‘We have an opportunity we’d like you to consider,’ my group’s Senior VP of Engineering began. My heart sank—I was reluctant and unsure how to respond. For the second time in my leadership journey, I was being asked to step away from direct team leadership—a role I deeply love—to serve a broader organizational mission. But as we discussed the details, something shifted. ‘I hope you do this,’ the SVP said, and I felt it too: excitement bubbling up as my mind began connecting dots between my past experiences and this new challenge.
So, I’m making another shift: moving from Team Leader, Engineering to Senior Delivery Manager. While the title might seem underwhelming to some, and the initial reactions were mixed, my path has uniquely prepared me for this role. Before my first transition, I led a team that successfully sunset two significant internal knowledge management tools while implementing their replacement. That solution not only became indispensable internally but grew into an award-winning, client-facing knowledge base and search engine. Building on my foundation as a software engineer, I worked across all aspects—from architecture and design to hands-on coding—while building strong stakeholder relationships. This experience taught me to think strategically, see the bigger picture, and solve for multiple distinct use cases.
The first time I stepped back from direct team leadership, I transitioned into the role of Program Manager in order to create a new mentorship program and administer leadership training for over 2,000 technology team members. In that role, I found myself at the center of a tech culture movement. As a program manager, I learned to be more direct in my asks—whether that was recruiting senior leaders for our team leader training program or building support for new initiatives. Together with my peers, I crafted and executed a ‘Tech Culture’ roadshow that helped showcase our capabilities, generate interest, and drive adoption across the enterprise.
For the past three years, I’ve led an enablement team focused on software quality and visibility, rather than a product delivery team as I had previously done. We significantly changed how our organization thinks about and measures software quality by implementing tools, methods and techniques for quality testing and visibility that now serve hundreds of development teams. Each transition has taught me that stepping away from direct team leadership isn’t about giving up influence—it’s about finding new ways to multiply impact. The potential impact of this new role reaches far beyond what its name suggests, and like my previous transitions, it comes with its own unique set of challenges and opportunities.
The Challenge:
Transitions like this are never without their complexities. Leaving direct team leadership comes with an emotional weight—one that’s hard to ignore when you’re invested in the success and growth of your team.
This move also requires a shift in focus, from leading a defined group to influencing across the enterprise. It’s a skill I’ve honed through my career, but it still requires balancing the desire to stay connected with my former team while fully embracing this new role.
And, of course, there’s the uncertainty of stepping into a role that’s still being defined. My challenge is to remain focused on the task at hand while staying mindful of my long-term career progression.
The Strategic Value:
Despite these challenges, this transition represents an incredible opportunity:
- Expanding Influence: Shifting from team-level leadership to enterprise-wide impact enables me to solve larger, more complex challenges.
- Leveraging Experience: My past roles, including leading a knowledge management delivery team where I wore hats from coding to vendor management, give me a strong foundation for success.
- Serving More People: This move creates opportunities to support and uplift more individuals across the organization.
- Growing Strategically: It opens pathways to the strategic leadership I’ve been eager to explore.
The Journey:
- Act One: Software Engineering
- Years of hands-on engineering taught me that technical excellence must be balanced with human connection and clear communication.
- Moving from individual contributor to tech lead showed me how empowering others often creates more impact than writing code yourself.
- Act Two: Team Leadership
- Leading development teams through complex projects revealed that the hardest challenges in tech are rarely about technology—they’re about people.
- Building inclusive engineering practices from the ground up demonstrated how diversity of thought leads to more innovative and resilient solutions.
- Act Three: Program Management
- Taking a step back from direct team leadership to develop and manage mentorship programs and leader training was transformative.
- This experience taught me the power of indirect leadership and laid the groundwork for my current transition.
- Act Four: Strategic Development Management
- The return to team leadership brought new perspectives and challenges on building and scaling high-performing teams.
- Combining technical expertise with program management experience created opportunities for broader organizational impact.
- Current Stage: Enterprise Knowledge Management
- Building on my experience with successful product leadership, I’m now applying team leadership skills at an enterprise level.
- My focus is on influencing processes, fostering collaboration, and creating alignment across diverse groups.
The Lessons:
These transitions have taught me a lot about leadership and growth:
- True leadership extends beyond the traditional role of managing a team.
- Stepping back can multiply our impact.
- Past experiences often prepare us for opportunities we didn’t see coming.
- The skills that make us effective team leaders can scale to serve much larger missions.
Looking Forward:
As I settle into this new role, I’m excited to:
- Embrace the challenge of influencing at an enterprise level.
- Find innovative ways to celebrate wins with a broader community.
- Discover new insights and perspectives on leadership to share.
- Grow into a leader who drives impact far beyond individual teams.
This journey reminds me that stepping back isn’t a loss—it’s often a step forward into something even greater.
Have you ever had to step back from a role or responsibility you loved to take on a bigger challenge? What did you learn from the experience?