What Are the Key Skills I Need?
So, you are clear on your why – the fundamental reason you want to change your career – and you're now determined to become a manager. You may know exactly which type of manager you want to be, or equally, you may not. But don't worry! There's still time to develop that idea.
Before you can fully prepare yourself mentally, the next set of questions will rush into your head: What skills will I need, quickly followed by, Do I have them?
Just as in software development, there are no definitively right or wrong answers to these questions. It will be a process to figure out your own answers, and, as soon as you do, the situation will evolve. It's a never-ending cycle of discovery and re-discovery, which is very much a good thing. But to help you to make a start, here is my list of the top six key skills that I believe are most important for a manager:
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Communication, communication, communication
- Team leadership
- Stakeholder management
- Negotiation
- Using a chosen methodology
These six key skills will see you through nearly all the situations you're going to meet. They are also particularly useful for your Developer-to-Manager transition, and they've all been learned first-hand through my own experiences. I'm going to share them with you now in this chapter.