First, let me start this by saying that everyone is a leader in their own way. Whether its by leading a group of people via assumed or granted responsibility or by actions. What I mean by this is simple. The first example is easy to understand. We all have people we report to, our bosses. These people hold us accountable for how we support the organization we work for. The second example is a bit more cloudy. What I mean by ‘actions’ are how we as people carry our selves and gives an example the herd mentality. I chuckle at this saying, but my mom would give the, “if they jumped off of a bridge, would you too,” metaphor. But, if it means a gain or a shortcut to that gain, just maybe we will jump off of that bridge. But I digress–what do I man by Tech Vs. Management?
Technician
A technician, per Webster, is a person employed to look after technical equipment or a person skilled in the technique of an art or craft. Technicians are masters of their trade or craft. Because this is an IT blog, that’s the craft I will stick to. Technicians are the skilled workers that management can rely upon to complete a task correctly and efficiently. I will say technicians are not engineers. More on that later.
Management
Managers/Management are responsible for controlling and administrating a part of or all of the company or organization, per Webster. These are the people the decision makers in the company. Do we go with this particular technology or do we take on that particular client or contract, are examples of the types of decisions managers make.
VS.
But can someone be both a technician and a manager? In the last 10 years I was in the Army, I was a Technical Warrant Officer. Looking at the definition above and the responsibilities written in some of our duty descriptions, they don’t align at all. I could argue that a small population of technical Warrant Officers could very well be labeled as engineers and not just technicians. Back to the initial question, I think its possible but without a good team of technicians somethings suffer in both realms. In IT, managers have to be extremely technical to be successful in their field. They have to speak the language of both technicians and other managers.
In those last 10 years in the Army, I found myself juggling leading a team, and being an expert in my field. Though stressful, I was able to surround myself with a really good team. That allowed me to focus on the challenging problems as well as leader engagements like that pesky command and staff or the MDMP meetings, and more importantly, expectation management. Doing both roles wore on me quite a bit though. I sacrificed time with family to make sure I had enough time in the day to accomplish both tasks. But, in the Army you have to have a balance because in those roles, one without the other becomes a dice roll on personal and team success and lives depend on that success.
In the corporate world, what I have noticed is most technicians, and even engineers, have a very narrow field of vision. They focus on the tasks they are given, the problems they need to fix, or the development processes. Management can’t have a narrow field of vision at all, they have to see the big picture to make decisions on whether or not what the technician is working on is still viable, needs to be steered in a different direction.
What I am not saying is that both cannot be done by the same person. There has to be some expectation management on doing both at the same time doesn’t impact another portion of life or well being.
Anyway, just some thoughts. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your responses.
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