Hello ladies and gentlemen,
Becoming a Tech Lead!
I recently had the opportunity to take on a new challenge in my career - tech lead! This new role will come with managing people on the team, compared to being a mentor or coach as a Sr. Software Engineer.
I'm very excited to take on the new challenge, and am looking forward to growing both myself and the people on the team!!
Using the Inversion Mental Model for Better Outcomes
In one of Charlie Munger's speeches, he mentions that many of times problems can be solved using inversion instead of forward thinking. His example given was, if you want to help India, the best question isn't asking how can I best help India, instead one should ask - what are the things that hurt India the most. Those are the things to focus on to improve it!
As I was sitting there taking in life in the big apple, deciding on how to best succeed in my new role, I thought to myself - how could I be a great tech lead?
That took me right back to Charlie Munger's Inversion example about India.
In addition to asking how can I be a great tech lead, I believe it makes sense to invert that for qualities one should avoid as well!
With that being said, I would love some help!
The Questions
If you've had tech leads, managers, and mentors both good and bad, please answer the following questions in the comments!
1. What were the qualities you most admired, respected, and appreciated from a tech lead you loved working for?
2. What qualities did you find the most disheartening, frustrating, or disappointing that you hope to never have in a future tech lead?
Conclusion
I'll be trying to take a look throughout the day at this, and join in the discussion as much as a possible. Thank you!!
Top comments (5)
What were the qualities you most admired, respected, and appreciated from a tech lead you loved working for?
What qualities did you find the most disheartening, frustrating, or disappointing that you hope to never have in a future tech lead?
There are so many more things :D
Just need to work now!
I wish you all the best!!
And congrats! Good job :)
This is so awesome thank you so much !!!!!!!!
I thought I'd start off the discussion / comments by responding to my own questions!
Question 1.
Vulnerable - shows that even though as a leader, you can approach them and learn together, all while making some mistakes a long the way to grow from
Confident - Being able to guide the way for the team, giving you direction you can trust, and also admitting when they don't know something really gives me respect to grow and work with them
Great communication - I feel that when a team knows the direction, the standards, the process, and the goals, they can better work together when trying to accomplish them! Also, for those tough conversations or career sessions a good communicator makes sure you feel heard!
Question 2.
Arrogance - I feel arrogance in leadership doesn't work well, because it can cloud judgement, alienate, people, and bring unhealthy competitiveness into the team. Confident is good. Arrogance not so much.
Unorganized - It's tough to feel like you can exceed expectations if there are no expectations set to exceed. It can be challenging to accomplish goals if they aren't defined. I feel that leaders help communicate goals, standards, etc. into the team so they can utilize them efficiently. Albeit, every leader can do this in different ways - documentation, communicating in meetings or MRs, but it is definitely an important part of a good team!
I'm looking so forward to being that leader now :), and will be doing my best to help everyone grow! Totally agree with point #2 and thank you very much !!