Why a good tech-lead often become an awful manager?

My dream job was to be an academic professor in my twenties. At the time, I strongly believed that a professor is the best job in the world and it should be my career goal. That's motivated me to get my second master and Ph.D. such that I can pursue my dream career.

I wish I could tell you a fairy tale, but the truth is that

The more I learn about how to be a successful professor, the more I know why I’m not a good fit.

The Ph.D. training is still valuable and helps change my career trajectory from software development to data science, a career later I find myself enjoy a lot. But, hey, like many of you, I was wrong about my expectation or imagination of a job (being a professor). Our perception is different from reality. You only learn the reality when you are close enough, or sometimes, one foot stepping into the job. So a better strategy is to talk to someone who is doing the job you are dreaming about.

I remember when I first became a manager, I kept asking: what’s is the reality of being an engineering manager? Or, a better question: what’s the reality of being a successful engineering manager?

The more I learn about how to be a successful manager, the more I know why it is so difficult.

A manager is NOT a commander nor a ruler.

A technical lead (or “tech-lead”) is often the pre-step of being a manager, which is a great milestone for a professional (an engineer or a scientist) — it means that you have demonstrated your mastership of some technology and understand the important business needs to win. You start to practice leadership through mentoring junior teammates, make (or help make) decisions, and so on. You have earned trust, autonomy, and sometimes privilege to manage few professionals. You are the champion of your project, in your squad, and in front of your manager.

When switching to a manager who supervising three projects or more, many tech-leads still see themselves as doers. He/she is often the most senior (or at least, the most knowledgeable) person in a squad. As a tech-lead, you are the one to make a call on each of technical decisions. And you are the one tell your team what to accomplish and how to accomplish.

I don’t want to sing the old song — trying to tell you that “your greatest strength is your weakness.” I’m trying to tell you some learnings:

You only have 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, so you cannot scale your “I-know-everything” style horizontally if you have to manage three or more projects.

You need to let your pride go away — you have to accept the fact that you are no longer (or cannot be) the most knowledgable person in every project because now you are spreading too thin. You need to carve out time to mentor junior professionals. Your job, as a manager, is to build up a strong team and ensure your people are organically working together to achieve success. Simply put, your job responsibility has changed, but none is going to tell you that! Your responsibility is to win as a team.

Sometimes, you need to learn how to “lose” a battle so that your team could win the war — for example, letting your direct reports make the choices, especially judgment calls, so that they can gain confidence, happiness, and experience.

Pitfall #1: a better tech-lead mindset

“Self-diagnosis”: if you feel that you cannot take a vacation or things are going to fall apart. Or, if you start to spend 30 minutes in daily stand-up or spend most of your 1–1 time in progress, priorities, and planning.

Many first-time managers implicitly start micro-managing when he/she still practices leadership in a tech-lead way, i.e. seeing a manager as an upgraded version of a tech-lead. For example, participating in code writing, telling people what to do next, parallel programming, etc. You need to find a balance between dive-deep and trusting your people.

Your team is growing bigger and bigger, but you still have only 24 hours a day. You start to lose your patience/temper in explaining your thinking process — you are giving out orders and leave, expecting your people to execute the way you do things. Your people start labeling you as “the dictator” style.

Soon senior professionals would decide to leave your team because they feel no autonomy nor growth in themselves.

I know… you have an urge to win so you would like to learn the full picture in order to make the right “technical” decision. Your goal is to build a team that could also operate without you. To draw an analogy, you must play the coach role, not trying to be the best player.

Pitfall #2: wanna be the player, not the coach

“Self-diagnosis”: if you feel that you have to be involved in every meeting, or feel that you often need to be a savior.

When you step up to be a manager, you inherit a bigger responsibility. One of the important responsibilities is to grow a leader under you.

The only way to develop a leader is to have the person to practice being a leader. You need to know when it’s your job to develop more leaders. You need to focus on coaching your direct reports. You need to let someone sit in the driver seat to gain confidence and experience. And, you need to have a gut to hire a person who is much better than you in some area(s).

It's especially difficult when you give birth to a project. You have to detach your control from the project and start to train someone else to gradually take charge of it.

I’m not saying that hands-off management is good for a line manager. You still need to dive deep. Though, knowing when to delegate and when to take control is an art for a manager to practice. If you have to make a decision, make sure you collect information from the team before you make a judgment.

In a nutshell, you need to give away your player trophy because you are expected to be a coach. You are now in charge of building a team of champions and win.

Success doesn’t need to involve me; however, when success comes I will be part of it. — Szeto Wah

Being an engineering manager/leader is never easy, and frankly, it’s the most challenging role you should expect. Being a manager requires a servant’s mind, a cheerleader’s energy, and a visionary’s ambition. And to be honest, it's not a promotion; it's a career trajectory change.

P.S. I’m always hiring — please connect me through https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/chucheng