I am 24 years old and fresh out of college. I am a Software Engineer working for a IT company. My Technical Leader calls me and says, “I have to take on another project, so I want you to take my place as a TL. First thing tomorrow.” I say yes. I have no idea what that was all about!

The next days..

challenges started popping up everywhere.. New reports to send, new people to talk to, situations to unblock

and.. no satisfaction at the end of the day.

So I started working more, and more and more.

Doing my best.

I did not stop and think too much..

Stepping into your first Tech Lead role can be both exciting and daunting.

One day, you’re coding alongside your colleagues, and the next, you’re responsible for the success of a team.

It’s a big leap, and it can be overwhelming at first.

1. You Won’t Be Coding as Much as Before

As a developer, it’s easy to get the satisfaction and feel useful just by fixing a bug or completing a task. That’s easy to measure, right? So I had to code to feel useful and be able to say to myself at the end of the day, “You did a great job today, Andra!”.

Why was I working more and more? One of the reasons was that by doing the Tech Lead stuff, talking, unblocking, attending meetings, and supporting other developers made me feel like “I am not doing anything!” at the end of the day.

Be aware of this trap.

Where will your satisfaction come from?

As a Tech Lead, you have both technical expertise and leadership as responsibilities. Does it have to be a balance between these two?

If you ask me 😃, I have found over the years that there does not have to be a balance. It’s more about what’s needed at a particular moment, in a particular project. Sometimes you code more, sometimes less, sometimes not at all.

I am not saying “Do not code!”. I’m saying “Do it when time allows you!” Otherwise consider that you are doing it just to get some satisfaction, and by doing so you are sabotaging your non-work time.

Like it or not, as a Tech Lead, the way to get satisfaction is by looking at the performance of the team, by making sure you unblock them, by making sure that the delivery is on time and that the quality is high. Measuring that is a challenge. It’s more of a subjective evaluation. From you and your colleagues.

My point is,  You don’t need to balance coding and leadership perfectly. Some projects may demand more coding, others less or none at all. Code when it’s necessary, not just for personal satisfaction.

2. Being the Best Technical Expert on Your Team

Do you need to be the best technical person in your team?

If your automatic answer is “Yes” just pause for a moment and think about it.

It’s actually a trap. Why would I say that? From my experience and the experience of others.

The role of a Technical Leader does requires technical expertise, and does not require you to be the best on the team.

If others know more, you can learn to use that to benefit the team.

If none of you have an answer to a technical problem, find someone from another team who can help.

This is where the Tech Lead’s gold lies.

There is also the challenge on how to deal with colleagues who have more experience than you do. Same answer “TL is not about being the best on the team!”.

My point is, Check your mindset. Is it “I need to have all the answers.” or “I need to help the team find the answers.”?

3. Managing all the requests that come to you from different directions

There is always a meeting to attend..

Always a fire to put down..

Without boundaries in place you’ll end up just like me! Saying “YES” to everything that comes your way!

What do I mean by boundaries?

Let’s take the following situation.

You have booked in time to do your TL stuff , alone. How you book that? It’s up to you. It can be blocking daily time, 2 times a week, etc.

The boundary is not to trade that time for meetings or other stuff. Just say “I’m not available at that time”. No explanations. Don’t justify yourself. Don’t use reasons. There is never a good enough reason for you that I think is good enough for me. It’s still a reason.

I’m not saying, “Never break the rule.” That’s up to you. I’m just saying, 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

You can check if you are really needed in a meeting.  You can ask “Why am I needed? How can I contribute here?”

Learn not to give answers and commit to doing something on the spot, when someone asks you. You can say something like, “Let me check when I can do this, and I will get back to you by the end of the day.” And make sure you get back to them by the end of the day!

Questions you can ask yourself: “Is this my job?” “Who else can help?”

4. Get Clear on Your Responsibilities and What Others Expect from You

I certainly did not ask myself that question. And actually, I did not think about asking my manager what they expected of me. There was a job description somewhere, so I just made some assumptions and did my best.

The Tech Lead role is not as clearly defined or standardized as roles like a Scrum Master; it varies from company to company.

Here are some steps on how to get clear on your responsibilities as a Tech Lead:

1. Ask what is expected from you – ask your manager, ask the dev team, ask others involved. Just ask, do not judge their expectations.
2. Make a clear list.
3. Take some time for yourself and check whether or not you can fulfil everything that is expected of you. Probably not😃 If you are not sure if something is your responsibility, clarify it with your manager or someone who can clarify it for you.
4. Then go back to them and using the list communicate what you can and what you cannot do, and get to an agreement.

Clarifying what’s expected, what you can and cannot actually fulfil on makes a big difference. Why? It’s an agreement that you can use as a reference and go back to.

My point is, Setting clear expectations early prevents misunderstandings.

5. Today you are colleagues, tomorrow you’ll be their “boss”. What will change in your communication?

You might run into these problems, all of them or some of them. I have had them all.

• “When there’s a problem in production, I expect them to drop everything and take care of the problem. But that does not happen.”
• “They are not involved in meetings. I speak alone.”
• “They are not responsible for the topic, I need to keep telling them. They are not proactive.”
• “They don’t read the task properly, which leads to incomplete work.”

All of the above can be resolved in communication.

You might reply “How do these problems relate to communication?”

That’s good.

With communication it’s not so clear as an “if .. else if ..  else ..”.

Start with the question “What can I do about it?” (not them, you).

There are tools you can use in your communication with your colleagues.

For each of the problems, there are tools you can use. The tools are the “if. . else” you are looking for.

For example, if your team isn’t proactive, you can look at: “Have I clearly communicated expectations? How come it did not land for them? How else can I say it and how can I make sure they got it?”

The answers will guide you in taking new actions.

One way to make sure your communication has landed is to ask someone to tell you what is that they got from what you said. This is an opportunity to see which part did not land.

Your First Steps as a Tech Lead

Moving from Engineer to Tech Lead is a significant transition, and you don’t have to figure it all out overnight.

Remember: Your role as a Tech Lead isn’t just about technical expertise—it’s about empowering your team. The team success is your success.

Get the Support You Need

There is an opportunity for 8 Tech Leads (transitioning or have been in the role for under a year)

to join the Tech Lead Accelerator program pilot for free and  gain the support you need as a Tech Lead.

More details here: Tech Lead Accelerator Program.