DevOps.com

  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Features
    • Most Read
    • News
    • News Releases
  • Topics
    • AI
    • Continuous Delivery
    • Continuous Testing
    • Cloud
    • Culture
    • DataOps
    • DevSecOps
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • Leadership Suite
    • DevOps Practice
    • ROELBOB
    • DevOps Toolbox
    • IT as Code
  • Videos/Podcasts
    • Techstrong.tv Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv Video Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv - Twitch
    • DevOps Unbound
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming
    • On-Demand Webinars
  • Library
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • On-Demand Events
  • Sponsored Content
  • Related Sites
    • Techstrong Group
    • Container Journal
    • Security Boulevard
    • Techstrong Research
    • DevOps Chat
    • DevOps Dozen
    • DevOps TV
    • Techstrong TV
    • Techstrong.tv Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv Video Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv - Twitch
  • Media Kit
  • About
  • Sponsor
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Continuous Testing
  • DataOps
  • DevSecOps
  • DevOps Onramp
  • Platform Engineering
  • Low-Code/No-Code
  • IT as Code
  • More
    • Application Performance Management/Monitoring
    • Culture
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • ROELBOB
Hot Topics
  • Where Does Observability Stand Today, and Where is it Going Next?
  • Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities
  • A Freelancer's Workflow
  • Azure Migration Strategy: Tools, Costs and Best Practices
  • Blameless Integrates Incident Management Platform With Opsgenie

Home » Blogs » Doin' DevOps » Lead from the Podium: 6 Essential Concepts New Technical Managers Miss

Lead from the Podium: 6 Essential Concepts New Technical Managers Miss

Avatar photoBy: contributor on September 17, 2014 Leave a Comment

The transition from programmer to Team Lead or Software Manager can be a difficult one.

Recent Posts By contributor
  • How to Ensure DevOps Success in a Distributed Network Environment
  • Dissecting the Role of QA Engineers and Developers in Functional Testing
  • DevOps Primer: Using Vagrant with AWS
Avatar photo More from contributor
Related Posts
  • Lead from the Podium: 6 Essential Concepts New Technical Managers Miss
  • Network Engineers as Programmers? Not so fast.
  • How Continuous Delivery is Changing Software Development
    Related Categories
  • Blogs
  • Doin' DevOps
    Related Topics
  • programmer
  • team lead
  • technical management
Show more
Show less

One week, you’re in your cubicle cranking out masterful code, and the next, you’re managing a whole team that has to navigate innovative solutions, coordinate input from different departments, then anticipate and eliminate potential showstoppers.

TechStrong Con 2023Sponsorships Available

Stepping away from your identity as a superior coder into a role in management requires a whole new perspective on your work. Grasp the difference now, and you’ll save yourself months of frustration, friction, and fumbling.

Here’s the biggest realization that most new managers miss: you’re not a production unit anymore.

Starting now, you’re a leader. An encourager. A troubleshooter. A BS-caller. Most of all, you’re communication hub.

Your daily focus is no longer the perfection and elegance of your code, it’s the creation of something much larger using the coordinated work of many other people.

In other words, it’s all about communication and responsibility.

Think of it this way. When you attend a night at the symphony, you don’t go to see the conductor wave her arms around in an expressive and inspiring way. You expect to look past her the entire night, seeing only the orchestra as she keeps the whole group together, keeping time and leading the musicians through each crucial part of the piece.

She’s not making the music, but she makes the entire performance possible.

If the tuba player screws up–even in rehearsal–the last thing she’s going to do is march over, wrestle the tuba away from him and play the part herself. That’s just a formula for disaster.

Because the moment she forgets her role and steps off the podium to wade into the orchestra, the entire show starts to run off the rails.

It’s not the conductor’s job to play every instrument better than the musicians. They don’t need her to stand over their shoulder every moment in the practice room. And they don’t need a lecture insisting that there’s only one right way to play the piece.

Everyone, from the concertmaster to the triangle player, completely understands that they need her leadership at the podium to keep the entire ensemble together. They are relying on her to know the entire piece inside and out and have a good connection with each musician. This allows her to call out the best in them during the performance.

It is just as imperative that new technical managers stay at their podium. Most fancy leadership books are full of inspirational phrases, but they pass over this essential fact.

You and everyone else on your team needs to be secure in the knowledge that the while programmers are responsible for their craft and their individual output, you are in command of the entire process.

Even if your company hasn’t specifically communicated this to you, they’re very clear on your responsibilities for them. I’m here to help you understand those priorities–and own them.

Here are a few essential lead-from-the-podium concepts that every new tech manager should learn and develop.

6 Leadership Concepts Most New Technical Managers Miss

  1. Keep your eye on the entire project. Yes, coding is your specialty, but unless you keep track of how every programmer’s output is coming together into the product, you’ll miss an issue that can derail yourself, your team, other departments and the delivery date.
  2. Know the demands of the project and the players’ capabilities. This means reading between the lines of team comments like, “This is easy,” or “This can’t be done.” A solid manager knows what elements of the project are triggering these statements. He can also anticipate hidden complexity in a seemingly simple project or determine how he’s going to have to direct the team around hidden landmines.
  3. Call BS on idealism and shortsightedness. Occasionally, a conductor has to be brave enough to hurt the tuba player’s feelings in order to have the entire performance come off well. Likewise, managers have to step in with a dose of reality when programmers insist that a project will “only take an hour”, and you have that gut feeling that even an all-night session won’t get it done. Remember that programmers are overly optimistic about their abilities, so build a realistic cushion into the timeline for them–and yourself.
  4. Don’t take the tuba away from the tuba player. Just don’t. I know, you’re an expert at the work that you’re now managing. That makes it almost impossible to avoid the temptation to jump in and do it yourself. But let me tell you, this is the most time-sucking, team-killing mistake that most new tech managers make. It’s so destructive and prevalent that I’m dedicating an entire lesson to it soon. But for now, just trust me. Stick to your job and let the programmers stick to theirs.
  5. Realize that communication–not production–is your priority. A manager’s value is crafting relationships on his team that allow him to motivate, direct, persuade, and correct the people on his team. This is the most important aspect of management and the core of your job. But after being in production mode for years, this kind of “work” can feel like you’re not “doing” anything. When you’re feeling this way, start tracking the number of conversations you have with your team members, and then see how your sense of your own production improves. Communication UPWARDS and OUTWARDS is just as important as INWARDS.
  6. Take the blame when failure hits. While it’s natural to want to shift responsibility to someone else when the deadline was missed or a key function of the software bombed, but pulling the blame card just looks immature. Face the pain, learn the lessons and move on.  Learn to say “My Team Screwed up” publicly, and then hold people accountable privately.

Making the shift from a respected programmer to an effective manager is a tough one, and not all of the best practices are obvious. The most essential realization you need to make–one that you’ll have to reinforce repeatedly in your first months in leadership–is that you’re no longer a maker.

You’re a conductor.

About the Author

marcusblankenshipMarcus Blankenship – Nearly 20 years ago I made the leap from senior-level hacker to full-on tech lead. Practically overnight I went from writing code to being in charge of actual human beings. Without training or guidance, I suddenly had to deliver entire products on time and under budget, hit huge company goals, and do it all with a smile on my face. I share what I’ve learned here.

Filed Under: Blogs, Doin' DevOps Tagged With: programmer, team lead, technical management

« A Simple Service Discovery Solution for Docker
Harvard Business Review Survey: IT responsiveness predicts business success »

Techstrong TV – Live

Click full-screen to enable volume control
Watch latest episodes and shows

Upcoming Webinars

Automating Day 2 Operations: Best Practices and Outcomes
Tuesday, February 7, 2023 - 3:00 pm EST
Shipping Applications Faster With Kubernetes: Myth or Reality?
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 - 1:00 pm EST
Why Current Approaches To "Shift-Left" Are A DevOps Antipattern
Thursday, February 9, 2023 - 1:00 pm EST

Sponsored Content

The Google Cloud DevOps Awards: Apply Now!

January 10, 2023 | Brenna Washington

Codenotary Extends Dynamic SBOM Reach to Serverless Computing Platforms

December 9, 2022 | Mike Vizard

Why a Low-Code Platform Should Have Pro-Code Capabilities

March 24, 2021 | Andrew Manby

AWS Well-Architected Framework Elevates Agility

December 17, 2020 | JT Giri

Practical Approaches to Long-Term Cloud-Native Security

December 5, 2019 | Chris Tozzi

Latest from DevOps.com

Where Does Observability Stand Today, and Where is it Going Next?
February 6, 2023 | Tomer Levy
Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities
February 6, 2023 | Mike Vizard
Azure Migration Strategy: Tools, Costs and Best Practices
February 3, 2023 | Gilad David Maayan
Blameless Integrates Incident Management Platform With Opsgenie
February 3, 2023 | Mike Vizard
OpenAI Hires 1,000 Low Wage Coders to Retrain Copilot | Netflix Blocks Password Sharing
February 2, 2023 | Richi Jennings

TSTV Podcast

On-Demand Webinars

DevOps.com Webinar ReplaysDevOps.com Webinar Replays

GET THE TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK

Most Read on DevOps.com

OpenAI Hires 1,000 Low Wage Coders to Retrain Copilot | Netflix Blocks Password Sharing
February 2, 2023 | Richi Jennings
Automation Challenges Holding DevOps Back
February 1, 2023 | Mike Vizard
Jellyfish Adds Tool to Visualize Software Development Workflows
January 31, 2023 | Mike Vizard
Cisco AppDynamics Survey Surfaces DevSecOps Challenges
January 31, 2023 | Mike Vizard
Red Hat Brings Ansible Automation to Google Cloud
February 2, 2023 | Mike Vizard
  • Home
  • About DevOps.com
  • Meet our Authors
  • Write for DevOps.com
  • Media Kit
  • Sponsor Info
  • Copyright
  • TOS
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Techstrong Group, Inc.

© 2023 ·Techstrong Group, Inc.All rights reserved.