People of devRant. I am in need of some advice.

So I joined this new firm around an year ago and ever since my team lead resigned, we have been managing it ourselves. Then a senior member suggested me that I could be a good fit as a team lead role. Now there are members in my team that are more experienced than I am but they either don't want to lead or are not good at it. I never had a formal leadership role before although I have driven projects. Higher management is open overlook my lack of experience but has also said that I may not find lot of technical growth as I am moving to a more administrative role. Any piece of advice on what I should do? I would love to have a leadership role but would it really affect my technical learning?

Being a leader does not mean more seniority. It helps to have more experience though.

Being a leader means you're taking point on the hard tasks and making sure that everything gets done, from a to z.

Think of it like a hotel concierge. You maintain order in front of house, ensure that the customers are getting their needs met, and covering for the hotel when someone fucked up.

It's not an easy role to fill, and there's little to no benefit to taking it on unless you actually enjoy helping your team members succeed in their careers.

I've been in a leadership role for several years. It's thankless, grueling, long hours, and it wears on you.

My advice; know your limits, set achievable expectations, verbosely communicate with your team, communicate with leadership when and how they want.

Thanks @sariel that was a great analogy I understand the role and responsibilities. But what does it do to you personally? I would like to know if you or some one you know had this transition and what were their first "side effects"

Which responsibilities does TeamLead mean at your company?
For my company a TeamLead handles salaries and team activities etc - which means any dev attempting it will quickly find out its almost a full time HR job
(as opposed to what we would call Tech Lead which would be more like an architect and backlog planner - possible to combine with dev work)

@jiraTicket it's still a technical role but involves people management. Does not involve payroll or hiring

Ok. Not that bad then. Buuut as long as it involves people a management I'd be wary.
We had a dev who was assigned to do people management part-time. As the team suddenly grew quickly he found himself barely having time to code.

@guiltyspark it's a technical role "for now".

If you want to stay technical, I would recommend staying technical. Don't take a leadership role unless you want to make changes to how your team functions or is managed.

When I took my leadership role it was also still heavily technical. Within a year that changed. I was not only lead, but also the pipeline manager, code reviewer, and scrum master. There were a dozen other roles I played. Cutting to the chase, becoming lead hurt my career because I never wanted to do half the things I had to do.

I wanted to lead, but in my company at the time it was very difficult to lead the way I needed to lead.

You should also consider if it comes with payrise. I suggest you to write down pros and cons. It may help you decide

Make a compromise. Say you will try it for a few months.

@hack pay raises are temporary if you're going to hate the role.

Don't do it for the money, do it because you actually want to do it.

You can only be truly successful if you are passionate and dedicated to your role.

Financial success is fleeting.

Thanks guys :)

if you want to adopt that management-role, but don't feel competent enough yet: ask your company for training. they should happily provide it, if they know what's good.

if you don't want that role, but stick to coding: tell your company. tell them "no" to the team leader position. don't let them force you into something you don't want to do. don't fall prey to the peter principle.

People of DevRant sounds awesome, as if we are part of a noble Republic.
Can I borrow it for my next formal address?

On topic: good luck!

Take it. Try it for a year. Then reconsider if you still want to do it. It will look good on your resume. That's about it. You also may learn interpersonal skills like how your current team treats you like shit after you become their leader after they didn't want the job, and how you deal with it.