How to stay tech savvy

When we take on new responsibilities, on the one hand we have great hopes, and on the other hand, we experience the fear of failure. If you managed to become a team lead, most likely you have already succeeded as a programmer, and most often, difficulties arise when you have to learn to be a leader.

Many articles and books have already been written on the topic of how to develop leadership skills and build relationships with employees (How to Herd Cats by J. Hunk Rainwater immediately comes to mind). But few people talk about how a team lead can remain a programmer and not lose his technical basis in endless daily meetings, calls and planning. Today we will talk about this.

To begin with, you should come to terms with your new role and the idea that programming is already a thing of the past for you. That's right! Most likely, over the years of coding, you have already developed the habit of continuous learning. However, you need to understand that you have now taken on a new role – the role of a leader. And updating technical knowledge should be limited to a level sufficient to manage the team. At first glance, this is a very banal idea, but believe me, not everyone managed to accept it. It would seem that there is no limit to perfection, but trying to become a good team lead and at the same time remain a high-level programmer usually ends with the poor guy catching burnout, coming to the conclusion that managing a team is too difficult and returning to writing code, taking a step back on the career ladder . So get into the habit of asking yourself:

“Is this knowledge really necessary for me as a team leader, or am I thinking like a programmer again?”

And even this article must be read, looking at it through the prism of the thought voiced above.

But what about the answer to the main question? Well, everything is extremely simple here. Read! Read! And read it again! But read like a team lead. Ideally, devote two hours a day to this matter, but even one hour of reading will benefit. The next question immediately arises: what, exactly, should I read?

Firstly, read to stay up to date with the latest news. Various forums, portals, public pages and telegram channels are perfect for these purposes. Such reading will certainly expand your knowledge. It's important to focus on what may not be needed right now, but may be needed in the near future. As part of this reading, it will be useful to look through industry publications. Be aware of what your competitors or companies operating in related business sectors are implementing. The main thing is not to give in to the temptation to bury your head in the topic. Remember, implementing logic is no longer your job. This type of reading is quite easy to integrate into your daily life. You can read a couple of posts on the way home or during a coffee break.

Secondly, read to deepen your knowledge. It sounds like a contradiction, but don't forget that you are still an IT specialist. Otherwise, you will not be able to achieve a more complete knowledge of the technologies and techniques that you encounter in your daily work. Most likely, here you will have to acquire a more serious library and allocate time for such reading. The main thing is not to forget our new rule and be guided by the principle of sufficiency.

In addition to reading, various training courses and webinars, networking events and conferences can also bring a lot of benefit. Moreover, most companies willingly compensate their employees for the costs of such events. Contact your HR and find out what opportunities are available to you.

What about practice? Quite often you can come across very “mature” recommendations, such as advice to start a pet project. Indeed, coding in your free time is a great idea, but in my experience, most team leads, when they hear the phrase “free time,” start crying, hugging their knees, or running to look up the meaning of these words on Google.

The only way out is to integrate the practice into your work processes. Participate in code reviews. Participate in solving technical problems for the team to maintain contact with ongoing projects. Also, mentoring can be a great way to keep yourself on track. Often, mentoring is perceived by everyone as a tedious task, but trust me, by teaching others, you will certainly learn something yourself.

Remember to encourage a culture of knowledge sharing within the team. Hold regular meetings where each participant can share their findings or projects. They will help improve communication and allow you (and others) to stay up to date with new technologies and approaches. In addition, this way you can delegate the selection of important information to your team. You no longer have to waste time looking for diamonds in the information flow. Practicing programmers themselves will weed out everything unnecessary and tell you what to pay attention to.

Yes, in words all this is quite simple, but when it comes to real work, when in crunch it is difficult to find time to eat or be with family, everything becomes much more complicated. But it is important to remember that by solving only current problems, you risk losing strategic initiative in developing your career. After all, the IT market is changing very rapidly, and you may lose your value as a specialist.

Of course, it can take a lot of time to find the perfect balance between the role of a leader and a highly qualified specialist, but if you manage to achieve it, you will receive dividends in the future.