Ask HN: Promoted to Management, but Have Doubts

Recently promoted from lead engineer to a high level management role (below the executive team) in a small company (~100 people), but I'm not enjoying it too much. I feel I'm wasting my time with operational and solving small issues around unblocking the team, while my technical colleagues are doing interesting work. I have the feeling that I'm falling behind in technical skills and, if I decide to go back, the time I spend in management might end up biting me.

I took the role because "it made sense" from career progression point of view, but now I'm struck with doubts that I just became an average manager from a relatively good developer. In all honesty I was also after the salary increase, but that didn't really materialize as I hoped. In my current company I have a decent pay, but still way below what I could earn elsewhere. The thought of moving somewhere else in a technical role and for a higher pay pops up more and more in my head. On the other side, the company's doing great, growing, sales are going up; it's a good time to be here, which add to my overall feeling of confusion.

I guess the questions that I have for you HN are:

1. how much time spent in management land is too much and has a negative effect on your career as an IC?

2. what would you do in my shoes?

I've been mentally stuck in this situation for a while now. It's taking up all of my mental and emotional energy, any thoughts are welcome.