Senior Engineer? Time to Lead… Somehow

You know the feeling. You’ve done everything “right”.

That means you do what is expected for a senior software developer. You write clean, efficient code and do so in a maintainable way. You even hit deadlines, even when they have been made up by people who have never even seen a codebase.

Dependability. Accountability. Respectability.

Suddenly your manager starts dropping hints to you. Nudging you in a direction you never expected to go.

“Take more ownership of the architecture.”

“Can you mentor the new hire?”

“I want you to think more strategically.”

As if all of that is a natural next step. It’s expected your IDE unlocks its hidden “leadership mode” and you’re good.

No onboarding. Just vibes. You’ll figure something out, right? Right?

Your performance review is likely to go wrong if this is happening to you, which is exactly what is happening to me right now.

👎 The Unwritten Promotion

Nobody says “You’re a tech lead now”. They just start treating you like one without training, guidance, support, or a raise.

If you’re unlucky, you’ll watch someone with half your experience and twice your self-confidence get the actual title.

It’s time we fixed that. We need good people getting promotions and moving up in the organization, not just the loudest ones.

So, as my performance review result is likely to be a shrug let’s see what we can do for the future and to make sure next year’s result is not quite so dire.

The Solution(s)

🧠 1. Clarify what “strategic” means in your context

“Think more strategically” is the “live, laugh, love” of engineering advice.

It sounds all good, but doesn’t really mean anything. You get the security of something being said to you, but without the bonus of it being something actually useful.

So when I was asked by my manager to be strategic and “do more” and I queried what needed to be done they didn’t have an answer. That’s not a good result for anybody.

So what we (and I) should do is ask structured questions.

“What does success look like for me in the next 3–6 months?”

That’s a better question, and demands a clear answer. You can even ask follow-on questions and suggest things like:

“Should I be identifying tech debt?”

“Can I become responsible for onboarding new engineers?”

“How can I represent the team in architectural decisions?”

👥 2. Learn to lead without authority

The old chestnut. You’re expected to influence people without managing. Nobody has to listen to you, but you need them to.

If you act desperate (and everyone knows that in the past I’ve acted desperately, particularly in my social life) people are less likely to listen to you than ever. You’re in lack of influence cycle, when you need to be in a cycle that helps you grow and increase your influence.

I feel like I’ve no influence, and that means I’ve kind of lost my confidence (not that I had much to begin with). That means my voice often seems to be lost in the crowd (like when I suggested improvements to our software process and someone else stole the credit for it).

So here is what to do.

Think about what you’re saying before you say it. Make your words count. Offer choices, not lectures and publicly credit others.

While you’re about it use questions rather than commands. That means.

“What made you choose this approach?” instead of “This is wrong.”

🧲 3. Don’t over-own

Taking ownership doesn’t mean babysitting every bug. It means pushing others to think, not solving everything yourself.

Good delegation isn’t about laziness. It’s investing in others so you can handle bigger fires later. Or nap. Either’s valid.

You Already Know How to Build Systems. Now Build People.

If code was the only thing that mattered, I think we’d all already be promoted.

Tech leadership is a different game, and the rules are unwritten. That doesn’t mean you can’t learn them. It just means most of your colleagues haven’t.

So go ahead. Ship your code. Unblock your team. Quietly take over the world.

I wish you luck, as long as you wish me luck too.

About The Author

Professional Software Developer “The Secret Developer” can be found on Twitter @TheSDeveloper and regularly publishes articles through Medium.com

The Secret Developer once led a design review. It didn’t go well.