I think the first thing you need to recognize when you become a manager is that making your technical underlings look good makes you look good. I mean, as a manager, nobody expects you to get things done yourself; your job is to find good people, keep them, and motivate them to do the things that need to get done. Especially if your tech is in the room, publicly give your tech credit for getting it done. Nobody sane is going to fire the manager with a bunch of high-performing underlings in favor of the manager who has a bunch of mediocre dullards.
the thing is, the manager and the (good) tech are only very rarely in competition for the same promotions. Technical folks, generally speaking, move into management after they've gone as far as they think they can go as technical people.
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I think the first thing you need to recognize when you become a manager is that making your technical underlings look good makes you look good. I mean, as a manager, nobody expects you to get things done yourself; your job is to find good people, keep them, and motivate them to do the things that need to get done. Especially if your tech is in the room, publicly give your tech credit for getting it done. Nobody sane is going to fire the manager with a bunch of high-performing underlings in favor of the manager who has a bunch of mediocre dullards.
the thing is, the manager and the (good) tech are only very rarely in competition for the same promotions. Technical folks, generally speaking, move into management after they've gone as far as they think they can go as technical people.