Many of my blog posts start as a response to something I see online. I start typing away in a comment box, and I soon realize either:

• I’m going to go way over the character limit
• I’m going to want to reuse this

Or both. Today, definitely both.

Someone in the LeadDev community recently posted this:

I’m a tech lead / staff engineer (20+ years in the industry). I’m quite technical, I was an engineer… I’m kind of hitting a ceiling and I’m looking at what I could learn next.

This person considered a number of different educational or certificate programs including some technical ones, but added:

but I feel I need to learn leadership skills, or find a blend between technical and leadership. Any idea or inputs for me?

Well. Good to know that there’s demand for the book that I’m just starting to write! But I also can’t write an entire book in response to a question on Slack. “Hang on about a year and a half and I’ll have something for you…”

So let’s boil this down to some concrete steps that worked for me.

Talk to your boss

If you have a supportive manager, that might be a good place to start. Your manager may be able to give you some feedback (knowing your existing skills and strengths) and advice (knowing what opportunities there might be at the company).

Take on a challenge

You might look for a new assignment within your role, or even a new role entirely, that challenges you in new ways. Leverage your existing skills to show why you are ready to take on something that might at first seem to others (or to you!) like something above your level. “My experience creating mid-level strategies will be useful on this project where I would gain additional experience [doing xyz]…”

And don’t sell your current skills short! You don’t need a people-manager title to be a leader.

Look for a mentor

Would it help to have a mentor – someone (who isn’t in your reporting chain) to turn to for advice on leadership challenges, who might help you get more visibility into how leadership works at your organization, who may be able to nudge you in the right direction?

I wrote about some of my experiences finding and working with my mentors here: Choosing a mentor. Note the distinction between “mentor” and “sponsor.”

Provide guidance to others

You could also be a mentor, but there are other ways you can offer guidance to others beyond a formal mentoring relationship:

• Responding to requests for help from developers who are stuck
• Presenting or doing a Q&A session on a topic you know that others may not (e.g., the architecture of a solution you worked on, or a new technology you’ve tried)
• Documenting a tricky process to make it easier for the next person to go through it, or breaking a confusing topic down to make it easier to understand

Study the leaders around you

• Whose leadership style do you admire? Why?
• Who seems successful as a leader in your organization? Who has the respect of your peers, of their peers?
• Who is “leading without authority”? They are clearly a leader, but they don’t have the title or rank perhaps you might expect.
• Are any of these people approachable?

Books I recommend

I’ve read a lot of enjoyable books, but here are a few that were not just good reading but which actually changed how I think.

• Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet.
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek.
• Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

I’m in the process of reading The Staff Engineer’s Path, by Tanya Reilly – but recommending that in LeadDev might be like recommending The Phoenix Project in the DevOps community – something that people have read already!

Formal training?

I’ve looked at a number of academic-type programs in leadership, like certificates from various universities, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to spend the money on them (some are five figures, ouch). I’m more of a fan of getting my training in the work setting, where I can get paid to learn as I go.

One certification I’ve considered is Gary Gruver’s Engineering the Digital Transformation, and I did at one point buy the course material for it… I just haven’t had the chance yet to go through it. I would read Gruver’s book by the same name first, though, which will give you a good idea of what ground the training would cover. (It’s also a great book.)

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That’s a start. I can never tell how obvious (or not) some of these things are to others who have been in the field a long time, so I’d love to know if things on this list are helpful to you. I’ll also keep updating this as I think of new items that belong on the list.

Good luck on your career journey! (And do sign up for my mailing list if you’d like updates on the book.)