I am a new manager, promoted from within, and spend less and less time doing hands-on work with the technology my subordinates work on. Yet technology changes rapidly in my field.
(Imagine I am a web designer/animator. I was promoted to the manager of web designers/animators, and now I spend most of my time developing business, managing clients, budgets, employees, reviews, interviews, cross-company help, coordinating workflow, etc. but I am not actually designing or animating anything and have less exposure to how the technology is evolving, i.e. new software, new standards, etc)
I have a feeling that in the long run, this will effectively make my subordinates the real technical experts. So I am puzzled about what career growth options I have as a manager of such experts, and my underlying fear is that I might not be relevant anymore at some point - only another layer of junior/middle people management which can be easily removed.
I would like to ask what I can do to grow in my career and not become easily redundant at some point.
I hope my question is clear and relevant.