I will suppose you are a tech worker who enjoys your craft and wants to continuously grow your expertise. You are also interested in leadership. You recognize that it, not technical expertise, is the true "10X" productivity factor.
So, where do you start? Here are my tips to kick-starting your journey.
Tip 1: Develop Leadership
To grow in leadership you must understand it.
Imagine a design meeting with a team with diverse skill levels. A complex technical problem needs solving. Team members are throwing ideas on the table. One participant with a high managerial title proposes a solution, which garners the same response from the group as everyone else's ideas, a nod here or there. A senior engineer speaks, and the group somehow seems more attentive and responsive to what he said. Who is the leader here? The one people are listening to. The one with influence is the real leader.
Having a title is the lowest level of leadership. Don't worry about acquiring a title. Grow to be a leader regardless of your title.
In practice this means:
Show basic human care so that people like you. Ask someone how their day is going. Ask yourself, "Do the people I work with like me? Do I give them a reason to?"
Get things done and help others do the same. Demonstrate competence and excellence. Ask yourself, "If someone asked me to do something, could they trust that I'll take it from there and exceed their expectations?"
Communicate at a level preferred by your audience, not you. With a support person, be verbose and use analogies. With executives, get straight to the point. Ask yourself, "Are people happy with my verbal or written communications, or do they often to ask further questions?"
Listen to others and show understanding. When you disagree with someone, demonstrate you understand them before persuading them of anything. Often say, "so what I hear you saying is..." and summarize what you heard. Ask yourself, "When people disagree with me, does their tone get defensive? Does mine?"
Do these things consistently and people will respect you, trust you, and follow your lead.
Tip 2: Have a Growth Habit
If growth is not in your daily agenda, you will not grow much. To lead others you must lead yourself, and this is the first step.
To grow in leadership using the steps above, you need a personal productivity system. This is how your capacity for more can grow without increasing stress. I like Do More Better by Tim Challies, but if you prefer a book without religious overtones, try Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. Pick one of these up, follow it, then give no more excuses about missed messages or dropping the ball with important tasks.
To grow in your technical expertise, ensure there is time carved out for learning, daily. Every morning I receive tech news via email and RSS feed which keeps me abreast of my field. In my case that includes TechRader, InfoQ, TLDR, and GoWeekly. For you it may mean a course on Udemy, LinkedinLearning, or YouTube. Spend 15-30 minutes on it every day.
Better yet, make The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth your first learning stop. Do what it says and you will get into the habit of growth.
Tip 3: Learn to Prioritize
It is hard to overstate the importance of knowing what is important. Many things that feel urgent are not important. Many things that seem nice to do are not the most important. Technical people in particular can easily sink time into improvements or fixes that feel like excellent craft, but provide little business value. All of these are prioritization problems. To lead, you must be able to prioritize.
In practice this means:
Do an Eisenhower Matrix exercise with your tasks and responsibilities, and follow the guidelines on what to do with each quadrant.
Learn why your work is valuable. The priority of a task will become clear only if you develop the business acumen to tell what value it provides your team, your organization, or your customers. Ask, "Who will be affected if we don't do this? How much will it matter for them?" Be ruthless about cutting out things that aren't explicitly required of you and provide little value.
Remind yourself that your ultimate goal is not researching, designing, building, or testing things; it is adding value to your organization.
There is much more to be said about growing as a technical leader. But learning will do you no good unless there is action. Which tip will you act on today?