Why would someone want to step away from the individual contributor work they excel at and take on the added responsibility of leadership? The transition to leadership offers both advantages and disadvantages, and the decision to lead is deeply personal. Through years of experience in leadership roles, I’ve come to understand both the rewards and the challenges.

Helping Others

Helping others is central to leadership. As a leader, you will be in a unique position to guide, support, and mentor your team members, allowing them to thrive both personally and professionally. You can:

• Assist team members in achieving their personal development goals.

• Remove obstacles that hinder their work and growth.

• Encourage and help them perform well in their current positions.

• Give them opportunities to learn, and to demonstrate what they can do in order to earn promotions and professional advancements.

Effective leadership isn’t just about achieving your own goals. It’s about empowering others, creating an environment where they can excel, and deriving satisfaction from seeing them succeed. Leaders build the future by fostering talent and helping others grow into their full potential.

Scaling Up the Benefit of Your Experience

You’re a strong engineer. You’ve solved lots of challenging problems, learning new techniques along the way. You’ve probably been part of teams that used different processes and different organizational structures. You’ve seen what works well and what doesn’t. You have strong opinions, honed by your experiences, as to how things ought to be organized and the work executed. And, you use that experience to help guide your team. Excellent.

One reason to take on a more formal leadership role is to broaden the scope in which you can use this hard-earned experience. If you lead a team, or a group of teams, you get to decide how best to get the needed work done well. The success of your team becomes your success, and the higher your position, the more strategic decisions you get to shape. 

This sense of ownership is both exciting and empowering. Leadership gives you the chance to take charge and guide outcomes that affect not just your own work but your entire team or organization.

Money and Prestige

Leadership roles are highly valued in today’s society and economy. With increased responsibility often comes higher pay, and along with that, a certain level of prestige. In our culture, leaders are generally respected for the impact they have on organizations, teams, and broader goals.

There’s a societal cachet attached to leadership, as it represents success and the ability to steer others toward a shared objective. Many aspire to leadership for the monetary rewards and the elevated status that comes with it, though this shouldn’t be the sole motivator.

Downsides of Leadership

While leadership brings influence, authority, and rewards, it also comes with its share of challenges.

1. Fewer Opportunities: As you rise in the hierarchy, the number of positions at each level naturally decreases. There are fewer leadership roles available, which means that moving into a more senior position might be more difficult or competitive. If the time comes to leave your current company, the reduced number of roles and the greater number of competitors can take more time and effort than it did when you were an engineer.
2. Distance from Hands-On Work: Many individuals who excel in core team roles struggle with the distance from the work they love when the move into a leadership role. Leadership often pulls you away from the technical or hands-on tasks you once enjoyed. Your daily work will shift toward meetings, strategy, and influencing the productivity of others. A colleague once lamented, “I used to do work. Now I have meetings about doing work.” While this is a somewhat cynical exaggeration, the shift from doing to influencing is real, and something to be aware of when you are deciding whether such a move is right for you.
3. New Dynamics in Relationships: Moving into a leadership role, especially if you’re leading former peers, inevitably changes the dynamics of your relationships. When you’re responsible for evaluating the performance of others, it can create an invisible wall between you and your team. While you can maintain friendships, there will be some level of reserve in many interactions. This shift can feel isolating.
4. Increased Responsibility: The broader your responsibility, the more complex your work becomes. Leadership brings more interruptions, shifting priorities, and demands on your time. When you’re responsible for the productivity of others, their roadblocks become your problems to solve. Leaders must manage not only their own workload but also the priorities and challenges of their entire team.

Each of these challenges requires careful navigation and adaptation. In future articles, I’ll discuss strategies for managing these common leadership hurdles.

Summary

Leadership isn’t for everyone, and the move into such a role is not something to be taken lightly. However, if you are motivated by helping others succeed and enjoy owning the outcomes of large-scale efforts, leadership can be incredibly fulfilling. It allows you to have a greater impact and make strategic decisions that drive success. 

If you find that you are good at leading others – encouraging, motivating, and guiding them – you are among the rare few who can do it well. Leadership is a journey filled with its share of obstacles, but the rewards of seeing your team thrive and succeed under your guidance can be deeply satisfying. If you’re ready to embrace the challenges, the rewards of leadership can be well worth it.

What other rewards and challenges come along with taking on a leadership role?  What do you find valuable about being a leader? What unexpected difficulties did you encounter when you became a leader?