Something I wished we talked about more often: the unique challenges of learning how to lead a team as a new/young manager. Specifically in the context of tech. And also in the context of Nigeria/Ghana.
I'm 29. I've been responsible for teams for a little over 2.5 years. I've picked up a few things, but it's a process of trial/error and my early mistakes turn my stomach. I feel there're too few places new managers can go learn how to help teams do the best work of their lives.
In no particular order, here're some things I wish someone had told me 3 years ago.
1. There is a profound, important difference between being an individual contributor at a startup, and managing even one person
This is the one I think I struggled with most
1. There is a profound, important difference between being an individual contributor at a startup, and managing even one person
This is the one I think I struggled with most
When you're an individual contributor, you're measured and celebrated by your ability to ship tangible deliverables. It's easy to assume leadership is doing exactly the same thing, but better. It's easy to assume that a great developer should make a good manager of developers.
I'm cringing as I'm typing this. I remember being irritated at all the new "interruptions" in my day. I'd joke about how my job had become being a professional email sender, and how I couldn't wait to have more time for "real" work.
It took me too long to realize that when you're a manager, your work is to create a space within which other people can thrive. You don't get points for doing the thing yourself. Your job is to empower your team with the tools/processes/resources to do it better than you could.
2. Second thing it took me too long to learn is that when you're a manager your voice carries more weight than it used to. Things you would say that everyone would understand to be a joke when you were an IC suddenly take on disturbing gravity.
I think the most important lessons I've learned have happened in the last year, at Paystack. I have an obsessive pride in my team, both the broader company and 7 incredible humans I have the privilege of serving. The most important lesson I've learned is this:
If you recruit phenomenal talent, the company must grow fast enough to keep up with their rate of learning and their velocity of their ambition.
Again: I think when you're a manager of talented people, your full time job becomes obsessing over their personal and professional development, carving out new opportunities for them to make new mistakes and grow, and finding ways to tie their ambition/interests to company goals.
It's a high-wire juggling act and I'm nowhere near good at it. It's slightly easy when you're experiencing hypergrowth, but even then your talent will meet you step for step. They're impossibly hungry and will demolish anything you throw at them and demand more.
Back to the matter of our Nigeria/Ghana tech context. Many of us have found a small measure of (seeming) success by faking it till we "made" it. I'm sorry, but very honestly, when it comes to managing people, you don't get to "move fast and break things."
You owe it to your team to make yourself a student of the craft of managing human beings. You just have to. The human cost of just muddling through being a manager is just too high. You can really fuck up someone's life and not even know it.
We live in a region where examples of enlightened leadership can be hard to find. Hard to find in traditional business, and hard to find in politics. And so we do the best we can, as well we can. But our teams deserve more.
No, it won't just "come" to you and no, great leaders don't just "happen." It's an intentional decision. You'll realize this when it's time to groom leaders in your company and discover that people don't just "get it" overnight. It's intentional, deliberate practice.
The reason this has been on my mind is we're finishing a big round of hiring and I realized that my team is going to double. I feel like I've been lucky so far to have amazing team members who make it easy, but at ~20 people, I'm going to need to have a plan.
Here're some of the resources I've found helpful:
One of the first things Shola (Paystack CEO) recommended when I joined was to read @bhorowitz The Hard Thing About Hard Things amazon.com/Hard-Thing-Abo…
I can't recommend this book highly enough. If you're responsible for humans, please do your team a favour and read this book.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. If you're responsible for humans, please do your team a favour and read this book.
In our part of our world it's common for leadership to be cast of this show of force and authority. A "Big Man" who gets to boss people around. THTAHT will remind you in harrowing terms that true leadership is thankless service. It is a sobering, essential read.
Another AMAZING resource is @clairejlew and @KnowYourCompany. The Know Your Company blog is easily the best collection of advice for new managers I have found online. EVERY post is gold blog.knowyourcompany.com
Know Your Company also has an incredible community of managers called thewatercooler.io It's a paid subscription, but again, a goldmine of information.
I'd like to end with a shoutout to a manager who has been the best education anyone could ask for. Without exaggeration, I consider my job to basically be an apprenticeship under @shollsman. Working with him is like drinking from a firehose of insight.
He's not on Twitter much and he's far too quiet for his own good, but Shola is quietly one of the single most remarkable people I've ever met, and a hidden force for so much good that has happened - and will happen - for our industry.
In conclusion: I'm hungry for more conversation about how to be better managers. Conversation about how to turn our companies into places where we groom exceptional talent. Make yourself a student of the craft of leadership. Your team is counting on you. ❤️
