Over the past 15 years I've worked with various managers, leaders and bosses. All of them have helped shape where I am today, and I've learned a lot from them when it comes to building my own teams.
In my current role I've hired a real spectrum of engineers: frontend, backend, native iOS and Android developers, designers and UX specialists, and testers who QA our customer facing platforms and internal tools. Some I still work with today. Others have grown into new roles entirely, moving into Product Management or going on to do contract work leading their own frontend teams.
Recently I've been reading Engineering Management for the Rest of Us by Sarah Drasner, and listening to Tim Campbell from The Apprentice talk about careers and business. Both have changed how I think about leading, so I've included what I've taken from them below.
Letting People Grow, Not Micromanaging Them
What matters most to me is being united as a team while letting the people in it grow. I don't micromanage or expect people to do things the way I would. I let people do the job they were hired to do, and I want them to come to me with solutions and the confidence to challenge my ideas if they disagree.
The biggest thing I took from Sarah Drasner's book is the importance of values and trust, and of being a "we" rather than an "I". Part of building that trust is showing vulnerability. Everyone makes mistakes, including those of us in leadership, and when I own mine openly it shows the team that getting something wrong isn't a disaster. People are far more likely to put their hand up early when something's going wrong if they've seen their lead do the same.
Listening, Personally as Well as Professionally
I also make it clear that I'm here to listen, and not just professionally. Life moves fast and personal issues affect all of us at some point. I've been through it myself, and I was fortunate to have managers who knew when to give me breathing room and when to give the right nudge, delivered positively with realistic goals attached. That balance, goals that can genuinely be achieved while still fulfilling someone's career ambitions, is what matters.
Honest Conversation, Good and Difficult
Stand-ups, one-to-ones and bi-weekly catchups should be an honest, open space. Space to share frustrations and give constructive feedback, but also to highlight what someone has actually achieved, for the business and for their own career. We have a natural tendency to focus on what's missing rather than what's been done, so I love celebrating success and making sure people know when they've gone above and beyond.
Honesty also means direct, truthful feedback when it's difficult, which is another thing Drasner's book reinforced for me. It's tempting to soften it so much that the message gets lost, or to avoid the conversation altogether. But honest feedback delivered with care helps people improve, builds respect and lifts morale, because people know where they stand.
The hardest version of this is when performance is lacking: reviews, sometimes disciplinary processes, conversations that aren't easy for anyone. Even then it works both ways. You're pushing for that person to get back to where you know they're capable of being, and you can help through tailored goals or being more hands-on, but it's on them to actually do it.
Protecting Your Team by Saying No
This is the one I personally love. Saying no shows you care and that you're protecting your team. Say yes to everything and you end up overloading people, over promising and then under delivering because you've made too many commitments. Saying no, or "not yet", or "we can do this if we drop that", is one of the clearest ways a leader looks after their team.
Watching Them Grow
The reward for me isn't my own work, it's seeing the team thrive. I want them to come to me and share what they've achieved, rather than the other way round.
I love watching a junior with limited design, HTML, JavaScript and CSS knowledge grow into someone I can depend on to build beautifully designed components. Or an engineer launch a payment integration they were convinced they'd never manage, once they grasped the journey from backend to frontend. Or a backend engineer get genuinely excited about architectural decisions, cleaner code, or how a small change to the database can shave payload size down in a way that adds up to a much bigger performance gain across the board.
That isn't me doing the research and telling them what to do. It's my team doing the research themselves, getting excited, and bringing it to me so I can listen, agree or help steer it towards the goal we're trying to reach. It's a template I apply across every type of engineer I work with.
It can be emotional when people you've worked with for years move on. I always try to keep in touch, because I've watched so many of them grow into fantastic, talented individuals, and some I still speak to regularly. Seeing the people you've hired grow and get the recognition they deserve is one of the real perks of management.
Output Isn't Measured in Code Anymore
Moving into leadership meant coming to terms with imposter syndrome. As an engineer it's easy to measure your day: you wrote this, you shipped that. As a lead, your output is no longer measured in code. It's measured in feedback, in how your team performs, and in whether the people around you are growing. That can feel as if you're not doing real work. What helped was recognising that this is the work.
Lessons From Outside Engineering
Alongside the book, I've been following Tim Campbell from The Apprentice and listening to his podcasts with guest collaborators. His advice on business, careers and professionalism has boosted my self-esteem and helped me understand that you define your own opportunities and need to be in charge of the outcome. It's also fine to be honest with yourself, give yourself breathing room and forgive yourself when things don't go right.
What stands out most is how many different turning points there are in a career. When you see someone's success you don't see the countless rejections behind it, which always sits in my thoughts. Success is built on learning from those rejections, taking risks and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.
That's led to a new philosophy for me: I don't lose, I only learn or win. A rejection, a mistake or a project that doesn't land isn't a loss, it's something to take into the next one. And I'm here to win.
It also takes courage. If you want to be a leader and be heard and respected, you have to put yourself out there. These podcasts have made me think about where I am in my career and where I ultimately want to go, including, one day, setting up something of my own.
Where That Leaves Me
Ultimately, leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about building an environment where the people around you feel able to find them, and want to bring them back and share them with you.