Leman Tech Leadership Podcast · 2026-06-23 · 16 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
27 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Newly promoted engineering leaders often struggle with impostor syndrome, questioning whether their advancement reflects genuine capability or fortunate circumstances. Alexander Leaminskam directly tackles this by reframing the transition from individual contributor to engineering manager as a fundamental skill set change, not a test of worthiness. Most leaders weren't formally prepared for management - a systemic failure of organizations rather than a personal deficit. The hard work that built technical expertise doesn't automatically transfer to leadership, where success is measured by team delivery, communication effectiveness, meeting efficiency, and creating space for others to excel rather than personal technical output. Leaminskam also addresses the widespread complaint of missing coding: this isn't nostalgia but a contracting problem. Without clear success criteria in the new role, the brain defaults to the old scoreboard where shipping code equaled success. The solution involves an explicit conversation with one's manager about what success actually looks like in the leadership position. For those discovering leadership isn't their preference, Leaminskam emphasizes there's no shame in returning to the IC track - staff engineers, senior engineers, and deep specialists are increasingly valued and compensated competitively. The generational shift away from viewing promotion as the only path to advancement is reshaping how technical talent should be developed.
You weren't lucky - your hard work as an IC earned the promotion. You're not 'good' at leadership yet because it's a completely different skill set you've never done before, which is normal. Most people struggle at the start of any new job, especially one as different as managing rather than coding.
It's not nostalgia but a clarity problem. Your brain defaults to the old scoreboard where shipping code felt like success. You're missing it because nobody has clearly defined what success actually looks like in your management role, so you can't see the wins you're actually creating.
No - this is a systemic failure, not your fault. Have an explicit conversation with your manager about what success means in your specific role so you have the clarity you need and can recognize your wins.
No. The generational shift is making it clear that staff engineers, senior ICs, and deep specialists can earn good money, have exposure, build expertise and visibility without managing anyone - it's no longer the only path to advancement.
As an IC you're rewarded for what you deliver operationally; as a leader you're rewarded for what your team delivers, along with your effectiveness in communication, feedback, removing blockers, and creating an efficient environment.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode contains a few useful reframes - particularly the distinction between luck and skill, and the insight that success metrics change dramatically in leadership roles - but these are interspersed with substantial throat-clearing, repetition, and obvious advice (e.g., 'being bad at new things is normal'). The core ideas are sound but not densely packed; significant air time is spent circling the same points rather than introducing novel frameworks or specific, actionable concepts.
This is not about being prepared, it's not a sign that you don't belong or this is not a job for you, or you should just quit. It is a sign that you are now doing a different job than the one you were actually really good at.
You're not good at leadership at the very beginning, because we all suck at the very beginning of doing things. It is impossible for you to be great at something that you've never done before. That's just logic, pure logic.
The core observation - that IC-to-manager transitions require a complete skill reset and that new leaders struggle because success metrics change - is well-reasoned but not novel in the leadership-development space. The idea that younger workers are declining management roles is somewhat topical, but the treatment lacks depth or fresh insight. Most frameworks and conclusions recycle familiar territory without contrarian edge or first-principles thinking.
You were promoted to the leadership role because you were the best ICs, amazing experts, great in our expertise, delivering great results.
The younger the person is the less of a want or need they have to be leaders. And it is not because they are lazy and disengaged.
This is a solo host episode with no guest present. Alexander Leaminskam provides generic advice based on his experience as an organizational psychologist and management consultant, but there are no practitioners, operators, or domain experts interviewed who have shipped at scale or faced specific, concrete leadership challenges in a measurable context. The lack of a guest eliminates any opportunity to assess guest caliber.
My name is Alexander Leaminskam. I'm a former violinist turned management engineer, turned organizational psychologist, speaker and PCM leadership mentor and facilitator.
The episode is almost entirely abstract and generalized. There are no named companies, no concrete metrics, no specific timelines, and no quantified examples of leadership transitions. The single data point offered - 'ninety percent of leaders I know were never well prepared' - is anecdotal and unverifiable. The advice remains high-level and principle-based rather than grounded in case studies, named examples, or measurable outcomes.
Most of the leaders I'm going to be bold with a statement here, ninety percent of the leaders that I know that I'm sure that you know as well, were never well prepared to the job of leadership.
The success felt like working code or working report in BI or anything else. So working piece of product or a functionality was a success.
This is a monologue-format Q&A where the host answers questions he claims to receive, but there is no actual conversation, no real guest responding, no follow-up probes, and no productive disagreement. The host presents assertions without challenge or testing. The 'questions' appear to be rhetorical framing devices rather than answered by a real person. This removes any opportunity for sharp questioning, genuine dialogue, or intellectual friction.
I've decided to start a series of questions and answers, so Q and A that I are connected with the questions that I get from you every single week.
So today I've decided to take those questions and starting an Episode's the first episode connected with them today, and there they're going.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
▶︎ #171 | Tech Leadership Q&A: Am I Actually Good at This… or Did I Just Get Lucky? In this solo episode of the Leman Tech Leadership Podcast, host Aleksandra Lemańska kicks off a new Q&A series, where she answers the questions tech leaders keep asking her in workshops, keynotes, and one-on-one conversations - the questions that often go unspoken. Today she tackles two that show up constantly with newer leaders: "Am I actually good at this leadership thing, or did I just get lucky?" and "Why do I miss writing code so much?" On the first question, Alex is direct: feeling unprepared as a new leader is not a sign that you don't belong, it is a sign that you are doing a completely different job than the one you were promoted for. She shares a bold claim from her years of working with tech leaders: roughly 90% of leaders were never properly prepared for leadership, and that is a systemic failure, not a personal one. Most people get promoted into leadership as a reward for being great individual contributors, with no real training in the new skill set, mindset, and tool set that the role actually demands.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Welcome to the Lemon Tech Leadership Podcast. My name is Alexander Leaminskam. I'm a former violinist turned management engineer, turned organizational psychologist, speaker and PCM leadership mentor and facilitator. In this space, everyone is invited to the table where we have real, eye opening conversations about tech leadership.
Two keywords utility and real life implementation. Knowledge tools, frameworks, ways of working, dos and don'ts. Taking from my personal experiences as a leader in the experiences of others is what you are going to get from every single episode. This is the Lemon Tech Leadership Podcast.
Okay, so let's go and take some action. Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Lemon Tech Leadership Podcast. Today, I I've decided to start a series of questions and answers, so Q and A that I are connected with the questions that I get from you every single week. So while we are talking with each other during workshops or one on one sessions, or after I give a keynote speech, or we are a event together online or on site, you're asking me a lot of different questions about leadership in tech.
And those questions are sometimes extremely like simple and It's funny because sometimes when you are just saying them out loud, you instantly have an answer, and after a couple of minutes you're like, I know, Alex, I'm good. I actually figured it out myself. I just needed to to just set it out loud because when it was only in my brain, it was extremely difficult and it was unsolvable on some level. So today I've decided to take those questions and starting an Episode's the first episode connected with them today, and there they're going.
There's going to be a couple of those. I think, yes, we are going to just unpack some and short episodes so you can focus on two tops, I would say at once, and just start thinking if this is you as well, is a question that you also have in your brain or maybe not, then that's perfectly fine too. So what I want to start with today is a question that happened that happens appears a lot. Am I actually good at this leadership and tech?
Or did I just get lucky? This is happening especially with leaders that are quite fresh when it comes to leadership experience in technology in eighteen I have a lot of different conversations with you and I see how big of a test it is for you to make a shift? I guess the expert and I see to leadershift. It isn't a test that you pass or fail.
Let's be honest here. It is a completely different skill set, mindset, and tool set. So feeling I'm prepared, it's not a sign that you don't belong or this is not a job for you, or you should just quit. It is a sign that you are now doing a different job than the one you were actually really good at.
This is the real transition. So most of you, myself included most of us, we were promoted to the years because we were the best ICs, amazing experts, great in our expertise, delivering great results. Because if we didn't deliver, nobody would ever offer us a promotion. Because if you're not effective, and if you're not deliver in your job, is design for you maybe to start offering you the growth outside of the organizational structure.
So this thought that how am I actually good at this or do they just get lucky because. Maybe quote unquote, they didn't have a choice, so they asked me to be a leader of this team because back then it was the easiest solution for them. The most accessible solution and they just went for it. But the truth is that most of the leaders I'm going to be bold with a statement here, ninety percent of the leaders that I know that I'm sure that you know as well, were never well prepared to the job of leadership, the job of the leader.
And it is not about us, It is about the systems. The truth is that most organizations, regardless of the size of the industry of the country, are not very well designed when it comes to the leadership path, the leadership growth, a training, succession and actually being prepared together with this person that will have eventually a promotion. If there is there's a I need, there is a potential and there is an ad decision that you want to go for it. Most of the time and it's like, hey, this is a reward.
We recognize you for your amazing well done job as I see, and here is your reward, the promotion for the leadership position, and most of people are taking it. It is changing right now because of the generational changes that I see the correlation on the market. Actually, so the younger the person is the less of a want or need they have to be leaders. And it is not because they are lazy and this engaged.
It's just because they started to see more clearly what the job is actually connected with and they just don't want to do it. And this is perfectly fine because we don't need only people are in leadership positions. We need more ices than leaders. This is the truth here, amazing I sees there is a huge opportunity to grow when you are an icy.
You can be a senior, can be a staff engineer, and you can be a mentor. You can be a person who's extremely high an expertise level. You can pivot your expertise and the wider expertise if you want. But it is not a necessity for you to earn good money and have a lot of exposure and build your personal brands and your expertise and your visibility.
As I see. So it is not about it's not about those times where it was like years ago, I think ten years ago, where being a leader was the only way to get promoted to get a better better salary or better benefits or better exposure. Those times are gone for goods. So you're actually not good at leadership at the very beginning, because we all suck at the very beginning of doing things.
It is impossible for you to be great. It's something that you've never done before. That's just logic, pure logic. And you didn't get lucky.
It's the hard work that you did as an icy is in luck. This is a real hard work learning for hours on the job how to do your ic scope. The truth is that your scope changed dramatically and nobody prepared you for it. This is why.
So you're good. But if you want to be a good leader for your team, if you want to really be a leader, and this is okay too, you need to make a list of things that you were really, really great at and you were promoted for it. And at the other part of the piece of vapor, make a list of things of those things that you need to do right now and compare the sorts. I assure you that most of them are not going to be the same, because the job is different and you are going to be rewarded for something different as well.
You're going to be rewarded for what your team is delivering, not for you delivert operationally. Of course, you're responsible for the feedback that you're giving them, for the communication intelligence level that you have, tailoring the communication to what they need, contracting well, making their life easier so they can actually focus on what matters without wasting time. This I understanding complex, pointless meetings, pushing back and forth emails. This is an effective and inefficient and this is your job to change that.
And the question is do you want to do it? Because sometimes the question the answer is no. You know what, I don't want to play politics. I don't want to take care of only the environment.
I just want to code or work with AI on the inn an engineer or working with the eyes. And this is this is not for me to just to be out of the loop of the tech loop. And if it is your answer, perfect, you come back to your icer role and build your expertise there period. And you know what, I'm going to connect this one with the next one because I think within the one episode we can easily connect those two.
I guess the next question I have a lot is why do I miss writing codes so much? This is something that a lot of tech leers engineering managers are saying to me. I'm like, why do I miss it so much? It can be writing in a coach and it can be analyzing stuff, it can be doing different things that you were really great at and you could do it with your eyes closed.
It is and you're the truth. The truth is that this is not nostalgia. This is a contracting problem with yourself and with the realization most of the time, because nobody told you what your new wins look like. So your brain from the default goes to the old scoreboard where you knew exactly what success felt like.
The success athlet felt like working code or working report in BI or BI or anything else. So working piece of product or a functionality was a success. And right now in tech leadership role, you you don't have a clue, especially at the beginning, what a success looks like. What are you actually a reward for?
So this is why you miss it because we love it. This is why you became an engineer, a subject matter expert in your area, and you were rewarded for that because you were great at it, and right now you don't know what to be rewarded, so you're just missing the old view. This recognition is important, especially when we think about efficient work delivered. What I would do I would have a conversation with my boss and ask them what a success means to you?
In my roll and start a conversation there because like that you will have clarity you need right now. And sometimes we don't have those conversations for years, and we get frustrated more and more because we do a lot of things, but we are not getting recognized for him. So this is something that I wanted for you to have today. Two questions answered, and I'm going to see in the next episode where I'm going to take two more two or three, We'll see how the story will work.
So if any of those two, each of those two hit home, if the hit heart, maybe if ed was something that was a hum moment for you, share it with one person that might need the aha moment as well, because that's how we work together, how we grow together by sharing the good stuff, the truth, even if it's ugly and uncomfortable. This is why I'm here there for you to reveal the uncomfortable truth, but with solutions. So we have a root, cause, we have solution, and we have an action point process, no fluff cycle blah blah engineering from the human perspective.
So charltline to this episode with whomever might need it right now, and you know it, and I'm sure that you are going to find at least one person who you talk to about those two, either of them, and sometimes you don't have a good answer and you get much more frustrated by that.
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