>It doesn't create unhappiness when you're a leader because that's part of the deal.
Having spoken to a lot of low level leaders I'd disagree. It does create unhappiness because in the end they are no less human. That unhappiness may be worth it for the other benefits and the happiness they gain from them but saying they don't experience unhappiness is dismissing their very human emotions. But often the unhappiness dominates, they burn out and then get replaced by some narcissist/sociopath. That person is fully happy and rises up the ranks.
This sounds like they didn't understand what they were signing up for. If I lead a project, I get to take credit for the project not for specific IC work.
Of course if you happen to do IC work as well it makes sense to take credit for that, but I think that mixing leadership and IC work tends to result in burnout.
Having spoken to a lot of low level leaders I'd disagree. It does create unhappiness because in the end they are no less human. That unhappiness may be worth it for the other benefits and the happiness they gain from them but saying they don't experience unhappiness is dismissing their very human emotions. But often the unhappiness dominates, they burn out and then get replaced by some narcissist/sociopath. That person is fully happy and rises up the ranks.