# Middle management roles are also a trap.

DevFeed: [Middle management roles are also a trap.](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/middle-management-roles-are-also-a-trap-35688.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://lethain.com/middle-management-roles-were-also-a-trap/>)

Published: 2026-08-08T14:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Will Larson - Irrational Exuberance](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/will-larson-irrational-exuberance.md>)

Topics: [Tech Lead](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/tech-lead.md>), [engineering-culture](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/engineering-culture.md>), [Software Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-engineering.md>)

Tags: [engineering-management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering-management.md>), [organizational-culture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/organizational-culture.md>), [software-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software-engineering.md>), [tech-lead](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tech-lead.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that middle-management roles can be a poor path to becoming an executive. Although these roles develop skills such as stakeholder balancing, process design, and resource allocation, the author says line-management roles provide better opportunities to develop domain expertise, execution, and organizational culture.

## Source excerpt

Six years ago, I wrote Tech Lead Management roles are a trap. My argument then was that TLM roles present themselves as easier than moving into a full management role, but the tension between doing the software engineering and engineering management aspects of the role made being a TLM a much harder first management role than a pure engineering management role. I still agree with that post, and I have some additional bad news to share: middle management roles are mostly a trap as well, if you goal is to become an executive. The core aspects of middle management roles are: Balancing between top-down executive, lateral stakeholder, and bottom-up team pressure, e.g. keeping morale up as an organization deprioritizes last year's big initiative Defining and operating an organization's process, e.g. creating career ladders and interview loops Competing for a share of fixed organizational resources (e.g. budget) and allocating acquired resources These are all extremely important skills to be an effective executive, and they make up the bulk of The Engineering Executive's Primer, but they are insufficient to make you a great executive. If you don't have them, you will be a deeply flawed executive, but even if you're an expert at them, you can still be a terrible executive. That's because the most important skills of an effective executive are the same exact skills that make an excellent line manager: developing domain expertise, driving execution (including setting pace), and translating both of those into an organizational culture that extends beyond you (in any of innumerable different ways). All of them are more easily practiced and mastered as a line manager than as a middle manager. Most middle management roles make practicing those skills difficult, and sometimes negatively select against developing them. As a middle manager, if you drive execution too closely, you might get told off as a micromanager. As a middle manager, if you go too deep on domain expertise, you m