---
title: "Should I Become a Team Lead? Readiness Test | Marian Kamenistak"
description: "Free team lead readiness test: 17 questions, a straight verdict of ready now, 6 to 12 months out, or stay IC, plus your top 2 gaps and one concrete move for each. By mentor Marian Kamenistak."
url: "https://www.marian.coach/team-lead-readiness-test/"
lang: "en"
image: "https://www.marian.coach/_astro/speaker-02.DbZYLJRL_1YAMjk.jpg"
---

# Should I become a team lead?

17 questions, 3 minutes. Verdict: ready now, 6 to 12 months out, or stay IC. Plus your top 2 gaps and one concrete move for each.

Built from 3,400+ mentoring sessions since 2019. 52% of the leaders I mentor started exactly here: first lead role, promoted for engineering skill, left alone with the people part.

0/17

Answer all 17 to get your verdict

People appetiteLetting go of codeOwnership beyond your ticketsTranslation & saying noWhy you want thisOrg reality

People appetite

Do 1:1s, feedback, and conflict give you energy or drain it?

Monday morning, your calendar shows four 1:1s this week. Honest reaction:

Looking forward to at least two of themFine. Useful, not the highlightI would reschedule half if I couldQuiet dread. Four hours gone

A teammate’s work has been slipping for three weeks. What have you done about it?

Talked to them about it directlyHelped with tickets, dropped hintsMentioned it to my managerNothing. Not my call

Two engineers on your team disagree hard about an approach and the thread is turning sour. You:

Get them in a room, make the disagreement explicit, drive to a decisionNudge one of them privately toward a compromiseWait. These things usually settleMute the thread

Letting go of code

Coding drops to ~50% with the title, then keeps dropping.

Your coding time drops to 50% next quarter. In a year, maybe 20%. How does that read?

A fair trade for a bigger leverAcceptable, if the leadership work is realUncomfortable. Code is my identityDealbreaker

The hardest ticket of the sprint comes up. As a lead, you would:

Take it. I’m fastest and the deadline is realGive it to the engineer who grows most from it, stay closePair on it, then hand it overTake it, and the next one. Hard tickets are my thing

One hour left today. A full review queue, and a growth conversation a teammate asked for. You pick:

The conversation. Reviews can wait a daySplit the hour, do both badly but visiblyReviews. Blocked PRs cost the whole teamReviews, and quietly hope they forget the conversation

Ownership beyond your tickets

Doing parts of the job before the title.

Who ran your team’s last sprint planning?

Me, mostly. It drifted to me and I kept itI run parts of it when askedI speak up on my own ticketsI sit, estimate, and wait for it to end

A dependency on another team is about to slip your release. You:

Already talked to their lead before it became a fireFlag it loudly in the channelTell my manager. Cross-team is their jobMy tickets are on track, so not my problem

The most junior person on your team. What is your actual relationship?

I mentor them. Pairing, feedback, their growth is partly my problemI answer their questions when they comeI review their PRsWe share a standup

Translation & saying no

Tech decisions explained to non-engineers. Boundaries held.

Your PM asks why the migration takes three weeks, not three days. You:

Translate it into risk and money. They get it in five minutesExplain it technically. They mostly trust meSay “it’s complicated” and link the epicGet annoyed. If they can’t read code, that’s their gap

A stakeholder asks for “one small extra thing” mid-sprint. You:

Say yes and quietly absorb it in eveningsSay no with an alternative: next sprint, or swap something outEscalate to my manager to say no for meSay yes and let the sprint slip

Explaining a technical decision to sales, support, or the CEO usually goes:

I adjust the altitude. They leave with the right takeawayFine, with prep and slidesI over-explain and lose themI avoid those rooms

Why you want this

Service and impact age well. Salary-only does not.

Be honest. The biggest pull toward the lead role is:

The salary bump and the titleLately I care about the team doing well more than my own ticketsA bigger lever on what gets built and howIt feels like the expected next step at my tenure

A teammate you helped grow ships something great and gets the public praise. You feel:

Genuinely great. Their win is partly the pointHappy, plus a small sting of “that used to be me”Mostly the stingWhy would I grow my own competition?

If leading paid the same as your senior IC path for the next two years, would you still want it?

Yes. The work is the point, not the bumpProbably, if the growth comes laterHmm. That changes thingsNo. The money was the point

Org reality

A readiness verdict needs a seat to be ready for.

Is there an actual team lead opening in reach?

Yes. My team needs a lead, or one opens within monthsLikely. The org is growing and my manager has hintedUnclear. Leads exist here, no opening in sightNo. Flat org, the role does not exist here

Does your manager know you want this?

Yes, we talked about it, there is a planThey know. No plan yetI never said it out loudMy manager barely runs their own 1:1s

Your verdict

Your top 2 gaps

Get my readiness report as PDF

Want a second opinion on the verdict? The intro session is free: [book 30 minutes](https://www.marian.coach/meet).

## What this test measures, and what it does not

This is a fork-in-the-road test, not a salary calculator. It measures the six things that decide whether the move from engineer to team lead works: appetite for people work, letting go of code, ownership beyond your own tickets, translating tech decisions to non-engineers, your real motivation, and whether your org has a seat for you at all. If you want the money answer instead, that is the [EM salary calculator](https://www.marian.coach/engineering-manager-salary-calculator/).

One position baked into the scoring, so you can disagree with it consciously: "stay IC" is a legitimate verdict, not a consolation prize. The staff engineer track multiplies through influence instead of authority, and it pays. The verdict logic treats salary-only motivation as a signal to stay IC, because a lead role taken for the bump alone hurts the lead and the team.

The role itself, and how it differs from tech lead and engineering manager, is covered in the [team lead role guide](https://www.marian.coach/team-lead-role-vs-tech-lead-vs-engineering-manager/). The full reasoning behind the six dimensions is in [should I become a team lead](https://www.marian.coach/blog/should-i-become-a-team-lead/).

## How the verdict is computed

Each of the six dimensions scores 0 to 10 from its own questions. The five core dimensions, everything except org reality, average into a core score. Core 7.0 or higher with an org score of at least 5 reads ready now; core 7.0 or higher without a visible seat, or core between 4.5 and 7.0, reads 6 to 12 months out; core under 4.5 reads stay IC. One override sits on top: motivation at 3 or lower combined with people appetite at 4 or lower reads stay IC no matter what the rest says, because a lead role taken for the salary bump alone hurts the lead and the team. Published so you can check the verdict instead of trusting a black box.

## FAQ

Should I become a team lead?+

Only if the people work gives you something back. The test measures six things: appetite for 1:1s and conflict, letting go of code, ownership beyond your own tickets, translating tech to non-engineers, your real motivation, and whether an opening exists at all. If the honest answer to "why" is only salary and title, stay IC. The senior IC track pays too, without the meetings.

Am I ready to be a team lead?+

You’re closer than the missing title suggests if you already run planning, unblock teammates and mentor juniors. That’s the pattern: do parts of the job first, then make the ask explicit. 52% of the leaders I mentor started in exactly that position.

Is staying a senior engineer instead of becoming a team lead a failure?+

No, it’s a track choice rather than a demotion. Staff and principal engineers multiply through influence instead of authority and the pay ceiling is comparable. The outcome worth avoiding isn’t staying IC, it’s running a team you never wanted.

What is the difference between a team lead and an engineering manager?+

A team lead usually keeps about half their time in code and carries a lighter people load. An engineering manager owns performance, careers, hiring, and delivery, with little or no coding time. The EM step is where the switch becomes permanent; the team lead step is where you find out if you want it.

How do I prepare for a team lead role in 6 to 12 months?+

Close specific gaps: run the next sprint planning end to end, mentor the most junior person on the team, have one honest feedback conversation you have been postponing, and tell your manager you want the lead path. The test names your two weakest dimensions so you know where to start.

MCP · Claude skill

## This tool runs inside your agent too.

Point Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client at `www.marian.coach/mcp` and your agent calls `assess_team_lead_readiness` directly. Same math, no key, no signup.

Prefer a skill? [team-lead-readiness](https://github.com/marian-kamenistak/team-lead-readiness) installs straight from GitHub.

[Setup for Claude Code, Cursor, and Claude Desktop →](https://www.marian.coach/ai-coaching-tools/#mcp)

1:1 mentoring

## Want my read on your result?

The tool gives you the number. What to do with it is the real work. I mentor engineering leaders 1:1 — 3,400+ sessions with 300+ leaders — and the first 30 minutes are free.

[Book a free video intro →](https://www.marian.coach/meet)

### Not ready for a call? Get pinged when a slot opens.

Mentoring slots free up every few weeks. Leave your email and you get one message from me when the next one opens.

Your emailPing me when a slot opens →

Not sure yet? [Build the inquiry with my AI first](https://www.marian.coach/mentoring-chat/). Under 16 minutes, no email needed until the end, and the pack comes out at €2,166 instead of €2,580.

One email from Marian. No newsletter, no sales sequence. See our privacy policy.

You're on the list.

One email from marian@marian.coach when the next slot opens. In the meantime, let's connect on LinkedIn.

[Connect on LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariankamenistak/)[See the free tools →](https://www.marian.coach/ai-coaching-tools/)

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