Team Leader. To be or not to be, that is the question

This article prompted me to write that hidden and for everyone its own meaning of the position / role of Team Leader. Many want to be, many wonder what is there, "under the hood", work in this position. So anyone interested to know another opinion about this all ugliness, then I ask under the cat.

As I dive into the world of IT, I, probably like many, thought and in parallel walked the path of my development in the following way:

• Here I am Junior ...
• It is necessary to code the code and generally learn everything as much as possible.
• Hmm ... but it would be better and deeper to understand the "base"
• I learned like “base”, yeah, here’s a new tool / framework / library / approach - you need to urgently apply it in the project and rewrite everything
• Refactoring, refactoring and more ...
• So we must understand what problem we solve ...
• And file your decision, because I can, I can!
• Here I am Middle
• So there are nuances here and there, the task about one seems to be, but it goes about another if you figure it out ...
• In general, you can reuse something, why write from scratch
• Won me how many developments already
• Refactoring, refactoring and more ...
• But in general, there are already problems solved long ago and under them time-tested tools / frameworks / libraries / approaches
• Well, as if the client would be good to explain that it is not necessary, and so it is necessary
• Here I am Senior
• Code security, multithreading, algorithm complexity, CAP theorem (make your choice ...), graphs ... graphs, scaling and high loads, cache invalidation (so that it), AWS, Azure, GCE, SQL vs NoSQL (well, we already understand what We solve the problem from that and ..), the second + programming language (other paradigms are useful), etc.
• So what, what a long time, but the business will benefit from this implementation so much
• Well, what's not feng shui, but quickly and the business will benefit so much from this implementation
• So, well, you need to move to Team Leader, because there I will ...

Here it is. And what will I be there? What does TL do?
Stop. Quietly, actually, people say this:

• “TL knows how to technically better than others.” Hmm ... and who is such a senior?
• “TL designs the architecture of the projects / products and generally has a vision for the project as a whole.” Hmm ... and who is this Architect?
• “TL can distribute tasks to a project / projects and control their implementation and all that.” Hmm ... and then who is PM?
• “TL develops the team / department strategy, motivates the team, creates the mood and sets the emotional background of the team, arranges conferences with the management, etc.”. Hmm ... and who then is the head of the department?

Of course, this list can be continued, but I think you understand where I'm going.
Plus, all I heard from the current TL, so this is something like this:

• “Well, yes, I’m already writing code only 60-70% of the time, because there’s more of a department work ...”
• “Aha, I’m almost not a prog at all, I have to check there, agree here, help there ...”
• “I write code 10-15% of the time, the rest is preparation for events and conferences, I study new topics at the top, so to speak, in breadth, growth is shorter, plus we need to deal with all sorts of approvals, like vacations, work from home, etc.”

And the list goes on, but I think the essence is also clear.

So, it turns out that TL is doing a bit of everything, but there is no clear movement in any direction. Sharpening skills in some kind of specialization or technology also does not occur, but at the same time defocusing and the inevitably accompanying stress must clearly be present in this state of affairs.

From here it turns out that TL:

• Not an Architect (not enough time is devoted to the design, the study of the construction of the project infrastructure / projects, the use of clouds and various services and tools, etc.)
• Not PM (little or no, communication with customers / customers, responsibility for deadlines, product / project quality and budget)
• Not a senior developer (not enough time is spent writing code, diving into technical depths and “honing the skill”)
• Not the Head of Department (as above him, usually there is already such, and if not, then almost always TL itself can neither fire, neither accept, nor increase / decrease (horror) salary, nor make strategic decisions affecting the business itself companies itd)

Hmm ... the picture is not very like that. But I'm not going to complain here, but on the contrary, arguing to come to a certain decision (I want to believe it).

So, before that, I talked about TL on the part of a developer who is moving to communism to the bright and beautiful position / role of TL, and now let's look at it with the gases of the business owner.

(!) All events and heroes are fictional. Any coincidences with real personalities are random.

So, the business owner has an excellent Senior developer, Evpsychiy, who:

• makes X features per unit of time, without bugs (wow!)
• or does X, paid by the customer, hours per unit of time (relevant for outsourcing)

But Eupsychius made the decision to move on (as he thought) in TL, because this is the very way of the samurai leading to enlightenment! (yes, he thought so).

The owner, Akaki, not wanting to lose such a Komsomol, an athlete and just a good specialist, awards Eupsychia with the Team Leader post and makes an official announcement throughout the Company.

A curtain.

Eupsychiy is happy and proud, therefore she is happy to take on affairs, in a new appearance for herself and her colleagues.

After some short time, the owner of Akaki, looking at the next indicators in the reports on the company, sees the following picture on TL Eupsychia, namely the one now:

• does X - ((from 10 to 100%) from X) features per unit of time and not always without bugs (and before there was no ...)
• or does X - ((from 10 to 100%) from X), paid by the customer, hours per unit time (and for an outsourcing, this is a direct decrease in revenue)

“So ...” - Akaki thinks, and somewhere in the depths of his entrepreneurial soul, he is already beginning to realize that in terms of indicators, this will now continue in the future. And moreover, TL Eupsychiy, in + - half a year old will descend to him with demands (not even requests) for raising the level of motivation, waving arguments with his over-employment and work with people, and heightened stress levels, etc.

“? * &% # @” - Akaki says to himself, and taking a folder with some documents, under the weight of pulsating thoughts, is removed from his spacious office into a modest penthouse on the 22nd floor.

Intermission

Of course, after the intermission there is at least the second act, which includes such scenes as:

• Fakapy team happen, and who is still responsible? TL says that he doesn’t have “levers” to influence the team and in general there is a Head of Department, so what questions are there for him, and also the command is “weak”, and he wouldn’t accept those to the team, so what do you need to take the strong and the best . Well, business says TL: “... still comes from sales and so far it is necessary to learn to work with specialists of this level, but this is a plus, and your challenge, because You, as a TL, can pump your coaching skills / mentoring / mentoring, as well as optimizing work in such a way as to do better, faster, etc. ... ”
• The administrative work of TL was added, but for some reason the business does not suit the reduction of the percentage of writing TL code, and it is still necessary to submit reports on what kind of internal activities the team conducted, instead of solving business problems, and still have to explain to business what It is this conference that is important for the team members (here ...)
• Well, it’s necessary to build a Performance Review process with your team so that it grows the same, but how to measure it so that it is connected with the very sales, because “... still comes from sales and ...”? (business voice in the head of TL)
• “Your processes are * avno!” - says TL at the next rally to his Leader, and he appeals to him “... Evpsychia, you will, understand, everything comes from ...”

In the end, TL starts slowly (and maybe quickly), but surely blown out, not understanding what is happening, where it moves and how it is generally possible, and the owner should think how to get out of this situation. But business is business and the situation is in principle not so hopeless, but even completely solvable.

How ?

As a result, I understand for myself that the role / position of Team Leader, useful and even necessary at certain stages of development of both an employee and a business, but at the same time, it is, as it were, intermediate, after which, both an employee and a business need All the same, choose a motion vector and follow it. Therefore, the very decision about which I wrote above can be implemented, for example, in the following rather banal ways:

TL has to choose where to move from the following really needed positions / roles to the business:

• Become an Architect and take responsibility for the adopted architectural decisions, go deeper into the ways of implementing those or other architectural and infrastructure solutions while understanding the expectations and objectives of the business
• Become a PM and take responsibility for the terms, quality and budget of projects / products, for the loyalty of customers / clients and proper communication with all interested parties.
• Return to senior and continue to be responsible for the result produced by the tasks, as well as hone their knowledge, delving into the technical side of their specialization
• Become the head of the department and take responsibility for the formation of the team, the effectiveness of the department as a whole (including economic metrics), the development strategy of the department, the formation of clear, understandable and scalable department processes, etc.

It can be noted that in the decision above, in each of the paragraphs, the word “responsibility” appears and it is not without purpose. It is mandatory for the owner to clearly state the responsibility for each of the roles / positions above, which must also be tied to the economic indicators of the business. Then the Performance Review will become clear and the people who take on the roles / positions described above will understand what they are doing, how they are responsible for what, and what, and under what conditions they are entitled to it.

In the end, I want to emphasize that the above is, of course, my subjective opinion, which, nevertheless, is supported by life experience, and also not a guide to action because it is only the tip of the iceberg, which is called “Successful Career for Some, and Business for Others”.