01: Why you’re better off being an individual contributor

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Choosing between being an individual contributor or a manager

It’s a common dilemma across all fields: the top contributors are most likely to get promoted to a management position. The issue is that not all contributors make good managers, while almost all managers need to have some subject matter expertise acquired through being an individual contributor. 

In this episode, Jon and Phil break down the differences between each career track and make a case that most people would be happier as an individual contributor. 

Will you be happier as an individual contributor?

Most people will be happier as an individual contributor. Everyone is different, but many individual contributors seek management roles because it’s perceived as the only path to promotion within an organization.

This is a dilemma faced by many individuals across different types of roles: the top individual contributor is flagged as for promotion to management. But the skill of managing people is quite different from being a great contributor. The other question is will contributors be happy spending their time managing people?

Think about it: if what you love about martech is figuring out how to set up automation, workflows, testing new tools, working with teams to solve problems, and getting your hands dirty, the shift to management is going to draw a stark contrast. Managers in martech, like Directors of Marketing Operations, are responsible for their team, the strategy, and overseeing all those moving parts. 

The skills required to be excellent at marketing operations are different from being great at management. One could make the argument that you could be excellent at management without actually being a great contributor. Just consider one skill all managers need: emotional intelligence. 

People issues arise all the time in management and require a thoughtful, considerate manager to resolve. Understanding team chemistry and paying close attention to the needs of individual team members is critical, but a skill many of us need to cultivate. Consider the quiet team member who struggles in silence with the team dynamics, maybe never feeling the opportunity or encouragement to bring their ideas up in team meetings. Then, one day, they leave the team because they found a better opportunity. 

Benefits of being an individual contributor

Being an individual contributor can be a fulfilling and rewarding career choice. Here’s why individual contributors love their work:

• Deep work and flow state
• Time management
• Specialization and be true experts
• Autonomy in daily tasks
• Aligned with strength and interests

Deep work and flow state

For individual contributors it’s possible to achieve that zen-like state of flow where time flies by as you just enjoy completing your work. For creators, this might be writing a blog post or designing an image; for marketing ops folks, it may be designing workflows, setting up automation, or auditing a system. 

Hitting this state as a manager is nearly impossible with a need for managing team members, triaging requests, and communicating across multiple channels. The dream of turning off Slack and checking out of email seems like a distant one when you’re in management. Managers face continuous waves of interruptions that drown any chances of deep work.

But for individual contributors, this heightened state of focus isn’t the ideal, it’s the norm. 

Time management

As a manager, your calendar is a wall of one-on-ones, team meetings, strategy meetings with leadership, and ad-hoc-have-to-meet-now meetings. If this sounds like hell, well, this is a taste of a manager’s life. Entire books have been written about making meetings less hellish, such as one of our favorites “Death by Meeting“.

While it’s commendable to make the most of meetings and we’re not going to deny how important they are to business, the best way to avoid meeting hell is to not have any meetings. It’s not avoidance; it’s focus. Individual contributors need time to work on their projects and deliverables. Meetings where individual contributors are involved should be quick, painless, and to the point. 

A common complaint of managers is the desire to get back to doing what they love doing.

Specialization and mastery

To get that first promotion to management, most marketers need to demonstrate some skills and chops. Being a Director of Marketing Operations, for example, would be a tough job if you’d never managed a marketing automation instance before. But over time, your skills as a marketing ops contributor are less important than enabling members on your team to flourish and become experts.

Managers begin to lose that “edge” that made them so easy to promote in the first place. They spend less time in the tools and more time directing strategy. And, let’s be clear: this role is extremely important and valuable. That’s not what we’re saying.

But for individual contributors considering management, they need to understand that the opportunities to become deep experts in their field diminish in proportion to their managerial responsibilities. If what motivates you in your career is to be an expert, then managing may not be the best option.

Autonomy in daily tasks

Being an expert in your craft comes with respect from your team which allows you to operate with a higher degree of autonomy than a manager. An SEO with technical knowledge or a marketing operations pro with deep platform knowledge should be given the ability to do their thing. Managers, however, are responsible for a wide range of responsibilities, tasks, and other human beings.

Autonomy is closely linked to job satisfaction and this is the operating model for most individual contributors, especially as you deepen your expertise in your chosen field. It’s not to say as an individual contributor you won’t be told what to do or have your priorities influenced by a manager; it’s the “how” you accomplish your work that gives autonomy.

Aligned with strength and interests

Do what you love. It’s an ideal that sounds like advice from your mom… but it’s true. When you are passionate about your work (or at the least enjoy it), then it’s easier to show up. Part of enjoying your job is being good at it. This may seem obvious, but it’s quite possible to enjoy something you aren’t good at. 

At work, aligning your strengths with your interests is a recipe for success. It’s a positive feedback loop where you will take initiative to deepen your expertise, experience greater autonomy, and command a higher salary.

People management is a challenging job

It’s a neat little story: graduate university, do a tour of duty as a marketing specialist, and then move into a management role. From there, who knows? VP of Marketing? CMO? 

The narrative is attractive partly because it’s the path we’ve been conditioned to associate with career success. If you don’t manage other people, are you still successful? We’ll get to that in the next section, but for now, let’s think about the challenges of people managing.

First, humans are dynamic, complex, and emotional. Every human is unique and will respond to your management style differently. Even the best managers will face challenges due to personality differences. This is where a practice like that outlined in Radical Candor is valuable: develop deep relationships with your team, and earn the right to be candid.

Something that you might not hear about managing other people: it’s draining. Emotional labor is real, and its effect on the joy you take in your job is real – in fact, studies suggest this impacts women disproportionately compared to men.

Another hard truth: not everyone will be happier being managed by you. We’ve all experienced or seen a new manager on a power trip – exercising their “hard” power to demonstrate their superior position on the corporate ladder. 

From the experts: Career growth as an individual contributor

Growing your career as an individual contributor should be as lucrative, prestigious, and rewarding as the management path. That’s not always the case, as some organizations are still updating their programming when it comes to recognizing the value of individual contributors, while smaller organizations may not be able to support a senior individual contributor.

This is a topic that comes up frequently with our guests. Let’s take a look at what experts have to say about this topic.

Can individual contributors advance their careers without managing people?

In our episode with MOPs leader Darrell Alfonso, we touch on the topic of individual contributors. The truth we acknowledge is that it can be more challenging to advance your career within an organization if you follow the individual contributor path. However, Darrel advocates that the marketing industry needs to broaden its approach to career growth and make a viable path for individual contributors. 

Quote from Darrell
“I do hope that we get to a place where companies chart the course of an individual contributor much better. I think that today at some of the large tech companies they do it pretty well for engineers and product managers. You can have very high levels of individual contributors that are very respected throughout the organization. I’m talking about Principal Engineer, Principal, product manager, and Distinguished Engineer. And not only does the person merit titles like this, but it’s highly respected within the company and the pay is high too.”

Should I stay an individual contributor?

The answers about staying an individual contributor or becoming a people manager is a personal one. In our interview with Tara Robertson, she touches on a few points:

• Financial motivation
• Hands-on work
• Creativity
• Continuous learning

Tara makes another point: titles and job descriptions can be fluid. It may be possible to try out the manager route and then go back to an individual contributor role. Regardless, it’s crucial to consider your personal motivations. 

Quote from Tara
“It comes down to what motivates you. If monetary is what you care about, then going the people manager route is probably the quickest way to do that honestly. But if you want to be learning new things and actually creating and doing things yourself, being creative and marketing, I personally would say to think the individual contributor route is better.”

Can an individual contributor still be a leader?

There’s a big misconception out there that individual contributors can’t also be leaders. This is far from the truth but it does require us to think differently about leadership. Do you need to manage other people to be a leader? Does approving holidays or doing annual performance reviews make you a leader?

In our episode with Sara McNamara, we touch on the importance of team dynamics. Individual contributors, while autonomous and independent to some extent, still contribute to team dynamics. Teams that look out for each other and foster a culture of trust make the workplace an enjoyable, safe space to practice your craft. Individual contributors play an important role in team dynamics.

Quote from Sara
“As a leader, a lot of that is like we call it wearing a flak jacket. So it’s like all the chaos is happening. People are throwing everything and screaming but it’s like you kind of are just over the team like gonna be okay, everybody, like just trying to save them from the noise of it all.”

How to choose between being an individual contributor or manager?

The answer to this question is personal. Currently, in today’s marketing industry, the opportunity to earn a higher salary and a better title likely means going the people management route. But the gap between individual contributors and people managers is closing, and for specialists and experts there are great opportunities for career advancement.

People who prefer deep work, continuous learning in the area of expertise, and autonomy will likely find greater fulfillment as an individual contributor.

There is a call to action here: for the industry as a whole to recognize the value of individual contributors and improve this career path. For many expert-level individual contributors, the most viable career path is to become a consultant at a consulting firm or to start freelancing. Having in-house experts, however, is incredibly valuable and a competitive advantage, in our opinion. 

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