Management and technical leadership are distinct crafts that both require deliberate practice and sustained attention.
What to look for
- 01
Do not expect to improve equally at full-time management and deep engineering simultaneously.
- 02
Give engineers challenging work instead of reserving the interesting tasks for yourself.
- 03
Make a return to individual contribution a legitimate career choice.
Keep in mind
An opinionated career argument. A small team may temporarily combine responsibilities, but that does not remove the attention conflict.
Try this next
List the engineering work you are holding onto. Which assignments would help somebody else grow, and what support would make the handoff safe?
Get the people management templateNotes and exercises by Awesome CTO. The original work belongs to Charity Majors.
