To Manage or Not to Manage

The decisive question is not whether you can manage but why you want to. If power or decision-making alone drives you, the article warns that management will quickly feel like a dead-end. It argues that the right motivation is creating psychologically safe spaces where engineers can thrive and helping people shape careers they enjoy. By framing management as a service to the team, the piece flips the usual hierarchy and sets the tone for the rest of the advice. Technical involvement is treated as a lever, not a requirement. New engineering managers are urged to start without coding responsibilities, treating themselves as enhancers who clear monitoring, error handling, or tech debt that eases the team's flow. Even after gaining experience, they should stay out of core feature work to avoid blocking progress and to keep the power imbalance in check, because their word carries weight in code reviews and raises. Values and style are personalized. The author suggests listing managers you admire and those you dislike, then distilling the behaviors you want to emulate. Asking the team how they prefer feedback, stretch-goal nudges, or meeting cadence is recommended, turning management into a two-way street that respects individual differences while maintaining clear expectations. Getting the role is broken into concrete steps: scout for openings inside your current company where trust already exists, negotiate a transition plan, or seek first-time-manager positions through your network. The resume should highlight any informal leadership-tech debt clean-up, mentorship, cross-team coordination-as evidence of managerial potential, and continuous networking keeps doors open. Success hinges on support, self-awareness, and culture setting. A mentor or supportive senior manager buffers the inevitable surprises of early management. Knowing personal triggers-like a low tolerance for being wrong-lets you pause before reacting. The article stresses deliberate culture work: a kickoff meeting that states your intent, regular 1-on-1s that focus on coaching rather than status, and a flexible-but-firm stance on behavior that threatens psychological safety.