How to Lead without Being a Manager
Unleash leadership opportunities
Recently, a software engineering intern asked me about potential career paths that advance to leadership positions. I could tell that he was eager to be in a position where he could make an impact. Like that intern, many people associate being a leader with being a manager. Having direct reports has its own set of responsibilities, but you don’t need a job title to start leading. I’ve laid out three great ways you can begin leading in your current position.
Become a Feature Owner
A feature owner is responsible for getting a customer-facing capability into production. As a feature owner, you’re not expected to plan and complete all the work on your own. Instead, you are leading the effort to finish it.
My team is currently working on a redesign for our dashboard. One of my fellow engineers is the feature owner for the redesign and led the team by talking through the work needed to be done in addition to breaking the feature down into smaller stories and tasks. His leadership helped our team to see the big picture while also creating piecemeal tasks.
Some features, like the dashboard, are pretty straight-forward, while others require research to find out what libraries and technologies may be available to create the capability. When you become a feature owner, it is important to do your research and start brainstorming different approaches. It doesn’t mean that you must come up with the best solution; this research will allow you and your team to consider various approaches to ultimately choose the best implementation plan.
As a feature owner, you’ll become the go-to person for all feature related questions. If (and when) I have a question about a task for the new dashboard, guess who I’ll ask first — yes, that’s right, our wonderful feature owner. Becoming a feature owner will enable you to share the knowledge you’ve gained. This helps the team become more productive and innovate faster. You’ll have the expertise to lead topic meetings and technical discussions.
Coach others
Another way to sharpen your leadership skills is to coach co-workers. Coaching others is a way of mentoring that usually occurs at a more technical level. A great opportunity to coach others is pair programming.
My team does a lot of pair programming. Last week, another engineer and I were pairing on a front-end task to align a component with flexbox. He tried adding many style properties to get a component in the right spot. The solution was simple: set the left and right margins to auto. Not knowing this little trick has stumped me before, but after struggling through it myself I was able to help my co-worker by showing him a better way of aligning the component. Working closely allows us to give and receive real-time feedback. We are constantly sharing knowledge and learning from each other. Pair programming is just one example of how you can coach and mentor others.
Get Involved
What you do at work doesn’t have to be only what you’re assigned. There are many ways to get involved at work outside of your daily role. One of my company’s employee resource groups called Women’s Initiative Network (WIN) host sessions with local teen girls to inspire young women to consider careers in tech. I volunteered to lead a table discussion and speak about my career path. After talking with some of the girls, I realized that a majority of them weren’t aware that technology was an available career path. It was a super eye-opening experience for everyone. My hope is that I can act as a role model for these girls so that they were able to leave the session with new ideas for their future.
Whether it be participating in events for an employee resource group or starting an effort for something you want to improve, find something that inspires you. Chances are you’ll be leading without even realizing.
Don’t wait for your career to land you in a leadership position. Taking ownership of your work today is a form of leadership.
