The Technical Manager's Dilemma: Staying Current While Leading People
The Impossible Juggle: Technical Expert or People Leader?
A little over a month into my first official management role, and I'm navigating something I didn't fully anticipate. I came in determined not to be "that" micromanaging boss – you know, the one who reviews every decision and breathes down your neck. Having experienced that management style myself, I was committed to supporting my people rather than trying to be the smartest guy in the room.
But here's the reality: I do have the most technical experience on the team, and they naturally look to me for technical leadership. The challenge isn't avoiding micromanagement – it's figuring out how to provide technical guidance without undermining their growth and autonomy. When someone asks for my input on an SD-WAN design or needs direction on a complex routing scenario, how do I help without taking over?
It's what I call the "Technical Manager's Dilemma" – finding the sweet spot between providing valuable technical leadership and enabling your team to develop their own expertise.
If you're a technical manager struggling with this balance, you're not alone. The pressure to be both technically credible and an effective people leader is real, and getting it wrong in either direction can damage both your team's development and your own effectiveness.
The Root of the Problem: Imposter Syndrome Meets Reality
Why Technical Managers Fall Into This Trap
The Credibility Fear: "If I'm not the most technical person on my team, why should they respect my leadership?"
The Promotion Guilt: "I got promoted because of my technical skills, so I need to prove I still have them."
The Perfectionist Trap: "If something goes wrong technically, it reflects on me as the manager."
The Control Illusion: "If I don't review everything, how do I know it's being done right?"
These fears are natural, but they're also destructive. Here's the hard truth: the skills that got you promoted to manager are not the same skills that will make you successful as a manager.
The Failure Pattern: Trying to Be Everything to Everyone
I've watched countless technical managers fall into this pattern, and I've lived it myself:
Stage 1: The Technical Micromanager
Reviewing every configuration
Jumping into technical discussions to "add value"
Insisting on approving all architectural decisions
Taking on the most complex technical tasks yourself
Result: Your team feels untrusted and stops thinking critically. You become a bottleneck.
Stage 2: The Overwhelmed Expert
Working 60+ hour weeks trying to keep up with both roles
Missing management responsibilities because you're buried in technical work
Making technical mistakes because you're context-switching constantly
Team performance suffers because they're not getting proper leadership
Result: You're failing at both technical work and management.
Stage 3: The Burned-Out Manager
Resentment from your team who feel micromanaged
Frustration from leadership who expected management results
Personal exhaustion from trying to do two full-time jobs
Technical skills actually declining due to scattered focus
Result: Career damage and team dysfunction.
The Hard Truth About Technical Credibility
Here's what I wish someone had told me on day one of management:
Your technical credibility as a manager doesn't come from being the best technical person on your team. It comes from making good technical decisions and enabling your team to do their best technical work.
Let me repeat that: Good technical decisions, not perfect technical implementations.
What Technical Credibility Actually Looks Like for Managers
Understanding the Big Picture: You need to grasp the architectural implications of decisions, not implement every detail.
Asking the Right Questions: "Have we considered the impact on our disaster recovery plan?" is more valuable than "Let me review your OSPF area configuration."
Making Trade-off Decisions: Balancing technical perfection against business timelines, budget constraints, and team capacity.
Protecting Your Team: Understanding technical challenges well enough to push back on unrealistic requests from other departments.
The Mindset Shift: From Doing to Enabling
Before: The Technical Superhero Mindset
"I need to be the smartest person in the room"
"If I don't do it myself, it won't be done right"
"My value comes from my technical contributions"
"I should be able to answer every technical question"
After: The Technical Enabler Mindset
"My job is to make my team more effective"
"My value comes from the team's collective output"
"I need to develop others' technical skills, not showcase my own"
"My role is to remove obstacles, not solve every problem"
This shift is psychological and practical. It took me a while to internalize it.
Practical Strategies for Finding the Balance
1. The 70/30 Rule
As a technical manager, aim for:
70% management activities: Team development, strategic planning, stakeholder communication, process improvement
30% technical activities: Architecture review, high-level design, technical mentoring, staying current with trends
This ratio might feel uncomfortable initially, especially if you're used to being 90% hands-on technical, like I was.
2. Redefine Your Technical Involvement
Instead of: Reviewing every network configuration, Do: Establish configuration standards and review processes that your team can execute
Instead of: Implementing complex solutions yourself, Do: Work with your team to architect solutions, then let them implement
Instead of: Being the go-to person for all technical questions, Do: Develop your team members to be the experts in their areas
Instead of: Staying current with every technical detail, Do: Focus on trends, strategic technologies, and architectural patterns
3. The Technical Touch Points That Matter
Weekly Architecture Reviews: Spend 2 hours per week reviewing high-level designs and architectural decisions with your team.
Technology Trend Analysis: Dedicate time each month to understanding how new technologies might impact your organization.
Cross-Functional Technical Discussions: Participate in technical discussions with other departments where your team's expertise is needed.
Incident Post-Mortems: Engage in technical analysis of major incidents to understand systemic issues.
4. Delegation Without Abandonment
The Wrong Way to Delegate: "Figure out the new firewall implementation and let me know when it's done."
The Right Way to Delegate: "I need you to lead the firewall implementation project. Let's spend 30 minutes discussing the requirements, success criteria, and timeline. I'll check in weekly, and I'm available if you hit any roadblocks that need escalation."
5. Building Technical Credibility Through Leadership
Technical Mentoring: Spend one-on-one time helping team members work through complex problems. You're not solving it for them, but you're guiding their thinking.
Strategic Technical Planning: Focus on 6-12 month technology roadmaps rather than day-to-day implementations.
Vendor and Technology Evaluation: Use your experience to evaluate new technologies and vendors for the organization.
Technical Communication: Translate complex technical concepts for business stakeholders and communicate business requirements back to your technical team.
Managing Teams with More Technical Expertise
This is perhaps the most challenging aspect: what do you do when you're managing people who are more technically skilled than you in specific areas?
The Ego Check
First, acknowledge this reality: In a healthy technical organization, you should have people on your team who are more skilled than you in specific areas. This isn't a management failure – it's a management success.
Strategies for Leading Technical Experts
1. Acknowledge Their Expertise Publicly. "Sarah is our BGP expert. When we have routing design questions, she's the authority."
2. Focus on What You Bring. Your value isn't in being the smartest technical person. It's in:
Providing business context for technical decisions
Coordinating between team members with different expertise
Removing obstacles and getting resources
Making strategic technical decisions based on multiple inputs
3. Ask Questions, Don't Give Answers Instead of: "You should configure OSPF this way..." Try: "What are the trade-offs between OSPF and EIGRP for this scenario?"
4. Create Growth Opportunities. Use your management position to get your technical experts:
Training opportunities
Conference attendance
Challenging projects
Recognition within the organization
Staying Technically Current: What Really Matters
You can't stay current with everything, so be strategic about what you focus on:
High-Priority Technical Areas for Managers
Industry Trends and Strategic Technologies: SD-WAN, SASE, cloud networking, automation – the big picture stuff that affects business strategy.
Architecture and Design Patterns: Understanding how different technologies fit together and impact each other.
Business Impact of Technical Decisions: How technical choices affect costs, risks, and business capabilities.
Emerging Technologies: Enough understanding to evaluate whether new technologies are worth investigating.
Low-Priority Technical Areas for Managers
Implementation Details: The specific CLI commands and configuration syntax.
Troubleshooting Deep Dives: Unless it's a major incident affecting business operations.
Vendor-Specific Features: Leave the detailed product expertise to your team members.
Day-to-Day Operational Tasks: The routine work that keeps the network running.
Warning Signs You're Falling Back Into the Trap
Watch for these behaviors in yourself:
You're regularly working late to "catch up" on technical work
Your team stops bringing you problems because they know you'll just solve them yourself
You're making technical decisions without consulting your team
You feel anxious when you don't understand every technical detail discussed in meetings
Your team members aren't growing technically because you're doing their challenging work
Other managers or your boss have to remind you about management responsibilities
The Long-Term Career Perspective
Here's something that took me time to understand: Your career progression from this point forward depends more on your management and leadership skills than your technical skills.
Technical skills got you to management. Management skills will determine your success from here.
This doesn't mean abandoning technology – it means evolving your relationship with it. You become a technical strategist rather than a technical implementer.
Making the Transition: A 90-Day Plan
Month 1: Recognition and Boundaries
Audit how you spend your time (technical vs. management)
Identify which technical activities you can delegate
Start setting boundaries on your technical involvement
Have honest conversations with your team about changing expectations
Month 2: Systematic Delegation
Implement formal review processes that your team can own
Establish technical decision-making frameworks
Begin focusing your technical time on strategic rather than tactical issues
Start developing specific team members as technical leaders in their areas
Month 3: Strategic Focus
Transition to monthly rather than daily technical involvement
Focus technical learning on trends and business impact
Establish your role as a technical facilitator rather than a technical implementer
Measure success by team output rather than personal technical contributions
The Uncomfortable Truth About Management Success
Here's the reality that many technical managers struggle to accept:
Your management success will be measured by your team's technical achievements, not your personal technical contributions.
This means your ego needs to shift from "Look what I built" to "Look what my team accomplished."
That transition is hard. It requires letting go of the immediate gratification of solving technical problems and embracing the longer-term satisfaction of developing people and enabling business success.
Conclusion: Embrace Your Evolution
The Technical Manager's Dilemma isn't really about choosing between being technical or being a manager. It's about evolving your definition of technical leadership.
You're not abandoning your technical background – you're leveraging it in a new way. Your technical skills provide the foundation for good technical leadership, but leadership skills determine whether you'll be successful in your new role.
The network engineering industry needs managers who understand technology deeply enough to make good strategic decisions, but who also understand that their primary job is developing people and enabling team success.
Three key takeaways:
Your technical credibility comes from good technical judgment, not perfect technical execution
Leading technical experts requires humility, curiosity, and focus on what you uniquely bring to the role
Your career success from this point forward depends more on your management skills than your technical skills
The sooner you embrace this evolution, the more successful you'll be as a technical manager – and the more your team will accomplish.
Remember: You were promoted to management not to be the best individual contributor, but to multiply the effectiveness of multiple technical contributors. That's a much bigger impact than any single technical project you could complete yourself.