Leadership Without the Handbrake

The worst kind of tech leadership doesn’t look evil.

It looks helpful.

It’s the tech lead reviewing every line of code. The principal engineer answering every question, solving problems before they’re fully formed.

The manager saying “you own it” but needing a copy of every decision. The team lead jumping into every discussion — even when they don’t need to.

It’s leadership with the handbrake half on - and it kills autonomy.

You’re Not Here to Be the Smartest in the Room

Let’s start with principal engineers.

When it works, it’s magic. You don’t write all the code, but your fingerprints are everywhere. You amplify. You nudge. You whisper the direction of travel. You’re across teams, across time. You see second-order effects that others miss.

You’re a force multiplier. Not a bottleneck.

But it goes bad fast when you stop enabling and start doing. You build the golden path on your own. You swoop in to “just fix it” instead of coaching someone through. First you’re the hero. Then the dependency. Then the blocker.

Ian Rogers nailed it:

“Management is like tending a garden, not building a machine. You don’t control growth. You create the conditions.”

It’s not just poetic. It’s operational.

You’re not the architect of a building.

You’re the climate designer of a rainforest.

Tech Leads Set the Weather

Tech leads are where culture hits code.

You’re close enough to see the work. Far enough to shape how the team works. You’re often the first line of either trust — or control.

The best tech leads I’ve worked with? Quiet confidence. They didn’t need to insert themselves everywhere. They cared about delivery, sure. But they also cared whether people were learning. Taking risks. Getting better.

They created psychological safety — not by saying “everything’s fine,” but by showing they’d back their team when it wasn’t.

When someone broke prod? They didn’t ask, “who did this?”
They asked, “what did we learn?”

That’s not soft. That’s leadership.

And yes — you still hold the line on quality. You still coach. You still challenge bad ideas.

But you do it in a way that builds ownership. Not dependency.

Why Micromanagement Creeps In

Micromanagement rarely comes from control freaks. It comes from fear.

• Fear that something will go wrong
• Fear that delivery will slip
• Fear that someone will make a decision you wouldn’t

So you step in.
Then again. Then again. Until the team stops deciding.

Not because they’re junior.
But because they’re waiting for your thumbs-up.

Control doesn’t scale. Trust does.

What the Research Says

Let’s talk science.

Edward Deci and Richard Ryan spent decades studying what motivates people. They came up with something called Self-Determination Theory — and it’s one of the most robust frameworks we’ve got.

They found three key psychological needs:

• Autonomy – feeling in control of your work
• Competence – feeling good at what you do
• Relatedness – feeling connected to something bigger

You take away just one, and motivation tanks. People check out. Teams go brittle.

Leadership that enables autonomy hits all three:

• You support growth (competence)
• You trust people to decide (autonomy)
• You build belonging (relatedness)

It’s not magic. It’s just design.

Eric Barker’s take?

“If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do. Then get out of the way.”

Enabling Leaders Do This Instead

Here’s the short version:

• Set direction, not instructions
• Coach instead of correct
• Build systems, not just solutions
• Trust first — adjust if needed
• Make space, not just noise

This isn’t hands-off leadership. That’s hands-on where it matters — and hands-off where it counts.

Leadership without the handbrake means your team starts to steer. Your juniors step up. Your seniors stick around. Everyone moves faster — not because you’re pushing — but because you’re not in the way.

Your Move

Look at where you’re holding the handbrake.

• Are you answering every question before the team has a go?
• Are you jumping in because you’re afraid of what might go wrong?
• Are you “protecting the team” in ways that quietly disempower them?

Now look at where you can let go.

• What would happen if you stepped back just 10%?
• What might your team learn, own, or change if you gave them the room?

Letting go doesn’t mean letting chaos reign.
It means designing a climate where people grow.

And that’s your real job.

Next up: Architecture that either liberates or locks you in.