The transition from individual contributor to leading others is one of the most challenging shifts in a technical career. As a founder who has had to grow into leadership roles, I've learned that what made me effective as a developer isn't what makes me effective as a leader.

My first instinct when managing others was to stay in the code. Sitting in meetings felt like I wasn't "doing real work."

That was my first mistake.

Redefining Productivity

As an IC, your impact is measured by the code you ship and problems you solve. As a leader, your impact is measured by the code your team ships and the problems they solve.

This shift is fundamental and challenging. You need to:

• Trust others to implement ideas (often better than you would)
• Accept that things might move slower initially
• Measure success by team output, not personal output

What I've Learned About Technical Leadership

From building products and growing teams, I've found that effective technical leadership comes down to a few core areas:

1. Technical Direction

You're still technical, but your focus shifts from implementation to architecture and strategy.

What this looks like:

• Setting technical standards and best practices
• Reviewing critical design decisions
• Identifying technical debt and prioritizing it
• Making build vs. buy decisions
• Ensuring the team has the right tools

What to avoid: Micromanaging implementation details or being the bottleneck for all technical decisions.

2. Team Development

Your job is to make each person on your team more effective and help them grow.

Practices that work:

• Regular 1-on-1s focused on growth, not just status updates
• Regular feedback (both positive and constructive)
• Creating stretch opportunities
• Building psychological safety

Practical tip: Keep notes on each team member's wins. During reviews or tough conversations, you'll have concrete examples to reference.

3. Cross-functional Collaboration

You're the bridge between your team and the rest of the organization.

Key skills:

• Translating business requirements into technical work
• Communicating technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders
• Advocating for your team's needs (time, resources)
• Managing expectations and saying "no" when necessary

Building Effective Teams

The teams that work well together share these characteristics:

Clear Mission and Context

Everyone understands not just what they're building, but why it matters. Before starting work, discuss:

• User problems you're solving
• Business metrics you're impacting
• How this work fits into the broader roadmap

Psychological Safety

Team members feel safe to:

• Ask questions
• Admit mistakes
• Experiment and fail
• Challenge ideas (including yours)

How to build it: Model vulnerability. When you make a mistake, own it. When you don't know something, admit it. This gives permission for others to do the same.

Distributed Decision-Making

Empower the team to make decisions without you. Use frameworks like:

RACI Matrix for clarifying responsibilities:

• Responsible: Who does the work
• Accountable: Who makes the final decision
• Consulted: Who provides input
• Informed: Who needs to know

Decision Documentation: For important decisions, write docs that outline:

• Problem statement
• Proposed solution
• Alternatives considered
• Trade-offs

Common Pitfalls

1. Trying to be everyone's friend

You can be friendly and empathetic while still holding high standards. Sometimes you need to have difficult conversations or make unpopular decisions.

2. Avoiding conflict

Healthy conflict is essential for good ideas. Your job is to facilitate productive disagreement, not prevent all friction.

3. Not delegating

You can't scale yourself by doing everything. Delegation isn't about dumping work—it's about developing your team.

4. Neglecting your own growth

It's easy to focus entirely on your team and neglect your own learning. Block time for reading, courses, and staying technically sharp.

Should You Still Write Code?

My answer: Yes, but differently.

I still code, but I'm strategic about it:

• Automation and tooling that multiplies productivity
• Proof of concepts for new technologies
• Bug fixes when I have context
• Code reviews for learning and maintaining technical awareness

What I try to avoid:

• Owning critical path features
• Making myself a bottleneck
• Using coding as procrastination from leadership work

How to Know If It's Working

Team signals:

• Delivery velocity and predictability
• Quality (bug rates, incident frequency)
• Retention and satisfaction
• Team members growing and taking on more responsibility

Personal signals:

• How many decisions happen without you
• Feedback from peers and stakeholders
• Can the team execute well when you're away

Final Thoughts

Leadership is about leverage. You're no longer optimizing for your own output, but for the collective output of your team.

The best leaders I've observed share one trait: they make everyone around them better. That's the goal. Not to be the smartest person in the room, but to create an environment where smart people can solve hard problems together.

As a founder, I've had to learn this on the job—and I'm still learning. The transition is uncomfortable, but it's worth it.

Building or leading a team? I'd be interested to hear your experiences. Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.