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It was an ordinary workday. After lunch, the CTO suddenly asked if I wanted to be a Manager for the next half. I kept my composure at the moment, but I'd been criticized when I was a Team Leader before. It was quite unexpected overall, but since it was decided, I've resolved to seize the opportunity and avoid repeating the same mistakes.
The Role Shift: From Writing Code to Leading a Team
Even though my current title is Team Leader, most of my work still revolves around PM communication and technical research. I do some management tasks, but they lean heavily toward the technical side.
Once I become a Manager, management work will increase significantly—things like driving the projects my team owns to completion, coordinating people and collaboration, and working across teams.
My focus will shift too. Before, I only needed to worry about the deliverables from my own small group. As a Manager, I'll need to care about the team's output and the growth of its members. The core challenge moves from solving technical problems to solving people problems.
Of course, I haven't officially started the Manager work yet. Once there's concrete progress, I'll post an update.
What I'm Doing to Prepare
Lately I've been reading Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager.
Besides reading, I've done one more thing: taken a "snapshot" of the team's current state.
What does that mean? I wrote down the team's situation in detail:
- What project each person is working on
- How the projects are progressing
- What technical debt exists
- What the team atmosphere is like
- How everyone's doing at work
That way, three months from now I can compare: did my management actually make things better? If not, it means I went in the wrong direction.
Another thing I'm preparing: fixing my procrastination.
Take blogging, for example. I'd set a goal of one post every two weeks, but I'd always put off thinking about what to write until the day before the deadline. The result was low-quality posts and a lot of anxiety.
If I can't even manage that level of self-discipline, how can I manage a team?
My Worries
I've prepared a lot, but honestly, my biggest fear is repeating the same mistakes. Last time I was criticized for insufficient management skills—or rather, insufficient reporting skills. But after all this time honing those skills, despite the lingering worry, I still plan to face the challenge head-on.
This time next month, I might look back at these thoughts and find them naive. I might also discover that some worries were completely unfounded, while other challenges were things I never saw coming.
But that's okay. This post is like a time capsule, capturing who I am right now—full of anticipation, and a bit of unease.
Let's see if I end up eating my words in three months 😅
To be continued.
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