Beware the "hybrid role"

Have you ever heard the advice that you shouldn’t buy a combination printer/copier/fax machine because even though it can do all three things it won’t be very good at any of them?

Well, few people need a fax machine anymore so perhaps that point is moot, but when it comes to our jobs, it becomes harder to excel in any one area of skill as the number of areas you’re responsible for increases.

To put it in concrete terms: if you want to be great at engineering, the best way forward is to focus your time and energy on engineering. If you want to be great at managing, the same rule applies.

So why is it that we ask engineers to start managing people and also to continue doing engineering work? We invest so much time and money in helping people get really good at engineering, and then we tell them that they’re so good at it, they should start doing another entirely different job at the same time.

This would be like a hospital telling a surgeon that she’s so good at surgery that she should also administer the surgical department.

One problem with this “hybrid role” approachwhere an engineer is responsible for both producing individual work and leading other engineersis that it disincentivizes deliberate growth in leadership skill.

Such a manager typically jumps from one-on-ones or writing performance reviews straight back to reviewing pull requests and working on features. There is always more engineering work to do, and so those hours that could have been spent studying and practicing leadership skills are instantly committed to generating engineering output because that’s what we typically reward engineers for.

It’s not simply a time management issue, either. There is a hidden cost to the “hybrid” role: context switching.

Focus is the key

Context switching is the reason that people do “study abroad” semesters in school. The absolute fastest and most effective way to get a step-function improvement in a skill is to focus on it. If you want to learn French fast, go live in France and speak French every single day for six months.

The expectation of the hybrid engineering manager role is “Learn to be a great engineering leader in one hour a day!” Doesn’t that sound more like a made-for-TV ad than a career growth model? What complex skill can you realistically learn in 1-2 hours per day?

It gets worse.

Leadership isn’t even something you can learn just by doing it. If you’re an engineering manager and you spend a couple hours a day simply carrying out the rote management tasks you are required to (having one-on-ones, writing performance reviews), the most you’ll ever be is a competent manager.

Think about it like this. If you want to be a great sculptor, you can’t expect to get there by playing with clay for an hour or two a day. That’s why the greatest artists in history spent years as apprentices to other great artists.

Even Michelangelo, considered by many to be the greatest Renaissance artist to have ever lived, spent years as an apprentice to a renowned painter, years attending the Platonic Academy in Florence, and yet more years dissecting human cadavers and learning the minutiae of anatomy.

Nobody told Michelangelo that he should try running a full-scale stone masonry shop at the same time.

If you want to be good at somethingreally good at ityou need to absorb information and instruction from outside of yourself. You need feedback, yes, but you also need knowledge and mentorship. You don’t get these things in satisfactory quantity when you’re juggling two or more objectives at once.

OK, so what does this mean for you, the new hybrid engineering manager?

Find your path

Every organization, team, and individual are different. There is a time and a place for a hybrid engineer/engineering manager, but here are the important things to keep in mind:

• If you feel that you have room to grow as an engineer, don’t let yourself get pulled into managing too many people. Two or three could work, but five or six is a full-time job.

• If you want to grow as an engineering leader, go all-in. Don’t put yourself on the critical path of technical projects. Consult, advise, and delegate.

• Beware the context switch. If you have to change gears very often during the day, consider whether you’re doing too much. Are there items you can delegate? Some you can delay? Any you’re willing to fail at?

• Finally, think about whether there is a way of working where you can achieve deep focus in one area or the other for longer spans of time, on the order of days or even weeks. That can help you achieve those step-function improvements in skill without giving up on either role entirely.

Lead and learn with transparency and candor

These are principles that apply to all jobs, or even to life itself, but they are particularly helpful here. Be open and sincere with your manager and your direct reports about what your own goals are, how you want to structure your focus and attention, and what your limits or challenges are.

Does your manager understand which parts of your job are hard for you, and which ones you are working to grow in? Do they understand how you spend your time? Do your direct reports know what they can count on you for, and what you expect them to be able to do by themselves? Have you established boundaries for the specific work you want to directly contribute to? Does everyone understand the role they play in your career goals? Do they understand what role you play in theirs?

Good luck on your leadership journey!

Comments