Debunking 5 Myths of Engineering Leadership
What is it like to be a leader on an engineering team? You may have an image in your head already, but chances are, it’s a bit different from reality.
A few falsehoods may come to mind that make you rethink whether a leadership position is the best fit for you. These myths can hold you back from pursuing a position you could excel in or even cause you to take on an unfulfilling role.
If you’re on the fence about whether to pursue a leadership role, take a look at five common myths of engineering leadership — and see what a leadership role might offer you instead.
Myth #1: You Won’t Get to Take On Technical Work
First up is the myth that once you’re in engineering leadership, you’ll no longer have the chance to do any technical work.
I know this concern all too well. Before I became an engineering manager, I was worried that a leadership role would mean I wouldn’t get to do what I was good at anymore.
But as I decided to pick up the leadership responsibilities that no one else was taking on, I became more aware of how smart and capable my team was. I saw that they were prepared to take on the bulk of the technical work, and there were new skills for me to learn to keep the team moving forward.
From managing engineers over the years, I’ve noticed that this myth stems from two main concerns. The first is that they enjoy coding and designing technical solutions and don’t want to give up those responsibilities.
The truth is that, as an engineering leader, you’re more likely to be involved earlier in the ideation process and can have much more influence over how new solutions are architected and implemented.
Not only will you be able to drive the technical direction of projects, but as a leader, you’re responsible for helping your team develop good engineering practices and evolve their skills. Mentoring in this area allows you to stay up-to-date in your knowledge so that you can guide your team.
Another way to overcome this concern is to look for smaller teams to lead. Small teams provide more opportunities to regularly take on technical delivery work or step in and assist when the workload is heavy.
The second concern that drives this myth is that engineers worry they’ll fall behind in their skillset or even become unhirable if they move on. While a leadership role may offer less opportunity for technical work, it will allow you to develop new skills like architecting and scaling systems, providing feedback, growing teams, and mentoring colleagues.
Instead of being unhirable, you’ll develop broader skills as a people manager that allow you to lead teams regardless of the tech stack used or the company you join.
Myth #2: Engineering Leadership Positions Are All the Same
Your manager comes to work. They have a stand-up meeting with the team, followed by some meetings with upper management. They also have some 1-on-1s with a few of your colleagues. To you, their day-to-day looks… boring and unproductive.
So if you wouldn’t want their job, then a management role isn’t for you, right?
In reality, all leadership roles are different, even roles within one department. For example, working on a large team as an engineering lead or manager could mean that your role focuses on technical solutions and architecture reviews, but not necessarily active programming. Those types of roles would also focus on career development, hiring, strategic planning, and alignment.
With more senior positions, your role would likely shift to work with stakeholders and to align your team’s efforts with other teams–especially if you’re working in a complex industry. The higher up you go, the more you’ll need to depend on “soft skills” like being a strong communicator and being able to manage difficult situations.
Whether you want to focus on the technical big picture, still take on programming projects, or keep cross-team collaboration in order, there’s a management role that offers the right balance of responsibilities.
Myth #3: A Leader Needs to Have All the Answers
Stepping into a leadership role for the first time can be nerve-wracking, especially when you think you have to have an answer to each of your team’s questions. The truth is that leaders ask questions of their own to better understand the needs of their teams and how they can help.
Being comfortable asking questions as a leader requires a mindset shift. When I first moved into a director role, I had to ask questions like:
- What are the right sets of problems for us to work on?
- How do we approach working with another team?
- How do we improve our test infrastructure?
- How do we hire the best people for the team?
As the director at a startup, I had to be comfortable digging for those answers alongside my team.
It’s also important to ask your team basic questions that help them gain a wider perspective. Think back to the curiosity you had at the start of your career, and ask similar questions to get your team to approach their projects and challenges from other viewpoints.
Having a mindset that’s open to learning is more important than being the smartest person in the room or having the most knowledge on a specific topic. The research company Gartner describes this as a “growth mindset,” or one where “intelligence and talent are the starting points, supplemented by continual learning.”
This type of mindset, according to Gartner, encourages resiliency and the ability to see challenges as opportunities.
Myth #4: You Have to Solve All Your Team’s Problems
Another common myth that stops would-be engineering leaders in their tracks is the idea that they have to solve every challenge for their team. In reality, team challenges are just that: challenges for the team to face.
As a leader, you have to make the call on whether a challenge requires your attention or someone else’s. That involves gaining a quick understanding of the problem, context, and people involved.
Once you have that understanding, you can decide to tackle the problem yourself or delegate the work to a teammate. If delegation is a new concept for you, you can try the 70% rule of dedication: if the person you want to delegate the work to can complete it at least 70% as well as you would, then pass off the task.
Implementing the 70% rule takes the focus off of perfection and allows your team to grow in their ability to solve difficult challenges. Learning to delegate also takes tasks off your plate as a leader so that you can focus on solving the strategic problems that no one else can solve.
Myth #5: You’re Not a Good Leader if You Don’t Want to Move Up the Ladder
Now that you know how team lead and early manager positions differ from senior leadership roles, it may seem inevitable that one role leads to another. However, these roles require different capabilities, and you can be drawn to one over the other based on your interests and personality.
Neither type of role is better than the other, and companies depend on managers at all levels to succeed. Choosing the right role at the right company is more important than climbing a corporate ladder.
Design a path for yourself that will align with your interests and what you want to achieve. Regardless of your choice, you’ll be building leadership skills that will last a lifetime and allow you to support any team that you’re part of.
Moving Past Myths and Toward Opportunities
If you decide to pursue leadership in engineering, know that the direction you take can be unique to what you hope to gain from the role. You can choose a role on a large team or a small one, and you can decide how much of the technical work you continue to do over time.
You’ll also have a chance to develop technology-agnostic leadership skills that will make you an asset to any team you join in the future. These skills will help you make strategic decisions that set your team up for success. You’ll learn to ask questions that lead to discoveries for your team while also trusting your teammates to handle some of the decision-making on their own.
When deciding if leadership is the right move for you, don’t let the fear of these five myths control your decision. Instead, choose from a place of confidence in knowing that there’s an opportunity that matches the vision you have for yourself.
If you want more insight into engineering leadership, take a look at my articles on the three pillars of engineering leadership and how to tell if you should make the leap to an engineering leadership role.
