The Leader

How to complete The Leader

This is the formal jump from doing the work yourself to being accountable for a team's output. It's an official promotion with direct reports, not just informally mentoring or leading a project.

1. Tell your manager directly that management is your goal and ask what gaps stand between you and it
2. Take on lead-without-the-title work: own a project, coordinate others, run the standup
3. Get fluent in the unglamorous parts (hiring, feedback, and handling underperformance) before you're judged on them
4. Document where your judgment already steers the team so there's evidence at promotion time
5. Say yes when offered reports, even a team of one, and treat their growth as your new metric

Tips

• Managing means your output is now their output, so resist the urge to just do everyone's tasks yourself
• Your hardest first skill is giving direct feedback kindly; practice it early, not in the first crisis
• If no path exists internally, applying out as a lead is a legitimate way to get the title

What counts as done

You hold an official role with at least one direct report whose work and performance you're responsible for.