How you can build your way to Tech Lead (Part 2)

In our last issue, we explored the foundational steps to building your way to a tech lead. We broke down the role of a tech lead, outlined the importance of a strong technical foundation and explored how to develop your leadership skills. You can reread that piece here.

To continue our journey of building our way to tech lead, it’s time to explore what else you’ll require, outside of technical and leadership skills. Surprisingly to some, there’s a lot more to it than being a good coder and leader.

Let’s dive into part 2 of our 3 part series.

Take The Initiative

Now that you’re on your journey to becoming a tech lead through building your technical foundation and developing your leadership skills, it’s time to take the initiative.

In any work environment, there are opportunities to lead that can help set you apart from others. It’s not about forcing your way there or only looking for opportunities to lead. No. It’s about opening your eyes to be on the lookout for when you can raise your hand and step forward, where you otherwise would have stayed in the background.

Every day presents opportunities to lead. Yes, sometimes there will be a new project where you can find yourself as the leader, but it’s also about showing leadership and taking the initiative in everything that you do.

During meetings, while discussing problems or when addressing your team. These are all scenarios where you can demonstrate your leadership capabilities to help gain the attention and respect that you deserve which will help solidify your place as a leader of the pack.

Build a Vision

The next part is making sure that you always look to understand the bigger picture.

For more junior developers, it’s common to only focus on the task at hand. That’s useful and that’s completely fine, but when building your way to a tech lead, you need to be thinking about the bigger picture, building a vision and sharing that vision.

Notice how I said “building a vision” instead of “building your vision”. A good team lead has a vision. A great team lead cultivates a vision with their team. While you may have the final say over certain decisions, no one person is bigger than the team.

A vision is built by factoring in the project timeline, the team available, the skill sets and the priority. In fact… everything! Using that information, you and your team craft a vision to take you to success.

Understand business and careers

Outside of the immediate project that you’re working on, it’s important to think about the business you work for and the careers of those in your team.

Tech leads are always contributing to the overall health and success of any business. They need to ensure that the business is taking on the right projects and is building a name for itself.

They also need to look after the careers of those on their team. Guiding them, providing advice and facilitating reviews are all a part of the responsibilities of most tech leads at most companies.

Your responsibilities extend far beyond the project that you may be working on.

I’m sure you can now see that being a tech lead is far more than code and conversations. There are so many aspects to it that differ from company to company. What I’m attempting to do in this series is to break down the common trends that transcend a company and speak specifically to the role. I hope all of you are well on your way to becoming a tech lead.

Next week, we’ll explore how to improve the project that you’re leading and how to make sure you and your team are always improving.

See you again next week.

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