mini-Me” copy. Each individual member in your team is looking for guidance, not orders. You will get more respect once they will see you as a problem solver who is supporting them with resources, and not as a task master who cares only about meeting the deadline. Now people’s feelings should be your concern rather than their technical abilities. Have a read of “Radical Candor” to understand how to give and receive feedback.?

So what kind of soft skills do you need? Michael Watkins who wrote “The First 90 Days” suggests self-discipline, team building, advice and counsel to compensate for your shortcomings: “You need to discipline yourself to devote time to critical activities that you do not enjoy and that may not come naturally. Beyond that, actively search out people in your organization whose skills are sharp in these areas, so that they can serve as a backstop for you and you can learn from them. A network of advisors and counselors can also help you move beyond your comfort zone”.

There are also great tips to help you build credibility quicker in this article from Forbes magazine. The first suggestion is acknowledging that the situation is awkward for everyone. You won’t be their comrade, so no need to try and fake it. You should set up regular (weekly or bi-weekly) one-on-one meetings with team members. It will allow you to be more personal and candid. Your role is to help them meet the goals and remove the roadblocks whenever you can. Otherwise both of you will lose touch with metrics creating self-doubt and stress. It is also fine to acknowledge, if you don’t know something or need their help. Being honest can prevent accumulating disasters. Another advice is finding the first follower. Someone within a team, who would never doubt your choices will help you in convincing the others. People naturally distance themselves from authorities, so the support from within will go the extra mile. And finally, you can still occasionally go into the trenches with them, especially when there is lots of workload. Nothing bonds better relations than a manager who cares about the team, not in declarations but in actions.

How does it sound to you? Does it make sense to upgrade your role into managing one? Or if you already did, do you have similar experiences to share??

--Michael Talarek

At Zalando we believe in making us better, not bigger. There are lots of vertical and horizontal career options: whether you want to jump on the Engineering Manager or Principal Engineer path. Once you decide to join the Starting Point for Fashion you will work on your personalized career path according to Our Founding Mindset values and regular Performance Evaluation feedback. Do you want to learn more? Just get in touch!