The Paradox of Scientific and Engineering Management

When I started my current job, it was literally just me. N of 1.

Five years later, there are 30 of us. Not huge, but fairly large for a “quasi-academic” group.

To go from 1 to 30 has been a huge adjustment for me, but also for everyone else in the group as well. When we were ~10 people, I was still into most of the details of our work. But, somewhere >15, it all got to be too much. Recognizing that I needed help, I set out on my own course of self-study. I read lots of management books. I took a great course on Management Essentials at Harvard Business School Online. I even got an “executive coach”. It all helped. A lot.

Having gone through all this, I wish I could offer some pithy pearls of wisdom. But, today, I just want to focus on the central paradox of scientific and engineering management: as scientists and software engineers, we are trained to go deep. We are then recognized for that deep expertise, and promoted into positions of management. But our very training and our very instinct to go deep sets us up to be poor managers.

I have seen this happen repeatedly across industry and academia. A stellar engineer gets promoted to manager, and can’t let go of their own code contributions. A renown scientist gets promoted to department chair, but wants to just focus on their research and not be bothered with the messiness of academic politics. In each case, an expert is recognized for his or her expertise, and then promoted into a position of authority. But, their continued instinct to go deep is not only not helpful, it actually sets them up to fail.

As scientists and engineers, we love the details. We love the little bits of code, and the little tweaks to algorithms. We love optimizing our work set up just so and being able to control our little corner of the world.

But, as a manager, you have to learn to zoom to just the right level of understanding and let go of the details. This is incredibly zen and incredibly hard. It also goes against all of your previous training. But, fundamentally, people don’t want to be micro-managed. They don’t want to be told what to do. They don’t want or need you to focus on the details. They want and need you to focus on the big picture. And, they want and need you to create a work environment where they can do their best work.

Scientific and engineering expertise is all about going deep. Management is all about people and trust. Understanding other people’s point of view. Zooming out and focusing on the big picture. Identifying new opportunities. Asking the right questions.

To be sure, scientific and technical management is not for everyone. And, many of you may decide that you want to stay in an individual contributor role. Better to recognize this in yourself.

But, if you do decide to take on scientific or technical management, the biggest battle will be with yourself.

Let go of your instincts to go deep. Learn to let go and focus on the big picture. Trust that others will be there to focus on the details.