Establishing Leadership in Growing Organizations
In mature tech organizations, each of your teams would have a team lead. The team lead takes care of various responsibilities such as conducting 1:1s, managing performance, handling PIPs, allocating budgets, and much more. These team leads then report to the directors, who in turn report to the CTO.
This hierarchical structure enables the scaling of a tech organization. It’s simply impractical for a CTO to personally engage with every individual, which is why having a layer of management in between makes perfect sense.
However, the dynamics change in growing organizations. Hiring numerous team leads becomes challenging, and it’s not feasible to simply assign the role to some engineers. Furthermore, not all engineers may desire a managerial position, as there is a distinction between being a manager and an individual contributor.
So, how can you tackle this challenge effectively?
The People Coach Makes Growing an Organization Easy
When the role of a Team Lead becomes too burdensome and relying solely on engineers doesn’t facilitate scalability, I’ve often found success in implementing an intermediate position. We refer to this role as a “People Coach.”
A People Coach is akin to a lighter version of a Team Lead. Their primary responsibility involves conducting 1:1s with both the team members and the manager (e.g., director) who oversees the team.
Unlike a Team Lead, a People Coach isn’t accountable for the more challenging tasks such as budgeting, delivery, or performance management. These responsibilities continue to be handled by the director.
The beauty of this approach is that it becomes much easier to find employees who are interested in taking on the People Coach role. Additionally, it can serve as a valuable stepping stone for individuals transitioning from an individual contributor position to a management role.
Conclusion
Establishing effective leadership in growing organizations can be a complex task. While mature tech organizations rely on team leads and a hierarchical structure to scale, this approach may not be feasible for growing organizations facing challenges in hiring and balancing managerial roles.
Introducing an intermediate position known as the People Coach can help to address these challenges.
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- Great image on top by Wade Austin Ellis
