No need for an MBA. You can make your own luck here: start by taking on voluntary leadership roles such as mentorship, or running initiatives within your company (setting up an informal team to codify source code management practices, that kind of thing).

Make sure your own management know that you are interested in this path.

The book The Manager's path has excellent advice on ways you can prepare yourself for management positions: https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

I don’t fully agree with all points but there are many words of caution to be spoken about the expectation that by moving to a manager role you get more agency on the things that frustrate you as a sw eng. “The managers path” is a good resource to expand on that. https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

Really recommend The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier

I find it's really more a practical guide, less so a "recipe of success" that other self-help tend to be.

https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

A book that is often recommended is, "The Manager's Path" by Camille Fourner (O'Reilly). It's more of a career path reference guide than a cover-to-cover read.

https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

For a more universal perspective on leadership (and management) John Maxwell is solid. Easy to read practical advice in a "I knew that but this is a good reminder" sort of way.

Given your founder background you might also appreciate "The Advantage" by Patrick Lencioni. It's more C Level, but much of can apply to a team (e.g., the importance of trust, a feeling of purpose, etc.)

https://www.amazon.com/Advantage-Patrick-Lencioni/dp/8126537...

There are others. This topic or similar comes up from time to time on HN. I'd try the search. It's in the footer if you've never noticed.

Camille Fournier - The Manager's Path

https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

https://www.elidedbranches.com/

In addition to those technical books, I'd check out:

* Staff Engineer- Great for the tech challenges beyond senior-level https://staffeng.com/book

* The Manager's Path- Good even if you're not going to be a manager. Understanding their perspective makes you more effective https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

* An Elegant Puzzle- What if distributed systems engineering, but with people? https://lethain.com/elegant-puzzle/

Were you a team member on this team before you were promoted to lead? If so, it's going to be a tough road ahead because you are going from a peer / co-worker relationship to a manager & direct report relationship. These are tough transitions to make, and a reason the military will often transfer someone who is newly put into a leadership position.

Have you started to train yourself as a lead / manager? A couple of resources I've found useful in the switch have been Manager Tools [0] (book, site, and podcast) as well as The Manager's Path [1].

While his shtick can be a bit thick at times, I enjoyed Extreme Ownership by Willink [2], if only because it codified a lot of thoughts I've had for a long time. I've worked with a lot of military and defence so the stories and life views he teaches through didn't throw me, but I know it does for some people so YMMV.

I have found that the Manager's Tools suggestion that the single best thing you can do is have weekly one-on-ones with your team to be true. It can be tough, especially if you still have a lot of your IC responsibilities alongside your new team lead roles, but it is truly remarkable how much more insight you can get into what your team is thinking from holding these sessions. This is they crystal ball you are looking for. And remember, the weeklies are about your team members, not about you (refer to manager tools).

[0] https://www.manager-tools.com/products/effective-manager-boo...

[1] https://www.amazon.ca/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Growt...

[2] https://www.amazon.ca/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/12...

Depends on the org. At mine, you go from manager to sr. manager (maybe that means another team under your belt, but still keeping your total reports manageable). From there, the next level up is Director, then VP, then CTO.

I recommend The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier. It takes you all the way from individual contributor to CTO. https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

It takes time to gain the management skills needed to be a really good manager. Just think how much time you took to reached your technical skills.

The book written by Camille Fournier to be quite a guide to understanding the path.

https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

At the end of the day, and if money is not a motivating factor, I would recommend you to go where you are most happy now and in the future.

I’ve heard great things about https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow... as a general set of advice. The Rands leadership Slack is also a great community.

Camille Fournier literally wrote the book on Engineering Management so when she speaks, I always listen [1]. Every technology leader will reach a point where there are just too many problems to solve and OPP is a great mental model for prioritization.

OPP is also a forcing function for leadership. It forces true leaders to step up and make the hard choices.

If you're faced with OPP, here are a few things I found useful in my career.

## Do Important Work for Important People

The best way to be successful in any organization is to do important work for important people. Important work for unimportant people will get you no where. Same is true for unimportant work for important people.

Take a look at your OPP and ask yourself:

* Is this work for someone important?

* Is this work important to that person?

Both answers should be yes, otherwise it's just OPP.

## Let Fires Burn

Once you decide the work is OPP, then you need the courage to say no. You must let that fire continue to burn without it distracting you. Masters of Scale has a good episode on this topic [2]. Easier said than done of course. I found Stoic practices to be very helpful here [3].

## Customer Obsession & Ownership

OPP should always be evaluated through the lens of the customer. Bottom line, the customer is always the most important person and they trump all. True leaders are obsessed about providing a better customer experience and they're willing to pay the price in order to do so.

If you have OPP that's important work for someone important, but it's not important to the customer, then you may just have to let that one burn too. And once you make that call, you have to own it. Always take responsibility for the decision and defend it on the customer's behalf.

I've found Amazon's leadership principles to be invaluable when making these type of tough decisions [4]. It's no coincidence that Customer Obsession and Ownership are #1 and #2.

[1] http://amzn.to/2niWhO9 (Camille's link not mine)

[2] https://mastersofscale.com/selina-tobaccowala-let-fires-burn...

[3] https://www.amazon.com/Obstacle-Way-Timeless-Turning-Triumph...

[4] https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles

I have found The Manager's Path useful about this. She goes into good detail about what it means to be a manager vs a tech lead, for example.

https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

I knew that the trend for Manager READMEs bothered me, but this really helped me to nail down why. When I'm wearing a manager hat, I see it as my job to serve the people who work for me. But READMEs are a one-way communication medium. They send the message, "It's your job to pay attention to me, the manager. You must learn and conform to my quirks." I think that's exactly the wrong message for a new employee.

This post is written by the author of The Manager's Path, which I also recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

- Read this (and even if it's just for a peace of mind to feel prepared): https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

- make sure this is something you want

For management: Manager's Path by Camille Fournier: https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

Chapter 9: Boostrapping Culture of The Manager's Path [0] discusses this directly. You might also be interested in the earlier chapters on building and leading teams.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

yes do it, setup 30mins per person every 2 weeks, in the meeting invite describe this is a time for discussion, feedback (for you to them and them to you), for things like career progression and also for them to ask questions they might not feel comfortable asking in a more public setting including things about product, company etc. Try to keep the time as consistent as possible and show that these are a priority for you (so don't forget, cancel them etc).

They can be tough conversations, but rewarding on both sides.

If you are leading a team of devs at the very least read these 2 books:-

https://www.amazon.ca/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Software-Engi...

https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

Maybe read "The Manager's Path" by Camille Fournier[0]. It focuses a lot on the transition from being an engineer to going into management.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

Managing engineers is a new career, that is separate from being an Engineer. Many engineering skills don't transfer to management, even when you think they do.

As a manager, one of the most important things you can do is schedule regular 1 on 1's with the people who report to you. Both "The Manager's Path"[1] and "Behind Closed Doors"[2] stresses this.

In about 4 months, it'll be helpful to review PG's essay, Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule[3] Right now, you'll be coding most of your time, but you'll soon have more and more meetings. MSMS names the feeling of frustration around meetings, and describes how to handle so many meetings.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Closed-Doors-Management-Progra...

[3] http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html