The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change

by Camille Fournier

In the long run, if you don’t figure out how to let go of details, delegate, and trust your team, you’re likely to suffer personally. Even if your team doesn’t quit, you’ll end up working longer and longer hours as your responsibilities increase. If you’re already in this situation, try limiting the hours you’ll let yourself work in a week. If you were only allowed to work 45 hours this week, what would you do with those 45 hours? Would you really spend five of them nitpicking a junior developer’s code? Would you pore over the details of some project that is going smoothly, searching for any minor error? Or would you direct your attention to bigger problems? Would you take some of those hours to focus on the future instead of the details of the current moment? Your time is too valuable to waste, and your team deserves a manager who is willing to trust them to do things on their own.