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Transitioning from Technical Expert to Project Leader: What Helped You the Most? Ashwin Kumar H M Community Champion Consultant| Canarys Automation Ltd Bangalore, Karnataka, India I started my career as a Developer 22 years ago. Early on, I realized that simply learning new technologies wasn’t enough—what truly made a difference was understanding how to use those technologies to enhance processes and deliver real value. I focused on learning the fundamentals of development, the underlying logic, and how to apply tech meaningfully to business needs. This mindset helped me grow into leadership roles over the years. For those of you who made a similar transition from a technical role to a project leadership position:     What lessons or mindset shifts helped you the most?     What would you advise someone who is currently going through this shift? Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 13, 2025 9:50 AM

Sort By: Newest First Chronological Votes Laura Schofield PMI Team Member Online Community Specialist| Project Management Institute Newtown Square, PA, United States Hi Ashwin, thanks for raising this topic, it's really interesting! Over the years, there has been a lot of discussion in the ProjectManagement.com forums regarding technical expertise and project management and different ways community members have leveraged technical expertise. I'm including some of those threads here in case you should find them interesting: https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi...ertise-for-pms- https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi...roject-manager- https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi...ject-management https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi...project-manager https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi...-is-this-right- Looking forward to hearing community members' experiences in making the transition from technical expert to project manager! Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 15, 2025 4:16 PM Pavan Maddi Community Champion Buona Vista, Singapore Ashwin Kumar H M Great topic! For me, the biggest shift was learning to delegate and focus on the bigger picture. As a techie, I loved solving problems myself but as a leader, I had to empower the team instead. Clear communication, emotional intelligence, and stakeholder management became just as important as technical skills. Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 20, 2025 9:24 AM Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal Excellent reflection — thank you for sharing! In my case, the journey was a bit different: I have an engineering background, but I started directly in project management. My technical education gave me a strong foundation in logical reasoning and structured thinking. However, I quickly realized that succeeding in project leadership requires much more than technical knowledge — it’s about people, purpose, and delivering real value. What helped me most along the way was developing a set of leadership habits, strongly inspired by The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Here are a few I consider essential for those transitioning from technical expert to project leader: Be proactive – take ownership of your own development and of project situations. Begin with the end in mind – align the team’s work with value delivery. Put first things first – manage priorities, not just tasks. Think win-win – foster collaboration with a focus on sustainable solutions. Seek first to understand, then to be understood – this is where active listening comes in, essential for building trust. Synergize – value the team’s diversity and co-create better solutions. Sharpen the saw – continuously invest in technical, emotional, and relational growth. To those going through this transition, I’d say: leadership is a personal growth journey. Technical expertise opens doors, but it’s the ability to influence, inspire, and serve that truly defines a project leader. Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 20, 2025 11:39 AM

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