Someone recently shared an article with me about something called “being glue”; work that holds teams together but often goes unrecognised in traditional promotion frameworks. As I read through it, I found myself reflecting on my own journey from developer to technical leader, wondering whether this concept had shaped my career more than I’d realised.
The article hit differently than I expected. Not because it was a revelation, but because it crystallised something I’d been wrestling with throughout my career progression. The invisible work that makes teams successful, the conversations that prevent disasters, the strategic thinking that shapes direction; this “glue work” isn’t necessarily a career limitation. In the current software development landscape, it might be the most valuable skill you can develop.
Table of contents
Open Table of contents
- Understanding the glue phenomenon
- The modern reality of technical leadership
- When being glue becomes strategic positioning
- The UK context: leadership in the modern era
- Reframing the narrative: from invisible to indispensable
- The intentional glue strategy
- Building organisational recognition
- When to stay glue, when to step back
- The future of glue work
Understanding the glue phenomenon
Tanya Reilly’s seminal article on “being glue” describes the essential but often invisible work that makes software teams function. It’s the engineer who notices when junior developers are struggling and creates mentorship programs. The person who spots misaligned objectives between teams and facilitates crucial conversations. The individual who reviews design documents and asks the awkward questions that prevent architectural disasters.
In my own journey from software developer to Head of Software Development, I’ve lived this reality. Early in my career, I found myself naturally gravitating towards these coordination activities. While my peers focused purely on code delivery, I was the one documenting processes, onboarding new team members, being the technical resource for most if not all presales activities with clients and bridging communication gaps between technical and business stakeholders.
The traditional narrative suggests this work is career-limiting; that you become seen as “not technical enough” despite doing work that requires deep technical understanding to execute effectively. But what if we’ve been thinking about this backwards?
The modern reality of technical leadership
The software development landscape is fundamentally different from when many of our promotion frameworks were established. We’re operating in an era of:
- Distributed, remote-first teams requiring intentional coordination
- Complex microservice architectures demanding systems thinking
- AI-augmented development where human judgement becomes more valuable
- Rapid technological change requiring continuous learning facilitation
- Cross-functional product teams needing translation between disciplines
In this environment, the ability to see the big picture, facilitate alignment, and ensure knowledge flows effectively isn’t ancillary to technical leadership; it is technical leadership.
Consider the skills required for effective glue work: understanding multiple technical domains deeply enough to spot integration issues, having sufficient architectural knowledge to ask meaningful questions in design reviews, possessing the technical credibility to influence senior developers, and maintaining enough coding competency to understand implementation constraints.
These aren’t “soft skills”; they’re advanced technical capabilities applied to organisational challenges.
When being glue becomes strategic positioning
The key insight I’ve developed through my own career progression is that glue work becomes powerful when it’s done intentionally and visibly rather than falling into it by default.
During my transition through various leadership roles, I learned to frame this work differently. Instead of being the person who “helps out” or “picks up the slack,” I positioned myself as someone who:
- Identifies and mitigates systemic risks that others might miss
- Accelerates team performance through strategic process improvements
- Enables technical decision-making by facilitating informed discussions
- Scales organisational capability through mentoring and knowledge transfer
The difference is subtle but crucial. One narrative positions you as helpful but ultimately non-essential. The other positions you as strategically critical to organisational success.
The UK context: leadership in the modern era
The UK’s technology sector in the last year or so has presented unique opportunities for this kind of technical leadership. We’re seeing:
Skills shortages that make effective team scaling critical. The ability to rapidly onboard and develop capability is now a competitive advantage.
Regulatory complexity requiring leaders who can navigate technical requirements while ensuring compliance. Someone needs to translate between legal, technical, and business domains.
Remote work challenges where coordination and communication skills directly impact delivery capability. The glue work that seemed optional in co-located teams is now mission-critical.
AI integration pressures where human judgement about when and how to apply automation becomes a key differentiator.
In this context, the meta-skills of coordination, facilitation, and strategic thinking aren’t career detours; they’re exactly what growing organisations need from their technical leaders.
Reframing the narrative: from invisible to indispensable
The challenge with glue work isn’t that it’s not valuable; it’s that organisations often fail to recognise and reward it appropriately. This is where strategic narrative management becomes crucial.
Throughout my career, I’ve learned to document and articulate the business impact of coordination work:
- “Reduced onboarding time from 6 weeks to 2 weeks through systematic mentorship program”
- “Prevented 3-month architectural rebuild by identifying design conflicts early”
- “Increased cross-team delivery velocity by 40% through improved communication channels with key stakeholders”
The key is connecting the glue work to measurable business outcomes. When you can demonstrate that your coordination efforts directly enabled faster delivery, reduced risk, or improved quality, it becomes much harder to dismiss as “not technical enough.”
The intentional glue strategy
For technical professionals considering this path, I recommend what I am now calling the “intentional glue strategy”:
Build technical credibility first. Ensure you have demonstrable expertise in your core technical domain. You need the ability to contribute directly to complex technical discussions.
Choose your glue work strategically. Focus on coordination activities that require significant technical knowledge and directly impact business outcomes.
Document everything. Keep detailed records of problems identified, interventions made, and outcomes achieved. Glue work is often invisible precisely because it prevents problems that never materialise.
Seek formal recognition. Push for job titles that reflect the strategic nature of your work: Technical Lead, Principal Engineer, or Staff Engineer rather than generic “Senior Developer.”
Develop others intentionally. Use your coordination role to help other team members develop their own glue work capabilities, demonstrating leadership and organisational thinking.
Building organisational recognition
One of the most important realisations from my own experience is that changing how glue work is perceived requires organisational culture change, not just individual positioning.
As I moved into more senior roles, I made it a priority to:
Explicitly value coordination work in promotion criteria. When participating in hiring and promotion decisions, I advocate for candidates who demonstrate strong systems thinking and facilitation capabilities.
Make glue work visible in team processes. Include coordination activities in sprint planning, retrospectives, and performance reviews. If it’s not tracked, it’s not valued.
Rotate coordination responsibilities. Ensure that glue work doesn’t always fall to the same people (often under-represented groups) by deliberately distributing it across the team.
Celebrate preventative wins. Highlight instances where good coordination prevented problems, not just where it solved existing ones.
When to stay glue, when to step back
Reilly’s article includes important advice about temporarily stepping back from glue work if it’s not being recognised for promotion. This is sound tactical advice, but I’d add a strategic perspective:
If you’re early in your career and not getting recognition for glue work, absolutely step back and focus on building core technical skills. You need that foundation.
If you’re mid-career and facing promotion barriers, consider whether you’re in the right organisation. Some companies genuinely don’t value this work, and you might need to move somewhere that does.
If you’re in a senior role, glue work might be exactly what your career needs. The challenge is ensuring it’s recognised and rewarded appropriately.
The key is making this choice deliberately rather than falling into glue work by default.
The future of glue work
Looking ahead, I believe we’re entering an era where glue work becomes increasingly valuable:
AI automation will handle more routine coding tasks, making human coordination and judgement more important relative to pure code production.
System complexity continues to increase, requiring people who can understand and manage interdependencies.
Remote work makes intentional coordination a core competency rather than a nice-to-have.
Regulatory requirements around AI, data protection, and security require leaders who can navigate technical and compliance constraints simultaneously.
The professionals who can excel in these meta-technical skills while maintaining strong technical foundations will be the ones who shape the industry’s future.
Reflecting on my own journey, I’ve come to realise that the capabilities I developed through glue work have opened doors rather than closed them. Being glue isn’t about being stuck in place; it’s about becoming the kind of technical leader who can see the bigger picture and help others succeed. The skills that once felt like career detours have become the foundation of strategic leadership.
In the current software development landscape, the ability to hold teams and systems together isn’t a career limitation; it’s a competitive advantage. When done intentionally and strategically, it’s exactly the kind of technical leadership that organisations need most. The question isn’t whether to avoid glue work, but how to do it in a way that builds rather than limits your career.
The industry needs technical leaders who can code, certainly. But more than that, it needs technical leaders who can think strategically, facilitate collaboration, and help organisations navigate increasing complexity. If that’s the kind of leader you want to become, being glue might be exactly where you need to start.