To put it politely I have a distaste for being referred to as an ‘individual contributor’ (or even worse a ‘resource’). I also don’t like being ‘managed’ and have gained little from ‘line management’ over 20+ years developing software systems.

I do however find it extremely motivating to help a true leader solve their problems in a self-organising team of collaborative peers.

I can’t fathom why so many software organisations are still structured for hierarchical command and control, with the trend of good engineers being ‘promoted’ to management?

Yes I think we need more leadership: with organisations cultivating a culture of leadership, communication, openness and trust. Everyone can display leadership skills depending on the context/task within a team. It is not something reserved for the ‘manager’ (appointed leader).

Do we really need more ‘management’? I don’t think so. Management != Leadership.

Would be keen to see some more articles along the lines of ‘Growing leadership skills for engineers’.