[ashtonkem]

As a manager, it’s your job to grow your directs until they’re ready for a promotion. It’s also your job to make sure that they want whatever that promotion entails. Typically speaking the crossover from IC to management is a pretty common trouble point for engineers, and you should make sure that nobody gets put into management who doesn’t want to go there. You’d also be surprised about the number of engineers that are actually interested in leadership too, fwiw.

As a manager myself, I actually keep a private sheet of the internal career ladder and progress for each of my directs, with notes and an unambiguous “meets expectations, exceeds expectations, or needs improvement” across each category that company has set for their role. This helps me keep my feedback to them consistent, clear, and focused.