How I Learned to Win Through Other People
Winning in leadership means creating the conditions for others to grow, perform, and lead.
TL;DR
ICs win projects. Leaders win through people. The shift is brutal if you're competitive. You stop collecting praise and start collecting promotions. You stop shipping deliverables and start shipping careers. Ego shrinks teams. Confidence builds them. That's the better game.
I am competitive.
As an IC, that was easy to channel: ship good work, get credit, repeat.
In leadership, that model breaks. You are no longer judged by what you personally ship. You are judged by what your team can repeatedly ship without you in every decision.
That shift annoyed me at first. Now it is the part I like most.
1) Stop Being the Hero
If every important decision routes through you, you did not build leverage. You built a bottleneck.
My job is to set direction, clarify quality bars, remove blockers, and then get out of the way.
Good people do better work when they have room.
2) Careers Outlast Roadmaps
Plans change. Reorgs happen. Strategy pivots.
The durable thing you leave behind is people who got better while working with you.
I track leadership success with signals that are hard to fake:
- promotions
- retention
- stronger decision quality over time
- people taking bigger scope confidently
3) Energy Is an Operating Choice
“Have fun” sounds fluffy until you run teams long enough.
Tense teams hide risk, avoid debate, and do minimum-safe execution. Energized teams surface problems early and solve harder problems together.
My rule set is simple:
- high standards
- low ego
- praise in public
- hard feedback in private
4) Say “Yes” by Default, Then Add Structure
When someone brings a good idea, my default is not “no.” It is “what would make this viable?”
That usually means scoping, sequencing, or adjusting dependencies.
People do not need endless permission. They need clear constraints and real support.
5) Hire for Team Shape, Not Personal Comfort
I do not hire clones. I build rosters.
A healthy team has different strengths, working styles, and domain depth.
If I am the strongest person in every sub-discipline, I hired poorly.
The goal is not to look smart in a room. The goal is to leave the room with a team that is smarter than any one person in it.
What Winning Looks Like Now
As an IC, I counted deliverables. As a leader, I count compounding capability.
The best moments are not when I get credit. They are when someone on my team presents to executives, takes on larger scope, or gets promoted because they are clearly ready.
That is still competition. Just a better game.