When a top engineer becomes a team leader, one challenge always stands out: learning to let go.
Here is an example from a recent coaching session.
My client, recently promoted to lead several technical teams, must now delegate instead of doing the work herself. Her biggest test comes when recruiting a non-technical manager — a bold move in a company where all managers usually come from technical backgrounds.
What happens next reveals an essential truth about leadership: Sometimes the hardest skill to learn is not using the skills that made you successful.
By the end of the video, you’ll discover:
• How delegation really works when you step into leadership.
• How your technical expertise can still serve you — without taking control.
Reflection question: What do you say to yourself when you need to let go and let others take responsibility — at work or at home?
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⸻ 👉 Full text:
My client was recently promoted to lead several technical teams.
Not long ago, she was one of the engineers herself.
Her main challenge — and she knows it — is learning to take enough distance to delegate well…
to let things go.
Right now, she’s recruiting a new manager for one of the teams.
And her idea is quite bold:
to choose someone with a sales profile — not a technician.
That’s very unusual in her company, where technical managers are always promoted from within.
So far, so good.
But then she asked me:
“How can I help the team accept a non-technical manager?”
This didn’t seem to be the right question to be asking me, and I told her so. She thought for a minute, something clicked, and then she said:
“I suppose I could ask the new manager how he plans to handle the situation.”
Exactly. That would be good delegation. After all, what’s the point in appointing a new manager if you don’t let them manage!?
However, although this solves the problem of who should do what, my client’s frustration at not being able to use her technical know-how remains. So we discussed this.
And we concluded that her expertise would help her considerably when evaluating the new manager’s ideas on how he would get started with the technical team.
In fact, that conversation could happen during the recruitment process,
helping her choose the right person in the first place.
This short story illustrates something very common — and very human.
The skills we learn for technical work rarely include the ability not to use them.
Yet that ability — to hold back and let others find their own way —
is one of the most valuable skills of a true leader.
It frees the leader…
and it gives their people the space to grow.
And in the end, it allows them to make full use of their technical know-how —
without ever having to impose it.
Delegation is a tricky business, and not just at work. If you have kids, you’ve surely had the dilemma of knowing when to hold back and let them make their own mistakes, even when you know the best way to do things.
What do you say to yourself in these types of situations, personal or professional?
And is there anything else you might say that would make delegation easier?
⸻ 👉 To go further:
📖 Something’s Troubling Me – my book on authentic communication and difficult conversations
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#Leadership #Delegation #Coaching #TechnicalLeadership #CommunicationSkills #NewManagers #CareerGrowth
