One of the common mistakes I see in technical organizations is promoting skilled engineers into management, and then encouraging them to continue leaning on their personal engineering strengths to help their team succeed.
Don’t get me wrong. I understand the value of front-line managers having those technical skills in order to train junior technicians and keep credibility with more senior team members.
But when you encourage them to apply those skills by continuing to perform the technical work, that pressure can backfire. Junior team members lose opportunities to develop, and senior technicians can resent the micromanagement.
More importantly, though, managers who lean on their technical skills tend to neglect the more difficult work of developing their leadership abilities. Instead, they continue to find their personal fulfillment in the hands-on engineering work.
When you promote a technical expert into a management position, part of encouraging their success is discouraging their hands-on involvement in the technical work. The result will likely be a temporary drop in the team’s total output, and that’s something you’ll have to factor into the rest of your business decisions. But if you don’t emphasize a transition to hands-off management and leadership skill growth, you’ll get in the way of their long-term success.
If you want a thinking partner to manage the tension of short-term productivity and long-term success, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/talk to start the conversation.
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