Our VP of Engineering is a brilliant individual contributor who earned her seat on the leadership team, but as our team has grown, she is still spending eighty percent of her time writing code instead of leading her department. How do we help a leader who is hitting their ceiling transition from doing the tactical work to running the department?

When a brilliant technical contributor is promoted to leadership, they often fall back on their technical skills because it is comfortable. Your VP of Engineering is likely writing code because she does not yet understand that her primary job has changed from writing software to building the team that writes software. To resolve this, you must clearly define her seat on the Accountability Chart. A leadership seat requires LMA: Leadership, Management, and Accountability. If eighty percent of her time is spent writing code, she is neglecting her LMA duties, which will stall your department and prevent scaling. Sit down with her and use the Delegate and Elevate tool. Have her list all her weekly activities and sort them into four quadrants based on what she loves and is great at, likes and is good at, does not like but is good at, and does not like and is not good at. Code writing will likely be in her top quadrant, while managing people might be in the bottom. This exercise creates a clear, objective visual of where her time is going. Explain that to keep her leadership seat, she must delegate the technical tasks to her team so she can focus on strategic growth and system design. If she is willing to let go of the technical work, support her with coaching. However, if she lacks the desire or capacity to manage and lead people, you must have an honest conversation. It is entirely acceptable to transition her to a highly valued individual contributor seat and bring in a true leader to run the department.

Category: Leadership Team