TLs: Prioritize Incremental Professional Development
When someone first becomes a Team Lead, there’s a very real trend of them suddenly feeling like they’re failing at their job because they’re not as “productive” as they used to be. It’s usually that their work is different now, and they haven’t learned how to value that kind of progress themselves. They’re submitting fewer pull requests, but they’re doing 3x as many code reviews. Or they’re designing a project rather than writing code. They’re in meetings to flesh out requirements and architecture decisions instead of building them directly. That can feel weird! That’s important work that’s often a force multiplier for a team, so even though they’re having more influence, they’re feeling less impactful. (This is also why I really recommend keeping a work journal.)
As I’ve said before, if you’re a team lead, it’s really important to take stock of where you’re spending your time and this is another great example. This is true from mid-level to senior to staff+ team leads. As your work changes and adapts, you often need to re-evaluate where you’re spending your time.
If you try to just do additional work on top of what you were previously doing, you’ll end up overworking yourself, burning yourself out, and probably setting a bad example for the rest of your team on what sustainable leadership looks like. You have to work differently as you go up, not more. This can be a hard boundary to protect, but it’s worth it. The long careers are the sustainable ones.
So if you’re now doing team planning work or strategic development, where does that time come from?
