Surprises When Becoming A Team Lead

Being a team lead is a natural step from many mid-level and senior positions. It’s also a bit of a culture shock if you haven’t done it before. In many organizations, you may get promoted to a position and expected to deliver, without anyone giving you a clue about what is expected. Worse still, you are going to have to learn quickly, or you could very easily lose your job. If you have a sense of pride in your ability to code and think it is extremely important, you might be surprised at some of the other things that are expected of team leads. Not only do you have to be far more careful to be professional and fair to your coworkers, but you may find yourself in a position to lead them in various ways, including mentoring. You’ll also probably find that a lot of activities that you don’t particularly enjoy are considered extremely important for your job. Finally, you may also have bad habits that you need to correct in order to be an effective team lead. Until this point in your career, most steps in your career have consisted of doing more (or more difficult) work than what you did in the previous position. While this happens in a team lead position, these positions do tend to add a lot of responsibilities that have little to do with code. If you plan to eventually be higher up in management, such a position is a great introduction to the skills that you’ll need for those higher positions. However, make no mistake, a team lead position is the first step in a career change away from software development and you need to be serious in how you approach it. A transition to a team lead position is a huge step. Not only is it a better position in many respects, but it’s often the first step towards moving into real management positions later in your career (provided you want that). However, by its nature it’s also the first step towards a complete change in your career. As such, there are some things that will almost certainly surprise and frustrate you about that position. However, if you are prepared, you are more likely to be able to handle the position well. Episode Breakdown Interpersonal relationships change. Previously you interacted with your coworkers as equals. Now, however, there is a tinge of management in anything you say, whether you want it there or not. This can make relationships less warm and make people cautious around you. This also means that you have to be careful to avoid even the appearance of favoritism, because it is corrosive to the team. Worst of all, your friends may not understand that. If you are still coding, you still have to pull your weight or your team WILL discuss it when your back is turned. This probably means longer hours or greater discipline (possibly both). Communications with your team will change. You are effectively the leadership of the team (hence the whole “team lead”) term. Suggestions you might have casually (or even jokingly) made before can be taken seriously now. This has the potential of backfiring if you don’t watch your mouth. Team members will start coming to you for help now. They might have before, but they are going to feel especially abandoned if you don’t help them. You also have to be careful to keep communication lines open. You are now the nexus of communication between your team and those that are higher up. You want to make sure that your team doesn’t feel the need to route around you to get things done. You will need to check your ego at the door. You can be right about absolutely everything and be a terrible team lead if you communicate poorly. If you are sure you are right about everything, not only are you wrong about a lot, but you won’t find out you are wrong until it really hurts. Expectations of your work change.