Senior technical lead with limited technical skills

Question

Does anyone have experience working with senior tech leads with very limited technical skills? I realize that some people have other strengths that the company deems valuable, but I'm of the opinion that senior tech leads are REQUIRED to have strong technical skills. What do you think?

Melissa Halfon · Answer

Short answer: technical skills are a requirement.

Longer answer: this hits close to home to me because as someone in a senior technical role, I am hyper sensitive to the fact that I know I don't have all the answers. I think technical leadership is one of the hardest roles to hire for because being great at tech things AND people things is rare. I do believe any leader should never stop learning, especially in the ever-changing fields of tech and a breadth or depth of knowledge is a necessity. I know I'm always striving to learn new things to grow my own knowledge and my team's.

Cherie Ontiveros · Answer

The definition of technical skills may mean hands-on or background experience within the topic matters being managed. Technical leaders must stay curious, inquisitive, and ahead of the technical curve in case the team needs new ideas. The leader must have a great network of experts to leverage to assist them in staying ahead. Leadership and also technical leadership requires communication, leverage and teamwork. Technical leaders I tend to respect always seem to know something I don't and when they don't have the answers, they are not shy to ask others, to provide me with connections to increase my own network and knowledge.

ROSALIE DAY · Answer

A good leader and manager knows what they don't know, learns continuously and does not micromanage. I hired and managed technical people for the skills I needed to carry the business forward. For example, SCADA systems. I could write the functional spec at the very front end but I did not know how to write code for real time systems. The people I hired were way better than me at understanding the interfaces, yet I managed them. If they needed help, I depended on them to communicate with me and identify the resources they needed. It is trust, communication and common goals.

If every manager had to have all the knowledge of the people they managed, there would be no CEOs. The CEO example is extreme but the relationship goes both ways. I hire them, give the responsibility and resources and hold them accountable, I don't need to know exactly how they do their jobs. If they have a problem, I have a problem and we find the solution together.

Peg Bittner · Answer

And I thought I was the only one out there in that situation.   I had a manager who was two levels above but very much hands on with the billing department over the leads and she knew absolutely nothing about accounting or the billing process.  She had all her experience in computer programming but not in what goes into the programs to make them work.    It was a nightmare and a great stress inducer.   My heart goes out to you and I wish you the professional best

Anonymous · Answer

I previously managed the remote support center of a software company and I had little/no technical experience. Overall, I had a positive experience and we hit all our metrics constantly. It wasn’t easy at first though, it took time to build trust and a relationship with the team. I included them in critical decisions, listened to their feedback, and made it a point to learn whenever I could. (It was like I had to prove myself.)

I think it can work but it will ultimately depend on the leadership style, leader’s dedication, and team dynamics.

Anonymous · Answer

I echo the sentiment and have never seen it work well. Hubris is the order of the day in many places unfortunately. If a tech lead doesn't fundamentally understand the work, they will not be able to manage it well, or the expectations that come with each project. If this person is adept at politics and good at BSing higher ups, it may go on for a while, but likely juniors and peers will grow tired of it. All around it is a bad practice that will erode the working environment. What to do about it is another thing all together.

Laura Andrews · Answer

I have seen it happen.  It is rare, though to be honest.  It is a hard sell to oversee technical employees without having the knowledge.  An understanding of the work, even at a superficial high level is critical.  If you have a more concrete example, such as skills you have, and the target role, I could provide more concrete feedback based on my 20 years of technical and technical management experience.

Anonymous · Answer

Having been an engineer and worked with engineers for 20 years, I've observed that many individuals with technical acumen are poor communicators. Perhaps while he understands the technical concepts, his ability to communicate data clearly is the real gap? To him it makes sense and he sees value in reducing the amount of data. It's more rare than you might think for strong technical individuals to also be very strong communicators or managers. If you want to take action, I could suggest from your example to re-organize the data in the way you think appropriate and review it with him. It may be 'weird' to have null columns, but perhaps it saves a lot of time or other advantage that you don't see. I would also challenge you to look at it as an opportunity to hone your own communication skills by having a technical discussion with a Senior leader as well as taking a look at a situation from another point of view. There are often many ways to do a task and each may have strengths. Good luck!

Anonymous · Answer

In general I would agree with you - but I don't think everyone agreeing with you will help your situation. Is there a specific issue you're dealing with where this lack of technical knowledge is causing an issue? Perhaps this way we could offer better advice.

Senior technical lead with limited technical skills

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