Emerging Leaders: How long should an aspiring leader stay in the trenches

A software engineer with less than two years of professional experience recently asked me a very timely question: 'My biggest question is about the dividing line between rising into a formal leadership position and ‘staying in the trenches' long enough to gain sufficient credibility, particularly in a technical field.”

My advice to this young engineer and to anyone else who aspires to rise through the leadership ranks is that making the leap from 'doing” to leading can be one of the most challenging transitions in a person's career. So it's good to plan ahead for that transition, even in the early stages of your career.

I know many leaders through my work, and while some made the leap into a pure leadership role early in their career, there are others that waited much longer, grounding themselves in the hands-on work of being an expert before beginning their first forays into formal leadership.

There's no hard and fast rule, but I do have a few observations to share that might help you on your own career journey:

1. Become a thought leader

There is never a wrong time to develop expertise in your field. I would recommend that spending at least a few early career years developing deep expertise in individual contributor roles.

If you demonstrate thought leadership in your professional area, it will help you to earn the future respect of those you lead.

2. Broaden your exposure

With your technical expertise established, consider spending some time in project management, program management or technical sales roles as well. These are great roles for learning and practicing the critical leadership skills of 'influencing without authority.”

What's more, seeing the bigger picture of how your technical expertise fits and contributes to your business' overall strategy - and success - will never go to waste.

Finally, you'll be able act as a communication bridge between the different departments such as engineering, program management and sales, who don't always see eye to eye, but need to function together as a unit. This broadened exposure will make you more valuable, and stand you in good stead when it finally comes time to own your own leadership style from a broader base of skill sets.

3. Don't stay too long in the trenches

A word of caution: Beware of staying too long in the trenches.

While it may sound counterintuitive to suggest that being highly valued in an entry-level position can actually hurt your career, it can become hard to unlearn the just-do-it mentality that goes with being a high-performing individual contributor.

If you ultimately get so entrenched in doing the work yourself, it can be difficult to step away from doing the work to actually leading it.

The Take-away

To summarize, I would recommend you give yourself a few more years in the hands-on technical phase of your career but also have a long-term strategy to broaden your career path before you make the leap into leadership.

In closing, Tara Jaye Frank, who rose through the ranks at Hallmark Cards Inc. and now is a vice president, says, 'Don't wait for positional authority. If you lead from where you are, with everything you've got, the authority will come …

position or no position.”

' Jo Miller is a founding editor of BeLeaderly.com and CEO of Women's Leadership Coaching Inc.; @jo_miller