When is a Manager Ready to Become a Director?
I was recently approached by a professional acquaintance and asked the following question:
"I'm trying to take the next step in my career and move from a senior engineering manager to a director. What is the big-leap difference you look for? What are the traits of people you think are ready to make that jump?"
This isn't the first time someone has asked me this. These are the types of questions that I've thought about a lot over my career. I find that as I've grown as a leader my answer to questions like this has evolved over time.
We should acknowledge first that this depends on the context of your company. What one organization requires from its directors could be completely different from another. We'll set that aside and assume we're talking about a neutral company that wants to see its people grow. Companies that don't fit this assumption warrant their own future post.
Let's also assume that a successful engineering manager has the traits of a good leader. These include (but are not limited to):
- Demonstrates empathy and emotional intelligence
- Makes good decisions
- Cares about the growth of their team members
- Understands engineering principles
- Effective at solving problems
- Is a good communicator
- Etc.
But what differentiates a good engineering manager who is ready for the next step? To answer that question, let's look at some areas that are vital to being a successful director.
Broadened Scope
The next rung of the career ladder always requires a broadening of scope. It doesn't matter if you are a junior developer or a vice president. By a broadening of scope I mean expanding the area of what you are responsible for. If you want to get promoted, you have to be able to focus on more things.
For an engineering manager, their scope is often going to be the direct team(s) that they manage. They focus on the developers who report to them, the work that their team does, and so on.
The mandate of a director, however, is usually across several teams. That scope change makes a big difference and it affects almost everything about the role. When considering an engineering manager for promotion, I'm asking scope questions like these:
- Can they broaden their scope beyond their current mandate? Rather than focusing on what is or isn't working in their team can they look for trends across many teams? Across the full department?
- Can they identify, evaluate and reduce or eliminate risk on a much longer time horizon? Are they stuck thinking about today's or next week's challenges? Or can they determine what the next year looks like? With that vision in mind can they make decisions and assign resources for success? In other words, how strong are they at strategic thinking?
- How effective are they at driving business impact in their current role? How would they adapt that to a larger area of responsibility?
- Can they build relationships beyond the boundaries of their team? Can they work with a broader group of stakeholders as directors are often required to do?
- A good engineering manager can explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical audience. This often takes place within their team to their non-technical counterparts. Can they expand that capability? In particular can they do so with leadership to explain or influence decisions?
Decision Making
With the broadened scope mentioned above, directors get exposed to far more information than they did as managers. This increased volume can make it harder to identify which pieces of information are relevant when trying to make good decisions.
To make things more complex, there is an added layer of abstraction when one becomes a director. It's typically true that the higher one goes in engineering, the further they get from the code and developers. Managers can often see the successes and failures of their team firsthand. Directors are further away and often hear about these things through the eyes of their managers. With that in mind, I'm evaluating questions like these:
- How would they change how they gather data to inform their decisions? Can they identify the information they need to drill down to the core decision they need to make?
- Directors are responsible for much more than as an engineering manager. That includes unpopular or tough decisions. Can they make those decisions? Can they explain why those decisions were necessary for the good of the company?
- Managers might see conflict arise between members of their team or between their team and another. They often have a direct line to what happened and a relationship with some or all of those involved. Directors often don't have that luxury. Can the candidate collect and sift through often conflicting information? Can they use that information to help resolve these issues?
Managing Managers
Being a successful engineering manager is completely different from being a successful developer. The move from developer to manager is less a promotion and more a career change. The skillsets are different as are the measurements of success. As a result, managing managers is very different from managing developers. Whether a candidate will be good at it is also harder to evaluate. Managers rarely have an opportunity to gain experience in managing other managers. In the absence of that experience it’s important to use a combination of intuition and coaching in order to understand a manager’s potential to become a successful director.
Directors also have to hold their managers accountable. It's rarely a good idea to do this only through what you see. A vital resource is feedback from your managers' developers. Unfortunately directors are less likely to have close relationships with developers. This is due to the layers of management between you and them. You are also responsible for far more of them than when you are a manager. That means you won't be able to meet with them as often.
That leaves questions like these to try and identify if a candidate has what it takes:
- How well can they coach managers? Can they avoid the trap of thinking their way of managing is the only good way to do it?
- Can they be effective at getting necessary information in skip-level meetings with developers?
- Hiring developers and hiring managers are two very different things. Evaluating manager interviewees can be much more challenging. Can they identify and hire effective managers?
- Delegation is one of the most important things any leader does. At the director level it's even more crucial. Can they delegate at a higher level?
And So Much More
People can and have devoted entire chapters in books on this topic. If you're interested in reading more, I highly recommend The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier. It focuses on each step of the career ladder in engineering including being a director. You can also read my recommendations of other excellent books for managers of all levels of experience.
The step up from managing developers to managing managers is a big one and can be daunting. It doesn't have to be though. Going through questions like the ones above can give you an idea of where to start. Your career is a journey and there will always be challenges in reaching the next step. Good luck!