"When the Tech Lead finally had room to think"

When I helped one team become less dependent on their Tech Lead, something unexpected happened.

He finally had space to think.

Until then, his days had been filled with helping, unblocking others, reviewing code, answering questions. It looked like leadership, but it left no time for deeper thinking.

Once the team started taking more ownership, the Tech Lead had room to notice things that had been hidden in the noise, slow pipelines, flaky tests, design shortcuts that made delivery harder than it needed to be.

With time to step back, he didn’t just fix them, he made the system better.

Sometimes helping others step up isn’t just about their growth.
It’s about giving your best people back the space to think.

Until next time,
Dermot
​The Messy Middle

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