When you were an engineer, much of the value you offered your organization was the result of the deep work of creating technical pieces that worked and met the requirements of those who defined expectations. Early in your career, creating those technical pieces wouldn’t happen unless you were able to reach what some call a “flow state” or what Cal Newport calls “Deep Work.”
Whether you choose to move into management or advance along a more informal technical leadership track, your “Deep Work” will change as you grow. The same kinds of challenges won’t demand the same level of intense concentration. You’ll learn to create the same amount of value in less time and with less effort. What once was “deep work” will start to feel shallow.
Up to a point.
You can advance along an engineering career ladder for a while by simply improving your efficiency. But eventually, taking on higher roles – even along a non-management track – will demand that you find a new kind of “Deep Work.” Here are some examples of what that shift might look like.
🔵 You may move from making sure a process works to evaluating a system of interconnected processes
🔵 You may grow from considering functionality to balancing competing values of performance, scalability, security, runtime cost, and maintainability.
🔵 You may evolve from the creation of products to the creation of platforms and support systems that enable others to create products of their own.
If you look around in your organization, I’m sure you can find a myriad of other examples. So when you’re looking ahead at how you might advance along a technical track, don’t just keep improving the technical skills you already have. Be prepared to embrace a different kind of depth in your work.
And if embracing the new “Deep Work” is a challenge for you, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/talk to start the conversation.
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