How I can switch from technical background to techmanagement or leadership? Please share your thoughts.

Hi Shailee,

Leadership role requires spending more effort on coaching people and supporting them, removing roadblocks, setting goals that produce positive change - all of this requires conscious practice and is a much more interpersonal role than a technical one. In most cases, leaders are hired for their personalities, their achievements, the way they present themselves, and their thinking patterns - not necessarily for their certificates or background.

The best advice I can give is to start where you currently are and build from there. It's much more sustainable to grow into a leadership/management position instead of looking to get accepted for one. This approach will include developing the necessary skills & mindset and actively practicing being a leader already now. Taking ownership of what you're currently doing as if you're already in charge, speaking up, proposing and driving initiatives, networking with people, and finding possibilities for improvements.

A great way to speed up the process would be to find someone who already went from a technical background into a leadership role and ask him to mentor you. Find what's similar between you, what you're missing (skills, capabilities, network, etc.), and make a plan on how to develop what's missing.

As long as you put your heart and soul into it and have a plan, you'll get there. Best of luck!