[bleakenthusiasm]

I feel like this is exactly what I'd be getting into if I had heeded the recent call at work to step up taking over the lead for my team. And there is one important factor in your answer that differs from most others here: You feel like any growth or progress someone else is making is coming purely from their own work and drive.

I fully expect myself to do the same when managing people. But most answers here are different. They take pride and claim part of the success as theirs and looking at this from the IC's perspective, I don't disagree.

Sure, there are people who go at this from a "you'd be nothing without me"-approach and that's not good either. But as manager of a team you can do a good and a bad job and good managers are so important for the team.

You should learn to see your part in the team's success and your role in helping someone grow. I'm not sure how you change your mindset on this, but I think if you want to stick to management, that's your only way to make it work.

And again - as an IC I believe it is justified. I've worked under good and bad managers and bad managers can ruin the job for the entire team while good managers don't just help you be more productive. They help you grow as a person and as a contributor and they enable the team to work on things that make an impact instead of burning up their energy with the thing that looks most fancy to leadership.

I'm not sure if this is something everyone can get accustomed to see, but it is something that I see in some managers and I hope they can get their endorphins from it.

[rebeccaskinner]

Logically I know you are right, the problem is feeling it. I do think I’ll get there in time. I doubt I’ll ever get the same rush I got from writing code, but hopefully I think I’ll find satisfaction at least.