Imagine a scenario…You are a software engineer. You are fairly senior in your career. Perhaps, even -very- senior. You might have a Staff or Principal in front of your title. Maybe, you are a software architect. Needless to say, you are an individual contributor. Although, in your role, there are some elements of leadership (you’re senior+, after all) — let’s say that they are not that significant.
Then, at one point, your manager comes to you and says - "you've been doing a great job! We're going to promote you! You're going to be a team lead!"
Now, the role or title doesn't really matter here. Nor - does the process by which this promotion happens. You may be going into a development manager role, or a lead architect role. Perhaps, you've been vying for this all along. Or - maybe this promotion has caught you by complete surprise.
It doesn't matter.
The point is that you have, for the first time, received the responsibility of leading others in one way or another. It doesn't necessarily have to be that others will be officially reporting to you either. Perhaps, this is a role in which you are to lead in other ways - through guidance, delegation, or by driving an initiative forward.
In any case, there is now a sizeable element of leadership to your role.
The problem in the software development industry (and most likely it's a problem shared across industries) is that very often, people who go into leadership roles are not positioned for success.
They receive no guidance. No support. No training.
That, coupled with the fact that most people are not what one might call "natural born leaders" is a recipe for failure.
It is one of those issues in the industry that few talk about and yet it affects individuals, teams, and organizations daily. But, why do these leaders fail? More importantly, how can they become positioned for success?
Below are some of the key observations I've made over the years and across multiple companies with numerous, and very different, teams.
Delegating Without Guiding
All too often, senior leaders give the following advice to new leaders. "Delegate!"
It becomes the answer to almost every challenge.
Don't have time? Delegate!
Don't know how to approach this problem? Delegate!
Don't want to deal with this issue? Delegate!
It becomes almost a cop-out. The thing is…. It's not really - "almost". It's a cop-out. That's exactly why so many leaders fall into the trap of delegation that doesn't yield any results and all too often actually does the opposite - stymying progress and creating confusion.
Delegation is only as good as the combinatory skillset of the person delegating and the person being delegated to. It all starts with the person who is delegating. In order for this to work, the other person needs to have a clear understanding of what it is that is being expected of them. If the person doing the delegating cannot properly explain in a clear and concise manner what those expectations are, the other party is going to struggle.
That is why it is paramount, when delegating work, to ensure that you, the leader, have clearly and concisely communicated that which you want done. It is on you to ensure that there is understanding of what is required, what is the expected outcome, and what are the important limitations, risks, timelines, and all other factors relevant to the task at hand.
It is also on you to be cognizant that the other party may or may not be fully prepared to take on whatever it is you are delegating. In that case, you need to be ready to provide guidance, help, and support. It may seem counterintuitive at first. After all, the whole point of delegation is so that you can ensure that yours and someone else's time is used wisely.
However, delegating work as a leader is a long-term game. You may have to spend more time guiding someone at the beginning, but the effort required for guidance will gradually decrease over time. As the other person(s) learns how to perform whatever line of work that you have delegated to them, they will require less guidance. Often, they will be able to guide others - something that, in turn, serves as a force multiplier within the organization.
Neglecting to Uplift Others
Management and Leadership are concepts that are very often confused and used interchangeably. They are, however, different things. Management revolves around the organization of resources and people. It deals with tactics. It solves day-to-day issues and ensures that things can move forward as planned, correcting course where required, and dealing with emerging complications.
Leadership, on the other hand, deals with vision, strategy, morale, and paving the way forward. Leadership roots itself in the ability to guide individuals and teams towards a common goal.
With that said, in the corporate environment, people managers also have a large leadership component to their role. So do individual contributors who are in semi-leadership positions - technical leads, technology architects, staff/principal engineers, technical directors, enterprise architects, etc.
The problem is that the meaning of leadership is rarely, if at all, properly conveyed to people in these roles. Someone who was promoted from a senior software engineer and into a people management role might, and often does, find themselves bewildered by what this new role entails and the leadership responsibilities attached to it.
The most crucial aspect of leadership - especially in software delivery environments - requires the uplifting of others - whether directly or indirectly. It requires a new leader to guide, mentor, coach, and help level up those who are being led.
Leadership that focuses solely on the person who is in that position is not true leadership. It's a mere shadow of what it can be. True leadership paves way for progress while making others increasingly competent in bringing that progress about.
Avoiding Hard Conversations
People in leadership roles - whether as a people manager or some kind of a technical leader - communicate with others much more than they would have in a purely individual contribution role. Some of that communication may be around subject matters that aren't necessarily the easiest to talk about.
For example, as a people manager, you may need to tackle issues of performance or address a conflict between individuals. As a technical leader, you may need to tell someone that the system design that they had come up with is incorrect or that a decision they are about to make should be reevaluated.
The point here is that the more of a leadership component your role involves, the larger is the problem space that you will need to deal with. Much of that problem space will revolve around dealing with people issues that need to be addressed and resolved in a tactful and positive manner.
However, many new leaders in Technology (and most likely elsewhere) are not equipped and are not prepared to deal with these issues. As a result, these leaders avoid dealing with such issues and, as a result, shy away from having the necessary conversations.
This, in turn, creates an environment where problems are swept under the rug and are left unattended. That, of course, isn't a recipe for anything good. Productivity falls. Morale plummets. If the issue is team or company-wide, then company performance dwindles.
Summary
So what's the takeaway? How do you position those in leadership for success? The first and most crucial element here is to recognize the points above and to take measures to implement them in your practice as a people or technical leader.
Delegation only makes sense when both the delegator and the person delegated to have the same expectations and understanding of what is required. It is up to the delegator to ensure alignment and to provide the necessary guidance.
The pivotal point between individual contribution and leadership is that individual contribution is turned inward towards the person in that role. Leadership, on the other hand, is turned outward towards others. The more leadership responsibility there is on a person, the more their role revolves around guiding and uplifting others.
Successful leaders communicate with others all the time. More so, they know how to have hard conversations. Many who are new to leadership roles shy away from these kinds of conversations. This creates subsequent problems that are left undealt with and that take away from the progress of the team or organization.
(This blog post was written by a human 👨💻)
Leadership plays an important part in the software architect's day-to-day. Yet, so many software architects are not prepared for it. Unlocking the Career of Software Architect guides you through the different, often-missed, and yet so crucial, aspects of the software architect's role.
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