5 things new leaders should think about
Many people used to believe that management is a natural progression in your career. If you were the best individual contributor then eventually you’ll be tasked with leading your whole team to success and be good at it, right? Yet, study after study, we find that your impact as a maker does not necessarily translate to being a great leader; And, that sometimes, remaining as an individual contributor might be the best path.
first chance to perform the role of a manager happened more than a decade ago and I was damn bad at it. I thought that, as someone with engineering background, it meant pushing more lines of code to production and designing larger systems that were scalable and performant for millions of users. I forgot that I was no longer only responsible for my contribution but also for the contribution of the whole team. While I did a good job communicating with external clients and making sure we delivered high-quality products that matched their business requirements, I failed to think ahead and build a technical strategy — one that might not work only for our current set of clients but could be the foundation for the future. It was very early in my career and was pushed to that role by the VP because the clients really liked me and I thought that was enough (and now looking back, it clearly wasn’t!)
So, here are a few things I think one should be considering as they transition to a manager role:
1. Team Development and Career Growth
A great leader thinks about how they can empower their team members to reach their potential. One of the ways is by helping them get to the next stage of their career. That may be through increased impact by letting them work cross-functionally with more teams, engaging in more ambiguous problems and owning business metrics associated with them or giving them presentation and mentorship opportunities not just within the company but also across the industry.
2. Strategy
The manager stage is usually where you double down on thinking bigger picture and longer term. It’s no longer just about this quarter or the next 6 months, it’s about interconnected projects that touch on year-long or multi-year initiatives. Normally, you will focus not just on the specific projects and contributions of your own team but how they align with other teams’ goals so you can reach the company objectives together.
3. Process-building and Operational Excellence
How can I increase the productivity of my team while maintaining the high quality of deliveries? What processes can we setup (or remove) to ensure that teams work better together resulting in faster time-to-market and with less issues once it reaches our customers? Are our hiring and onboarding practices efficient enough so that we not only hire the right candidates fast but also make sure they’re setup for success? Do we have defined workflows and guardrails to avoid having unexpected situations and when they do happen, do we have the guidelines and principles to govern quick decision-making and resolution?
4. Quick decision-making
As you transition to leadership, you have to have a deeper understanding of the business metrics and key performance indicators that drive the success of your organization. With this knowledge in hand, you should be able to make judgements faster and determine how you can minimize negative impact for failures or better yet, have a framework for reversing them and pivoting to a better path. You are no longer just bound to the upfront cost and resourcing but also the opportunity costs — what you may miss out on if you delay your decision even for a day.
5. Innovation
While it is the responsibility of even the most junior member to think about ideas that will get us ahead of the competition, and even more importantly, make the customer happy, the manager may have additional context as to how they can utilize the people’s skills and company resources the best to bring something new. “New” might mean an expanded target market or better product market fit, building/utilizing tools and technologies to increase efficiency and improving customer experience through better service or new product offerings.
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Alfred Lotho is an Engineering Manager with over 15 years of software development experience. You can checkout his background at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfredlotho/ and book a mentorship session with him at https://app.upnotch.com/profile/3jIGIkw0dre3nd64AzMc
