| One reason these “bad leaders” may hit all your bullets is: the team members “call them out” for trying to operate a level above and a click longer term than the day-to-day fire fighting and grind. The most common team expression of this is “You’re not close enough to it.” Or, “You don’t understand what it’s like.” As if “it” became different after stepping into leadership and the new leader underwent a mind wipe. They didn’t forget what it’s like. They had derived intrinsic motivation from individual contribution, they understood it, they were great at it, and it still feels more valuable to them than the once removed levers of monkeying with ‘management’. This ‘bad leader’ who was part of the team, genuinely wants to be part of the team, but the team is rejecting their new role. So they stay operating in the trenches, at too low a level to influence the battle or the war. On the contrary, unless the nature of tech engineering undergoes a shift, a “good leader” should not have to “be close to” the details of today’s particular glitch to remember what such glitches are like in general, and work to fix or remove that class of glitches now and for the team’s future. Putting this in a metaphor that marries your bullets and this idea: - Trust your team to roll the daily dice and advance their pieces around the Monopoly board - Remain connected to whether the game is the same, mentor and advise strategies for wins, talk through whether they’re well set up to own the Orange monopolies… - But instead of telling them how to play or — worse — grabbing the dice, work to rewrite the rules inside the Monopoly box lid to let their game be more effective and enable better outcomes |