Intro

There’s a big difference between leading 1 vs 3 vs 5+ teams. I really like what Robert Ta mentioned in yesterday’s LI post:

The shift from leading 1 team to 5+ teams feels like going from player to coach to strategist. Suddenly you're playing basketball and then you're playing Major ball.

That’s very true, it’s a completely different role and you need different set of skills. What made you a great team lead, won’t work for 5+ teams.

This is an article for paid subscribers, and here is the full index:

- This is how my progression of full-time roles looks like

- Leading 1 team as a Team Lead
🔒 My advice if you transition from an IC to leading 1 team

🔒 Leading 3 teams as an Engineering Manager
🔒 My advice if you are promoted from Team Lead to Engineering Manager
🔒 My advice if you grow your engineering org from 1 to 3 teams

🔒 Leading 5+ teams as a Director/VP/Head of Engineering
🔒 My advice if you are promoted from Engineering Manager to Director/VP/Head of Engineering
🔒 My advice if you grow your engineering org from 3 to 5+ teams

Before we get into my specific advice on leading 1 vs 3 vs 5+ teams, let me share my progression of full-time roles first!

This is how my progression of full-time roles looks like

I’m a self-taught engineer and I started my career as a Software Engineer. You can read how I started my career and what mistakes I made as a jr. engineer here: Starting my career again as a junior engineer (paid article).

After a couple of years, I became a Senior Software Engineer and I started to ask myself quite regularly “What is going to be the next thing for me?" I felt a bit stuck.

Even though, I wasn’t convincing that the management path is the right path for me, I got lucky and was offered the Team Lead position, which I accepted.

I made many mistakes as a Team Lead and you can read the story of my full transition from IC to manager here: From IC to manager (paid article).

After less than 6 months, I got promoted to Engineering Manager in which I moved from leading 1 team to 3 teams and 15+ direct and indirect reports.

About a year later, I was offered the role of Head of Engineering in which I also became an Interim CTO, when the existing CTO left, where I led 5+ teams and 35+ direct and indirect reports.

After some time, I took on a VP of Engineering role in a different company and got promoted to the CTO role in less than 6 months. I’ve led a cross-functional team of 6-7 people.

While doing these roles, I also worked freelance as a consultant and advisor and I had the pleasure of working with numerous different bigger companies, so I understand the challenges and issues of bigger orgs as well.

You can read how freelance work helped me progress in my career here: My secret for growing from engineer to CTO (paid article)

Now let’s go straight into my experience and advice of leading 1 team as a Team Lead.

Leading 1 team as a Team Lead

It was quite a shock to me to realize that what made me a great engineer won’t make me a great Team Lead. I needed quite some time in order to adjust to that.

I’ve made many mistakes and some wins and after some time I’ve finally got a hang of it!

The mindset shift is very important. You become a multiplier for the team and helping others around you becomes one of the main priorities.

You are not judged by your individual contribution anymore. The overall success of the team and projects is what becomes important.

I’ve noted down the 3 main mistakes that I made in the article From IC to manager (paid article). These were:

• I didn’t manage my time correctly.

• I focused too much on things that I couldn’t control.

• I wanted to be included in all the fine details.

My advice if you transition from an IC to leading 1 team...