lcamtuf's blog: Progressing from tech to leadership
30 bookmarks. First posted by kyleisom february 2018.
I've been a technical person all my life. I started doing vulnerability research in the late 1990s - and even today, when I'm not fiddling with CNC-machined robots or making furniture, I'm probably clobbering together a fuzzer or writing a book about browser protocols and APIs. via Pocket
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march 2018 by ablomov
Oh, one more thought: people in leadership roles have their allegiance divided between the company and the people who depend on them. The obligation to the company is more formal, but the impact you have on your team is longer-lasting and more intimate. When the obligations to the employer and to your team collide in some way, make sure you can make the right call; it might be one of the the most consequential decisions you'll ever make.
february 2018 by Seanconnned
One's level on the leadership ladder tends to be inversely correlated with several measures of happiness. The reason is fairly simple: as you get more senior, a growing number of people will come to you expecting you to solve increasingly fuzzy and challenging problems - and you will no longer be patted on the back for doing so. This should not scare you away from such opportunities, but it definitely calls for a particular mindset: your motivation must come from within. Look beyond the fight-of-the-day; find satisfaction in seeing how far your teams have come over the years.
Perhaps the most interesting observation I have is that for a person coming from a technical background, building a healthy team is first and foremost about the subtle art of letting go.
* as your sphere of influence grows, this becomes a choke point
* project-hoarding behavior robs more junior folks of the ability to take on new responsibilities
* new owner will initially be slower and more clumsy than you
* give them the right tools and the right incentives and don't make them deathly afraid of messing up, they will soon excel at their new jobs.
leadership
management
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Perhaps the most interesting observation I have is that for a person coming from a technical background, building a healthy team is first and foremost about the subtle art of letting go.
* as your sphere of influence grows, this becomes a choke point
* project-hoarding behavior robs more junior folks of the ability to take on new responsibilities
* new owner will initially be slower and more clumsy than you
* give them the right tools and the right incentives and don't make them deathly afraid of messing up, they will soon excel at their new jobs.
february 2018 by igrigorik
Good reflection of one person's journey from individual work in technology to leading a team. I've seen nearly all of these points happen as I've moved in my career and as I've helped others do the same.
february 2018
by jthingelstad