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I've been a team lead for less than a year but it feels somewhat natural for me since I've handled leadership roles informally on projects in the past. The hardest thing is having to delegate when a fire's going on that you know how to fix but you have to stop trying to uh... "do work"

If you embrace that you're expected to be a force multiplier for the team, you have the right mentality. But being sensitive to what role you need to play is critical. Sometimes you need to be a tie-breaker on a heated argument on a framework decision (lead by wisdom / deference to your respected authority), perhaps people are in despair and they just need someone that puts everyone at ease that something's being done right and you should just step in and write a reference implementation (lead by example).

One thing I would add is that you should find out if there's a program / product manager present and ask to interview with that person if you haven't. If there's no such role, you will have to pull triple duty as a product / program manager potentially by making a lot of strategic decisions probably. At that level, you might as well be considered a CTO though rather than a technical middle manager basically.




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