I moved up to a team lead and then decided to shrink back down for a lot of the reasons mentioned. While the team was successful, and practically ran itself with all the system I put in place, the weight of it never went away and I didn't like it. The job also became a lot more about politics, which I had no interest in. I sometimes wonder if I should have stuck it out to see if I got over the hump and hit some kind of stride, but there were so many people I talked to who regretted their moves into management, that I suppose it's good I stepped back when I did.
One of the harder parts for me was giving feedback. Certain people craved it, but I didn't want to seem like I was nitpicking or making them afraid to come to me, so I let stuff slide that I would have fixed if it was me doing the work. This kind of stuff was easier when I was just part of the team. I'd nitpick our presentations, mentioning things were a single pixel out of alignment. Eventually other people started noticing and calling out this little issues as well, which was good. But I felt less comfortable doing that in a leadership position, because I'd sound like a nagging boss instead of someone who just wants to make sure we're presenting ourselves well. I struggled internally with this a lot. It was probably ultimately what broke me.
