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My two key lessons (or advice) learned for new tech leads: 1. Find your shortcomings, and fix them. An individual contributor is great is because of his/her st

My two key lessons (or advice) learned for new tech leads: 1. Find your shortcomings, and fix them. An individual contributor is great is because of his/her strength; a tech lead is great is because of he/she is well balanced. OP's list is a very good start: if you're not delegating enough, try delegate more; if you don't have a clear vision, try spend time working on it. You'll get better at them over time, to be a well balanced tech lead. prioritize on fixing shortcomings before reinforce strengths. 2. You have some authority, use it. More specifically, consider asking for resources instead of exhaust you and your team in reaching of local maximum. You're the brigade commander, you probably can't decide which battlefield you and your team are marching in, but you can try ask for more shells and airstrikes.

bob1029 5y ago
The 2nd point is really important for me. It took me a while to take control over certain resources and to stop asking for permission all the time. Having the power to just do things is the trade-off you make when giving up some of your code time. I haven't asked for permission to do a thing in a long time. None of this is to say you shouldn't plan and work with the team, but when it's clear you need a new developer PC or a cloud resource, just go pay for the damn thing and get it dealt with. Time is money and being sensitive to this reality can make all the difference in the universe. A secondary thing to think about is "Can I undo this action?". 99% of the time in technology - the answer is "Yes". Realizing this, I try to empower others in the same way I have empowered myself.