No matter how awesome you used to be at your previous roles, doing technical work, pushing out code or adjusting pixels, you should always remember that that’s not what you should be focusing on as your position changes.

Drive-by-architecting can be even worse than drive-by-management.

It’s one thing to be told to change priorities because management is fickle. An employee having their professional expertise disregarded by management cannot become autonomous and will eventually either leave or become a golem–won’t do anything unless told to. Is that what you’re aiming for?