Indecision: The creator of leaders…maybe
How many times have you walked out of a meeting and no tangible decision was made? How many times have you asked a question to the greater organization on Slack or some other collaboration program and all you get in response is…nothing? Making decisions is extremely challenging.
One of the great fulfillments in my life is teaching, coaching, and mentoring. I’ve helped folks quite literally all over the world learn people, leadership and advanced technical skills. I learn as much from them as they do from me. Learning new perspectives, helping others find the best version of themselves. That right there, is the impetus to this article. I see this problem play out at company after company, and team after team. It’s always there. When I see a leadership void, I fill it. Period. It has taken many years, and a lot of scars to get there though. Hopefully, this article will help provide folks a boost in confidence to step up, and challenge themselves. Strive to be the best they can be.
The tech industry desperately needs technical leaders.
One of the common denominators I have seen all companies lack is a strong number of technical leaders. They are always in short supply! Leadership takes many forms too. It’s not just a Team Lead, a Dev Manager, a Director, or a well defined role. There are several categories of unsung heroes that exist too:
- Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) — Domain or Tech Stack
- Process Wizards — These folks know what to do in every situation to navigate the murky waters of engineering.
- Historians — These folks are rare nowadays, but when you come across one, they are invaluable. They seem to know the details of an organization’s history. All the mistakes, justifications, rationales explaining how the organization got to where it is today. They have been around forever in an organization.
- Mentor/Coach — These folks are quick to help. They tend to live by the old adage “Give a person a fish, and they eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and they eat for a lifetime.” They constantly strive to help their colleagues to improve.
- Technical Lead — Official capacity or not, doesn’t matter. Titles vary for this, but the point remains the same. These folks are the unicorns. They show extreme technical prowess coupled with the ability to drive home solutions across an organization. All without an official title that gives them teeth to do it. They corral everybody necessary across teams and push a solid technical strategy. Typically this role manifests in the Staff Engineers, Principle Engineers, and Architects. Although it doesn’t always have to be the case. That is what makes the role so interesting. No one answers to them. They do not control the schedule. Yet everyone listens to them.
The Technical Lead is the role we are discussing here, or lack thereof because these people are not common, and the industry needs more!
Who should take this advice?
Not everyone is at a stage in their career to try to make decisions like a Tech Lead. If you haven’t been in the field long, chances are you are not ready. If you find it hard to discuss tech solutions with folks and show where you are right, it’s going to be hard to learn this role. This is very, very hard. Some people make it look easy, but it’s not. So, always follow your leadership. If that is lacking….this is where you can move in. It’s the indecision that reveals a hole in leadership, and an opportunity for you to fill the void. Just be careful your first time. Try not to get in over your head, or go too far over your pay grade.
All of these are soft suggestions purely because everyone is in a different part of their career, different organizational culture, and have different personal strengths/weaknesses. So, there is not a black and white “do this, don’t do this!” kind of roadmap. Everyone has to blaze their own trail. Much to the chagrin of some.
Introverts vs Extroverts
Introverts tend to shy away from people, but a lot of that is due to confidence. I tend to flip flop across introvert and extrovert…an ambivert. So, I do have a modicum of understanding of introverted thinking. The trick is, how do you overcome one’s reservations to grow into a leader? In my personal experience, the starting point is having the willingness to speak up when you know you are right.
…having the willingness to speak up when you know you are right.
Extroverts do not have a problem speaking up, they tend to have a problem speaking up too early. They do not yet have the knowledge base, or information, required to make a decision. So, they tend to make more mistakes, but at least they are willing to make a decision. If you are an extrovert, one of the major problems is knowing when you have enough information to make a decision.
…knowing when you have enough information to make a decision.
Sadly, both major ends of the spectrum learn the answers to the above problem areas through personal experience, and wins/losses. You have to be WILLING to jump into the fray. WILLING to leap when you don’t have full visibility. When you jump, and when you are wrong, it’s ok. Start on small decisions and as your confidence grows pick bigger topics. This growth is what will help propel your career up!
Risk Assessment
Once you reach a certain point in your career you begin to realize that software, and engineering in general, is a series of trade-offs. There are almost always multiple solutions to a problem. So, how do you choose one? This is one major source of uncertainty for people. Uncertainty is the mother of all indecision. Part of being a Tech Lead is being able to assess the trade offs of each fork in the road and having the courage to choose one. The operative word there is courage. Usually questions like this get weighed into the decision:
- If I choose option A, it will take longer, but set us up for the next year much better, but we are under a schedule crunch. Can we afford the time? Do we optimize for speed now, and pay the price in maintenance later, or the other way around?
- Option B gets us nearly to the finish line, but we can’t cross to the 100% mark for another few months. We are supposed to be done in a month. Is it worth shipping when we are not quite done?
- Choosing option A gets the task done faster, but it costs the company more because of increased Cloud Costs. Is it worth it?
- Or Choosing Option C requires the use of technology we are not experts in. Can we afford the technical risk? Although it keeps things interesting for the engineers (which improves retention/happiness).
- Do we know the technology well enough to say a task can be done, or is there a surprise lurking simply because no one knows it enough to know where all the problems are at?
None of these are black and white anwers most of the time. You may have noticed those are not all purely engineering style questions as well. Some of that is Product Management or Business Development. It is reality though. The answers to these usually require making decisions in a field of uncertainty. Most people are not willing to call that shot. So how do you fix that? Well, you do the best you can. If you are working for a solid company, an inclusive culture, one that truly seems to care about it’s employees, you should feel comfortable enough to call a shot. This is what will start to propel your career upward!
Is this my job?
There’s a lot of talk about making sure people stay in their swimlanes. Product Managers do not make decisions in Engineering. Release Managers do not make decisions for Business Development. There are tons of permutations. There is also very good reason for this. We cannot be experts in all things. For example, you would not hire a plumber to do electrical work. However, it’s also not necessarily black and white. There is a grey area in between. There is overlap between the swimlanes. This is where the leadership voids tend to rest. It’s not all one discipline or the other. As soon as you step into that grey area folks get nervous about making decisions. The Tech Lead will build up confidence to still thrive in that grey area. It doesn’t matter to them. You make the decision for the benefit of the team. You consult with those who are experts in the subjects that make the grey area, then make a decision. Be Scrappy! Be Decisive! Be Obsessed!
Be Scrappy! Be Decisive! Be Obsessed!
If it’s not your job, but no one is making a decision, make it your job. This is that growth! Again, use caution here. Make sure this is in the grey areas that line up to your skillset. Make sure you are informed enough to truly believe you are right. Make sure you are staying in line with existing leadership. If there is no void, then there is no void. There’s no reason to move in. We are not out to take over the world! Just improve ourselves and the organization. One Team.
There is risk here, but measured risk. Without risk, we don’t grow. How do you think your senior leadership got to those positions? Not only are they talented at what they do, but they took on risk.
How to grow into a Tech Lead?
Trust and persuasion is another major topic, but for another article. Right now we are talking about Confidence. Confidence in yourself to take measured risks in a field of uncertainty and leap. Stay within the guardrails of your existing leadership, but help your organization by filling the voids that exist adjacent to your skillset. Grow! It’s ok to fail. Learn and grow!
Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or comments. I have been leading teams in the software industry for many years. Helping people learn the craft, and grow leaders is a core way I contribute back to those who have taught me. Hopefully, we can make the next generation stronger.
