Let’s say you’re a senior individual contributor (IC) on your team. The company is growing, new hires are coming in, and suddenly the organization finds itself in need of additional leadership capacity. If you’ve read The Manager’s Path, by Camille Fournier, you’ll know that at the senior level, you have 3 options: stay where you’re at, become an expert individual contributor, or become a leader.

When I have 1:1 meetings with my senior ICs, every now and then I like to check in with them about their career aspirations. Are the dreams they had still the dreams they have? Has anything shifted their perspective recently? In a startup, you should always be prepared for growth. And as a manager, part of that is identifying the members of your team who would make good leaders.

Why does the question matter?

Any IC from junior to senior should be thinking of this question. Having a direction in mind can help guide what you prioritize for professional development activities. Note that I said it can help guide, not that you have to stick to that path, or even have a path. Just because you have a direction in mind, doesn’t mean that you’re locked into that path. Maybe you put in the time to learn enough about management that you realize it’s not for you. That doesn’t make it a waste. Your perspective on leadership could influence your decision to remain at the senior level or move to an expert IC role as well.

As a manager, you should be on the lookout for when someone starts asking this question. It can be a great cue for how to nudge someone’s professional development based on organizational needs.

Personally, I like to let people work on almost anything for professional development. New information and perspective can prompt new discussions and approaches to tasks, especially with subject matter experts.

What if my technical skills get rusty?

This is guaranteed to happen, the extent to which it happens is up to you. In an earlier post I went over an article I read on giving up your legos. As a manager, you’ll need to give up some of the things you had owned as an IC. If you were the go-to person on a particular process in the company, you’ll maintain that position for a while, but over time whoever takes on that responsibility in your stead will eventually become the go-to person. And that’s ok. That’s what’s supposed to happen, because you’ll go on to become the go-to person for something else.

Depending on the level you get to in the company hierarchy, your expertise will become more and more big picture, or strategic. You’ll become less of an expert on how the work is done, and more of an expert on how the work is organized and prioritized.

That being said, you can try to maintain some technical skills by blocking out some time to get your hands dirty. I was recently talking with someone who’s been in the industry longer than I’ve been alive. He was showing me some work he had done “to stay relevant”. I really appreciate his approach. He’s spent decades in leadership positions, but he always finds the time to do some practical work to stay in touch with the “how” rather than always focusing on the “what” and “why”.

What if I don’t know what to do?

This is also guaranteed to happen. The skillset you need as a manager is very different from the skillset you need as an IC. You’ll be less focused on how to actually do something, and more focused on what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and what the requirements are for calling a task done.

In your first week, you’ll be in a lot of unfamiliar situations. If your company has a strong culture of mentorship (which all good companies should), you’ll never be alone in these situations. If it’s a matter of strategy, or a situation you’re unfamiliar with, you should be able to talk to other managers, senior leadership, or the HR team to give you some advice. If it’s a matter of how the work should be done, you can consult with the ICs on your team to see what they suggest.

Just remember that you don’t need to have all the answers, you just need to know where the answers are.

What if my relationships change?

Another thing that’s guaranteed to change. When you become a manager, people will take what you say more seriously. For better or worse. Your off hand remarks could be interpreted as a strategic priority, so you’ll need to be careful about what you say and how you say it.

The way your ICs act around you could also change. In Making of a Manager, the author describes her first day as a manager, and all of her former peers acting a little differently. Personally, I don’t think I’m the best at reading people, but I also didn’t notice much of a change initially. We still told the same jokes, and chatted the same amount as usual, but sooner or later, you or the company will make a decision that doesn’t sit well with your team. In an ideal world, where you’ve set up a strong sense of psychological safety, your team should be comfortable telling you how they feel about it. In reality, they probably won’t tell you all of their thoughts on the situation, but you’ll get enough to carry on the conversation and for you to be effective as a leader. I wouldn’t describe this change as good or bad, it’s just a little different. To be clear, I don’t blame my team for the change in the way we communicate, it’s just a natural consequence of the change. I expect them to be as open with me as I am with them.

Do I want to be a manager?

This is probably the first question that comes to mind, but to be honest, it’s the last one you should think about.

This is the same process I go through when I help my friends apply to new jobs. Don’t think about what job you want, think about what aspects of the job you want are.

Your technical skills will get rusty, but you’ll gain a lot of new skills. You’ll be in a lot of situations where you won’t know what to do, but you’ll learn fast and you can always ask for help. The way you relate to your team will change, but you can maintain those relationships to keep information flowing. If you want to scale your impact on the organization, and are comfortable with being uncomfortable, it might be the move for you.