INSIGHTS

Stop. Before you say yes to that management promotion, read this.

Most people move into management for two reasons:
1. The money
2. They think it's the only way to grow their career

Both will make you miserable if they're your primary motivation.

Here's what nobody tells you about the psychology of leading people vs. doing the work yourself:
→ As an individual contributor, your self-value comes from completion. You finish a project, solve a problem, and you feel that hit of dopamine. Your value is in your wins.
→ As a people leader, your wins are the team's wins. Your job is no longer to be the smartest person in the room, it's to make everyone else smarter. Your value is in helping others grow.

That's a fundamentally different psychological contract, and not everyone is wired for it.

Now, I'll be honest, the pay gap between individual contributor and management salary bands is real. The career ladder is also shorter for individual contributors. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

But here's wha...