I'd recommend the front-end framework I knew best.
Back to my work
My Journey Chapter Five
Learning to Let Go
For a long time, I thought leadership meant having the answers.
That probably isn't surprising
My career had been built around solving difficult technical problems.
When systems failed, people came looking for me. When a project seemed impossible, my instinct was to dive in, understand every detail, and figure it out.
Dive inUnderstand every detailFigure it out
Then my responsibility changed
I was asked to build and lead the Business Systems organization.
I carried that same mindset with me.
I believed my responsibility was to know more than everyone else.
What I eventually understood
I was wrong.
As I began building my team
I wasn't looking for people who thought like I did.
Talented peopleCurious peoplePeople who genuinely loved solving problems
But once they joined
I found myself doing something I didn't even realize.
I kept trying to give them the answers.
I'd sketch the architecture before anyone else had a chance.
I'd explain how I thought a system should be designed.
The intentions were good.
I wanted to help.
Then something unexpected started happening
The room began answering back.
An engineer would suggest a technology I'd never considered.
Another would propose an architecture that solved problems I'd overlooked.
Someone else introduced me to deployment strategies and design patterns that were completely new to me.
I remember thinking,
“Why didn't I think of that?” Not because I wasn't capable. Because they brought experiences and perspectives I simply didn't have.
The change was unmistakable
That's when my understanding of leadership began to change.The more I stepped back,
the better our solutions became.
I stopped trying
To be the smartest engineer in the room.
Instead, I started trying
To build rooms full of people who were each smarter than me in different ways.
Perspective
Experience
Curiosity
Craft
Insight
The best idea
At first
That was uncomfortable.
Wasn't I supposed to have the answers?
Wasn't that why I'd been given the responsibility?
Eventually I realized I had been asking myself the wrong question.
The question was never
“Am I the smartest person in the room?”
The better question became
“Did I build a room where the smartest ideas have a chance to emerge?”
Those are very different things.
Today, with AI advancing as quickly as it is
I think that lesson matters more than ever.
No one person can know every technology, every framework, every programming language, every business domain, or every breakthrough that's just around the corner.
The leaders who succeed won't be the ones pretending they know everything.
They'll be the ones who create environments where curiosity is encouraged, different perspectives are welcomed, and the best idea wins regardless of who suggested it.
Ironically
I learned that lesson long before AI entered the conversation.
I learned it at home.
As a father with two amazing daughters.