Tech Lead to Thought Lead?

Introduction

What's leadership? What exactly should a Tech Lead do? I wrestled with these questions when I became a Tech Lead. This year, I wrestled with a new one: Should I consider a managerial position? Join me as I reflect on my leadership journey, tackle the last question, and articulate my leadership signature.

Genesis

In January 2009, at 20, I started working as a full-time engineer. I had an international diploma in software development and decided to continue my studies for another two years (part-time) towards a BSc (Hons) Business Information Technology degree, which I funded with my salary.

Our part-time class consisted of many fellow full-time developers. I recall one of them's desire to pivot into management. I didn't get it. At the time, I loved being a developer so much that leadership wasn’t something I considered.

Becoming a Tech Lead

Fast-forward to 2020. I remember the day my colleague congratulated me on becoming a tech lead. I was surprised. 'Where did you hear that?' I then learned the head of our space made two of my fellow engineers and me tech leads.

I was honoured and happy. I got a tech leadership role and could stay close to the engineering. Perfect!

It wasn't my first leadership role, though. I formally taught wushu (kung fu) group classes (on Tuesday and Thursday evenings) from 2011 to 2018. My students were fit, strong, and skilled. They also performed well at competitions!

Even so, I struggled to articulate to myself what leadership is. That freaked me out! I also asked our leader what my tech-lead responsibilities are. 'You tell me!' he replied. No pressure, Chris.

Defining leadership

I went down a rabbit hole to find out what leadership truly is. I read many articles, watched many YouTube videos, and did a leadership crash course. But I wasn't satisfied. Something was missing.

My aha! moment came when I stumbled upon a video in which Steve Jobs defined leadership.

What leadership is is having a vision; being able to articulate that so the people around you can understand it; and getting a consensus on a common vision.

It resonated with me. I found the essence I was looking for. As a result, I made vision the central organising principle of my leadership style.

Defining a Tech Lead

I found the writings of Patrick Kua while searching for the definition of a Tech Lead.

A perspective of his that I like is that the Tech Lead role is an intersection of three others: Developer, Architect, and Leader. Another is that while a team leader or manager leads the general 'What', a tech lead leads the technical 'How'.

Right! We lead the technical ‘how’ with developer-architect prowess and contribution, while partnering closely with business and management on the ‘what’.

Visioning

We get vision from business and the powers that be at the levels above us. Think of it as macro vision.

But here in the trenches, close to the details, there are problems only we have the context of and understand. Problems such as unnecessary requirements, bad practices, complex design, messy code, technical debt, inefficient process, etc.

As a Tech Lead, I've provided our engineers with the vision to solve many of these problems and to prevent them from happening again. Think of it as micro vision.

Each micro vision sparks a process of change. I'd suggest a micro vision to my peers, we'd build it into our shared vision, and then we'd implement that.

It turns out I'm a natural at micro visioning. Over the last few years, I've provided a steady stream of micro visions for 'how' we'll promote the macro vision 'what'.

The 4-CAPS+ Leadership Framework

To up my leadership game, I successfully completed the executive program Leadership in an Exponentially Changing World at MIT's Sloan School of Management. It taught me their 4-CAPS+ Leadership Framework.

It advised that we articulate our leadership signature — our unique way of leading. Let me conclude this article by doing so.

Conclusion

I lead with vision and from the front. I lead by providing a steady stream of ideas or micro visions, building them into shared visions with my peers, and empowering the team with what they need to implement them. I do so 'from the front' by being strategically hands-on and involved with the engineering.