Back to resources

Is Becoming an EM a Promotion

Career Growth
Transitioning into a New Management Role
Compensation

28 June, 2021

Anand Safi
Anand Safi

Senior Engineering Leader | Mentor & Coach | Advisor at Mark43

Anand Safi, Engineering Manager at Mark43, recalls his early-career dilemma: is becoming an engineering manager merely a promotion or a new role that requires a mindset shift.

Problem

In the early days of my career, I would equalize becoming an engineering manager and being promoted. And certainly, I was not the only one. For quite some time, I believed that I wanted to become an EM because it felt like a natural progression, the next step on the career ladder.

Once I became an EM for the first time, I realized how the reasons that drove me to the role might not be the right ones. I questioned my motivation candidly and thoroughly. If I didn’t, I would end up in a role I didn’t understand, which then wouldn’t allow me to be productive and meet the expectations. I underwent a profound mindset change that helped me approach my new role from an entirely different perspective.

Actions taken

For starters, I put a 30/60/90 days check-in plan for myself and made sure to follow it day by day. I did extensive research on what an EM role entails in different industries and settings. Before delving into the role, I knew little about it and what would be expected of me. This is not an uncommon scenario. Oftentimes, a person does well as an IC and is made an EM without any training or coaching provided. One day you are promoted; the next day, you are managing a team.

After I gathered some information through reading, I compiled a list of core responsibilities and structured my working week accordingly. I realized that I would have to make some tradeoffs to make the most of my new role. To start with, I began to spend more time working together with the team on developing solutions. Though it was faster and easier for me to do some things by myself, I wanted to be a true enabler who would help the team come up with a solution instead of telling them what to do. If I kept telling them what the solution was, I would become a permanent bottleneck and would curtail their growth.

Next, I initiated closer collaboration with internal stakeholders, most notably product, design, and QA people. From the technical product management perspective, I had to ensure continuous progress in terms of my sprint goals. To do so, I wanted to make sure I would be providing timely updates and flagging things early on to other stakeholders. That would allow them to course-correct or readjust their activities. I wanted them to be informed timely about what was happening in Engineering, and I wanted to be proactive; hence I would be the one to share (unsolicited) updates frequently.

In the end, I had to become more versed in the subtle art of delegation and stop doing every single thing by myself. I wanted to utilize my team to its full potential and leverage the strengths of my team members. Oftentimes, I would overcommit to a number of action items, and with back-to-back meetings and context switching, I wouldn’t be able to deliver if I didn’t delegate. I would trim down the to-do list to what would be reasonable and achievable and then give the team the opportunity to take ownership and demonstrate accountability by taking some action items off that list.

I would also try to nurture trust with my direct reports. This comes in stark contrast to what were my priorities as an IC, where I was concerned about myself and my output only. Now, I want to make the team and every individual on that team happy, which can mean different things to different people. For some, it is having clarity, while others prefer work-life balance or attending meetings; getting to know their goals and figuring out what makes them happy is a key to building trust.

Lessons learned

  • Question your motives when transitioning from an IC to a manager. By questioning, I don’t mean self-doubt but digging deeper into your motivation and values. Are you ready for new responsibilities? Are you aware of the expectations the new role carries? Make sure you can answer what I call “suggestive signals” about the role -- is it about financial compensation, influence, authority, or personal growth. Some of those, in my opinion, are not the right signals.
  • You can practice self-leadership at any stage of your career. If you want to demonstrate leadership, you can pick any task and make it a polygon to demonstrate your leadership skills. Financial compensation is something I consider a by-product, and for people who want to get promoted without becoming managers, many companies offer dual career tracks. If you don’t want to become a manager, make sure that the company offers a tech career path.
  • Get used to the fact that success will be more abstract. When I was an engineer, I had very tangible metrics before me of what made me successful: lines of code, number of features, the complexity of a solution, etc. That is vanishing as you move up the ladder, and you will need to come up with metrics that are much less tangible. For example, some of my metrics that, as a manager, I find relevant are that my team is happy, that they don’t have any blockers, that we collaborate well with different stakeholders, etc.

Discover Plato

Scale your coaching effort for your engineering and product teams
Develop yourself to become a stronger engineering / product leader


Related stories

The Power of influence inside software engineering

9 April

As software engineers, we mainly talk about the power of tech skills and spending time learning new skills. However, there is also the influence that impacts your career as well.

Productivity
Career Growth
Strategy and Vision
Otavio Santana

Otavio Santana

Java champion, software engineer, architect, and open-source Contributor at Independent Technical Advisor

Should You Quit Your Job to Pursue Your Business Idea?

29 March

Have you ever had a business idea that you just couldn't shake off? Maybe it's a side project you've been working on in your spare time or a passion project that you've always dreamed of turning into a business.?

Career Growth
Strategy and Vision
Sherman Poon

Sherman Poon

CIO /Partner at Blockchain, Media, AI and Medical Services Startup

4 E's of Leadership

21 March

A short overview of a very effective leadership assessment by Jack Welch, that is easily transferred to other industries is the 4Es of leadership – energy, energize, edge, and execution.

Leadership
Career Growth
Strategy and Vision
Ramesh Dewangan

Ramesh Dewangan

CEO at Quantum Vision Consulting

Applying The Rules of IKIGAI for a more fulfilled life!

20 March

Learn about 10 rules from the wisdom of these long-living residents from Ogimi, a small village in Okinawa, Japan. You could interpret the rules as the lifestyle habits that enable the senior residents of Ogami to live long and enjoy their ikigai.

Leadership
Productivity
Career Growth
Communication and Collaboration
Hiring, Retaining, or Firing
Managing Stress and Burnout
Ramesh Dewangan

Ramesh Dewangan

CEO at Quantum Vision Consulting

Relationships, like products, need to be designed.

7 March

3 ways leaders can cultivate relationships that lead to better products.

Leadership
Building and Scaling Teams
Career Growth
Team Management
Strategy and Vision
Guy Jenkins

Guy Jenkins

SVP Global Customer Experience at Salesforce