This is a good article. I've been through something very similar myself. I spent about 5 years as a manager, and I don't really want to do "spreadsheet" management again. I want to own my project, and I don't mind being the lead with a small team, but I never want to be the "status updater" again.
This reminds me of a phrase that irritates the $^%^ out of me - "Better a good programmer than a bad manager." Of course, it's true - better a good anything than a bady anything, right? But here are the two phrases that nobody seems to say...
"Better a good manager than a bad programmer".
and finally...
"Better a good manager than a good programmer?" or is it "better a good programmer than a good manager?"
In many organizations, I'm convinced that the second is true. Bad managers do have the ability to ruin a team, and so you need to make sure that you have a decent level of talent there. But for a lot of companies, especially small ones working on innovative things (read: startups), the top techincal talent is vastly more important.
In other words, if you have someone who could be a great technical contributor and a great technical manager, you're better off with the technical contributions.
This reminds me of a phrase that irritates the $^%^ out of me - "Better a good programmer than a bad manager." Of course, it's true - better a good anything than a bady anything, right? But here are the two phrases that nobody seems to say...
"Better a good manager than a bad programmer".
and finally...
"Better a good manager than a good programmer?" or is it "better a good programmer than a good manager?"
In many organizations, I'm convinced that the second is true. Bad managers do have the ability to ruin a team, and so you need to make sure that you have a decent level of talent there. But for a lot of companies, especially small ones working on innovative things (read: startups), the top techincal talent is vastly more important.
In other words, if you have someone who could be a great technical contributor and a great technical manager, you're better off with the technical contributions.