Get Over the Fear of Losing Your Technical Skills

You become a manager and your technical skills slip, now you're irrelevant.

Right?

Nope.

Your fear of losing technical skills when you become a manager are overblown.

Yes, your technical skills will degrade, but this is a good thing. It means you can focus on higher level work.

That said, you still need technical acumen.

Here's how to keep your technical skills sharp while you focus on leadership responsibilities.

Build a team with specialized skill-sets

Each team member needs to specialize in one technical skill: data modeling, machine learning, AI, data visualization, etc.

Pick the right person for each specialization. People have different interests, experiences, strengths, and weaknesses. Match team members to the work they do best and that they enjoy the most. Have them do that work most often so they can gain a deep understanding of that skillset.

Then have them teach the rest of the team (and you) their expertise.

Team members train *you*

Once team members are specialized, have them train *you*, not the other way around.

You're not the technical expert anymore, your team members are. If you don't learn from their expertise, you will be left behind.

Here's how you learn what your team already knows:

• Technical knowledge sharing meetings. Each team member holds a meeting where they teach the rest of the team what they know. It can be a workshop, a how-to meeting, a display of a recent project, or a formal presentation. There are three goals: help the presenter gain a deeper understanding of the material, train up the team, and increase your technical knowledge.
• Writing & documentation. Team members write down their knowledge in a way that's intended to be consumed by others. They write down their methods, reasoning for their solutions, and how-to guides. Review these documents and read every word. You will gain an understanding of the tools and techniques the team is using.

This strategy is great for knowledge your team already has.

But what about new technologies?

Learn new technologies through your team

There are too many new technologies for a manager to keep up with (AI, anyone?).

Let your team do it for you.

1. Identify a technology you (and the team) need to learn more about.
2. Have one team member (with some related expertise) research the technology.
3. Have them present their learnings to you and the rest of the team.

Do this repeatedly with all team members and you will be add to your knowledge bank.

When a new problem arises, you have a better idea of what tools and technologies are available and how to apply them to your problem.

All without spending your own time researching.

Implementation

Pick one tool or technology you need to learn.

Pick one person on the team who's best suited to learn it.

Have them research it, write down the important ideas, and present their learnings with the team.

Repeat.

You don't have to do it all, so don't try.