Transition to Management in Technology
My observations on precursors for advancing to a managerial position in the tech industry.
During my first three years at Yandex, I progressed from an individual contributor to leading a research team of four people and then to overseeing three different teams of twenty people focused on research, education, and developer relations. It was a fantastic journey, and some of my ex-colleagues asked for career advice.
In information technology companies, progression happens in two directions. One is an individual contributor track, which involves system design and technical planning. Another is a management track, which implies team leading and strategic planning. Both have been covered extensively in the business media and literature, which assume you are already in this position. In this article, instead, I will emphasize a less covered and rather subjective topic of transitioning to the management track.
The choice of the track is up to the individual as we all are different. Before we proceed, I need to admit that there are some fundamentals for managers. A good manager fosters a culture of trust, respect, and transparency in the team. You cover their front, they cover your back. I like how these fundamentals are described in the How to Lead a Team chapter in Software Engineering at Google. But what if you are not a manager yet? As someone who supervised managers of managers, I noticed five precursors that might help one to self-evaluate the suitability for broader responsibilities.
Communication is King
Many problems would disappear if people were willing to just have a conversation. Being good at communication is not just about being a public speaker, a negotiator, or a diplomat. It’s about maintaining a cohesive environment where people have clear expectations of each other’s assumptions and actions—without your frequent intervention. Communication is one of the most important things ever, especially when you are a manager or want to be one.
Do What Others Don’t Want To
There are tasks that everybody wants to do, and there are tasks that everybody hates to do. The shortage of the former is the reason for personal conflicts and office politics. The most hated tasks exist because they were critical for the business but eventually became a convoluted mess due to the harsh reality. Nobody is eager to fix faulty services, maintain legacy code, build benchmarks, etc. How do you recognize the critical task? Imagine that nobody is working on it anymore, how strong would be the impact?
A good idea is to take the essential thing that everybody hates and do it well. If you fail, nobody will blame you because they will think they would already have known the outcome. But if you succeed and communicate well, you will get a reputation as someone who can do impossible things. More opportunities and responsibilities will follow soon—and you’ll like it.
Track the Initiative
Since you became a manager, people in your team stopped being your peers and became people you are serving (not vice versa). Your peers are now other managers with comparable team sizes and scopes. Hence, success depends on your ability to collaborate with people who are not obliged to do what you tell them.
I found useful tracking the balance between incoming and outgoing collaboration requests. How many things have your peers asked you to do? How many peers have you asked to collaborate with? Leading a successful initiative is the key to promotion, but being an integral part of a mission-critical initiative is a safe way to stay afloat. However, if the balance has changed recently, expect a reorganization soon.
Take a Look Around
Organizations are made of individuals, and different departments attract different kinds of individuals with similar traits. If you are willing to manage a larger organization, a very important thing to do is to have a look around and ask yourself a simple question.
Do you like your superordinates? If yes, great (but please be honest with yourself). Do you want to be like them? These people are usually there for a reason due to some specific traits that brought them there. Now, do a thought experiment by imagining them to be your peers. If it raises some rejection, please be careful. Would you fit there?
Your Manager is Also Building a Career
The reason you got your job was because your manager believed that you could help them achieve the broader goals of their organization. The same applies to their manager. Helping them in achieving their goals helps them to help you in achieving yours. Get a crystal clear understanding of the goals and priorities of the organization so that you can manage and communicate the expectations and outcomes.