Technical Leadership 101: How To Become A Superstar Tech Lead
A company made up of people is, by design, organic. Any team is made up of individuals, who have their own unique perspectives on things. While some managers are tempted to squeeze their team to try and create a specific end-user experience, a good technical leader knows that rigidity can be brittle, and the best results come when the individuals in a well-curated group are allowed to express themselves in formation.
Of course, this doesnāt mean leaving everyone to their own devices, but with the right preparation, technical leadership simply supports, nudges, and leads their team towards the goal.
The Principles of Technical Leadership
Technical leadership follows a handful of key principles, many of which may be familiar from other classic leadership roles, but some are specific to the industry. Non-specific leadership principles include:
Delegation ā Good technical leadership means letting go. Delegating the right jobs to the right people is key here
Teaching through example ā Being a present member of the team guides through example and inspires respect
Team support ā working for the team, not above them. A good leader holds everything together
Technical leadership requires these principles as well as more role-specific elements such as:
Creating talent ā upskilling and reskilling are methods of developing your teamās skillset without the need for new hires.
Team formation ā when it comes to hiring, itās critical you consider the team as a whole, and how the individual fits in. Like casting for a movie, a successful interview process can make all the difference to your deliverables.
The Roles and Responsibilities of Technical Leadership
Ultimately, a technical lead is responsible for the direction of the project.
In Agile/Scrum methodologies, for example, incremental target achievement strategies are utilized to take the complexity of development and break it into manageable iterative steps.
These increments, or sprints, are approached by way of a multidisciplinary team, who commits (sets the target) at the start of each sprint and delivers (on the promise) afterward.
Many of these multidisciplinary teams have technical leads. These are people whose task is to provide support and mentorship to the group to make sure that the team is successful throughout the sprint. Further, they are responsible for planning and reviewing before and after a sprint, respectively.
Hereās a generalized, five-step breakdown of the responsibilities of a technical leader throughout the leadup, duration, and review stages of a sprint:
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