Comment by arnvald

I think there's a difference in how visible these skills are.

As an engineer it's easy to practice many new skills and also to see improvement. I might be interested in orchestration, I pick up Kubernetes course. I want to build iOS app, I start learning Swift. After a month or two I can see a difference in my skills. Others can see it too - I contributed to iOS app at work which I haven't done before, it's a new skill I learned.

As a manager, I need to be better at negotiating with stakeholders, or recognizing underperformance, or interviewing candidates. I can read books, take courses, but I can only see my improvement over longer period of time. What's more, most of people around me won't see that I'm a better interviewer now, or that I'm better at helping to improve individual performance. It doesn't mean I stopped growing, it doesn't mean I don't cultivate new skills. They're just different skills.