3 Reasons to Grow Your Career with People Leadership
It might be the best way.
Managing people is hard, so why would you want to be a manager?
Wouldn't be easier to be an IC and worry about your own work?
Sure, it would be easier, but do you want things to be easy? Is that how you grow and improve? I don't think so.
Instead, challenge yourself to become an effective manager.
There are good reasons for it.
You have more career options
The only way to build job security is career optionality.
And managers have the most options. You can become a manager at any company, any industry, and in any domain. You can climb the ladder into Director and VP roles. You can pivot back to an IC role or into another technical discipline (like going from Analytics to Data Engineering).
Once you become an effective manager, you have the credibility to manage most teams.
Managers have options, and you want options, trust me.
Leadership skills are eminently transferrable
Tools change. Technology changes. People don't.
When you learn foundational leadership skills, you can transfer them to any team, any company, or any industry. It doesn't matter what tools people are using, what technology is trending, or what the company goals are. When you know how to lead people, you will make a positive impact.
Don't settle for technical skills that feel good to learn today.
Build skills that are bulletproof, forever.
The analytics field is growing (it needs more managers)
As technology expands and more data is collected, there will be a growing need for analytics.
More analytics means more data analysts, which means more managers.
Ride this wave and become a manager soon rather than later. Benefits will come your way in interesting problems to solve, more authority, more responsibility, more pay, and more options in your career (remember, you want options).
ICs will have opportunities too but you want the outsized opportunities that are more readily available to managers.
There are countless ways to grow your career.
People leadership might be the best one.