Management Vs Technical: Which Career Path Is Right for You

Are you an industry professional who has aspirations for leadership? Are you an aspiring leader? Or considering leadership and management as a path forward? Or is the technical path the one that you're thinking about? But how do you make that decision? Well, in this video some ideas, some thoughts some things to consider and some numbers that might just help make that decision a little bit easier for you. Hi, I'm Campbell Such. This is Mind Bite Thursday. Your weekly dose of The Human Edge in Technology. In this week's video some ideas, thoughts and some numbers to help you consider whether or not the path into leadership and management is the right one for you or whether a technical path might be a bit better. It's really interesting. When we start our careers. One of the things that we tend to think is the key thing that we have to do to succeed is to be really good at what we do technically and let's just be clear you have to be really good at what you do technically have to be aimed to be world class. And so what we tend to think is all we need for long-term career success is this this graph here that shows everything that we need is technical. However, the research shows that only a quarter to a third of your long-term career success is related to your technical skills and your ticket a technical expertise which are critical and you do need to work on those and make sure that they're top-notch and first class and continue to learn and grow those but the other two-thirds to three-quarters is all around how you manage yourself and how you manage your interactions with other people your Soft Skills or your Human Skills as I prefer to call them. So here's what it really looks like for long-term career success. And you can see that the graph’s split into a third technical skills a third interpersonal skills and a third personal skills the ones that you self management skills. So that's what you need to make sure that as a technical as an industry professional in a technical role that you can succeed going long term. However, if you want to move into a leadership role things change a little as you move into a Team Lead role and this is something that I'm hoping might just give you a little bit of insight and a bit of thought about whether or not it's the right thing for you. As you move into a Team Lead role as you moved into management and leadership those technical skills drop down a little bit and while it's still really important and you need to continue to work on your technical skills the way you manage yourself on the way you manage your interactions with other people your human skills your people skills or interpersonal skills become more important. And then as you move into more senior leadership and management roles those technical skills become even less important and it's far more about managing people managing your direct reports and managing other people and getting things done through people. And then when you move into a senior leadership role senior management role it looks like this and poof all the technical skills all of the stuff that you do technically, it's gone. It's not that it's not important because as you go through your career you still need to rely on your knowledge. It's super important to have that knowledge so that you can rely on your advisers and get input from around you to be able to make really good decisions based around technical but the work that you do day to day is all about managing people and managing people through people. So, just to sum up. We think that technical skills are all we need for long-term career success when we start what it turns out i's about 1/3 : 1/3 : 1/3 how you manage yourself how you manage interactions with other people and then the technical skills is about 1/3. And then as you move into management and move further and further up the management path the technical skills become less and less until you're in Senior Management when they disappear altogether. So if you still want to stay on the tools if you still think that's important for you maybe something to try and see whether you like it or not but something to consider for when you move into a senior role as those technical skills it's all gone. You still need the knowledge and it will really help you make good decisions but you're managing people and managing people through people. Something to consider? Something to ponder? It’s Mind Bite Thursday for this week. Campbell Such. Over now. See ya…

Channel: Integration Catalyst

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Keywords: management vs technical career path, management vs technical career which career path is right for me, integration catalyst, management vs technical career which career path to take, what career is right for me, mind bite thursday, is management career path right for me, campbell such, management vs technical career, technical career path, management vs technical track, career path advice, career advice, leadership path, management or technical, management vs. technical career

Id: 9IwMVrAoiq0

Length: 4min 0sec (240 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 20 2021