How to Lead Without Losing Your Technical Superpower

Master the shift from building products to building people—without losing your edge.

I've encountered many engineers who become disillusioned just months after their promotion to engineering manager. It’s a gut punch to see the thrill of that long-awaited title fade quickly, especially after years of hard work and dreaming about it.

Becoming an engineering manager is like stepping into a parallel universe where the rules of success have changed. The excitement fades—not because the role lacks challenge or significance, but because the way you create value has fundamentally shifted. The skills that once set you apart—technical mastery, deep focus, and problem-solving—now take a backseat. Instead of building products, you're building people. Instead of writing code, you're orchestrating collaboration. Success is no longer about what you produce, but how well you enable others to succeed.

For engineers, this can feel disorienting. Their ideal day is spent solving problems, optimizing systems, and writing code in deep focus. Even when multitasking, they’re constantly creating. Then, almost overnight, that creative superpower is stripped away—much like Thor losing his Mjölnir.

Suddenly, you’re not coding; you’re stuck in back-to-back meetings. Conversations about scalable architecture give way to discussions on scaling a team. Bug triage turns into listening to your team members' challenges. You now juggle schedules, morale, client expectations, one-on-ones, and everything else that comes with management.

This distortion in your creation-consumption balance is the biggest reason your excitement wanes in the new role. The shift from creating to consuming can feel disorienting—like watching the ground disappear beneath your feet.

The work that once fueled your sense of accomplishment— writing elegant code and building something tangible—slowly slips away. In its place, an endless stream of meetings, team dynamics, and decision-making rushes in. The balance tilts, and before you know it, you’re stuck in a cycle of consuming—digesting updates, resolving conflicts, and context-switching—while the technical work that once defined you dwindles to near zero.

To succeed, you need to embrace this new reality: Management isn’t about what you build anymore—it’s about enabling others to succeed. Without this mindset shift, you’ll constantly feel torn between what you want to do and what you have to do.

But that doesn’t mean you have to give up creating entirely.

Find small ways to keep your creative spark alive—whether it’s contributing to design, debugging critical issues, or staying engaged with new technologies, even in the margins of your day. These moments help restore some balance in your creation-consumption ratio while also making you a better coach for your team.

Being mindful of these small actions can help you enjoy your new role, create a positive impact, and feel a sense of fulfillment in leadership.

Over time, you’ll realize leadership is its own form of creation—not through what you build with your hands, but through what you shape in others.