You became a manager of managers because in last 6-12 months you consistently demonstrated that you can handle larger scope, you can develop leaders under your and execute through other leaders. You might think you can continue doing what you have been doing and you’ll be successful in this role, however, this is a beginning of a role that requires learning a lot of new skills.
🤔 You’ll find yourself working less with ICs and more with your cross functional partners. In these forums, you’ll feel like an imposter and might think “am I adding any value here?”
🤝 Continue participating in those forums and figure out how to learn non engineering areas. Have 1-1 conversations with your cross functional partners and ask for pointers on how to learn a specific area. Learn through active listening and asking curious questions
🤔 You’ll find yourself communicating with senior leaders more often in written form
✍️ Develop crisp and concise writing skills
🤔 You’ll find yourself reading a lot of pre-read docs prior to meetings
🗓️ Get in the habit of blocking your calendar for meeting preparation
🤔 You’ll be exposed a lot more to business metrics
📈 Develop a skill to understand the metrics and connecting the dots with product changes and user behavior
🤔 As your team and scope grows, you’ll be asked to propose a new team structure and hiring plan
👥 Learn how to organize teams focused on specific long range problem spaces. Learn how to anticipate skill gaps based on the long term roadmap.
🤔 Eventually, you’ll start managing somebody who is better than you in certain things
🌿 Learn how to partner with them to leverage their skills to create larger impact and give them the visibility they deserve
