Being a good leader: Static definition or a moving target?

In this blog post, Will Larson shares his retrospective on how the definition of a good leader has evolved over his time in the industry. He categorizes his observations into three eras:

#️⃣ Late 2000s: Leaders were straightforward. They didn’t organize regular 1:1 meetings but focused on identifying and removing obstacles for their teams.

#️⃣ 2010s: With business budgets essentially unlimited, companies focused on hiring as many engineers as possible. The main goal was to attract and retain top engineering talent. Engineering managers were expected to stop coding from day one and instead focus entirely on recruitment, retention, and motivation.

#️⃣ 2020s (specifically 2022): Business conditions tightened (e.g., with the end of the zero-interest-rate policy). Companies expected their leaders to avoid hands-on coding but become more involved with technical details again, often reframing managers as bureaucrats.

As is obvious, the definition of a good leader is changing rapidly (by decade, maybe), and companies create moral tales to justify it. But Larson believes the main reason is that the business situation changes and therefore the definition of a good leader must change.

But can we find a stable combination of skills which, by investing in them, help us stay good leaders and become better leaders for decades? 🧐

Larson believes there are stable skills in two clusters (he notes skills might move between clusters as the definition of a good leader changes, but the skills themselves remain stable). This clustering is really insightful and resonates with the challenges I experience daily.

Core Skills (essential from the start of management)

• Execution: Deliver results consistently — managing sprint planning, handling incidents, and meeting commitments.
• Team: Shape and support your team to succeed through hiring, coaching, and performance reviews.
• Ownership: Take responsibility to deliver and fix problems even when it’s difficult. Focus on solutions rather than excuses, even if systemic challenges exist.
• Alignment: Build shared understanding across leadership, stakeholders, and your team. Avoid surprises by documenting and communicating key problems and decisions.

Growth Skills (needed to progress to higher leadership levels)

• Taste: Develop good judgment by looking at problems from multiple angles, especially regarding process and strategy (e.g., refining a product proposal).
• Clarity: Clearly communicate what you’re working on and why, ensuring stakeholders and team members understand and agree. For example, making sure everyone knows you’re addressing a scalability issue by clustering the database.
• Navigating Ambiguity: The ability to take vague, open-ended problems and develop confident, opinionated solutions — such as launching a new business line.
• Working Across Timescales: Balancing short-term fixes with long-term sustainability, knowing when to prioritize future stability over immediate gains and vice versa.

Larson emphasizes that while managers work to develop and maintain these skills, they must also pay close attention to their own energy and pace—a concept he discussed in a previous post I shared. Every manager has unique preferences and needs, and sometimes that means making choices that aren’t mathematically optimal but help them recharge and sustain their effectiveness. Prioritizing your own energy isn’t just important for you personally, but it also benefits your team and the company as a whole.

There is a list of questions in Larson’s original post to help you assess yourself on these skills. I suggest you view them not as a strict assessment but as thoughtful reflection prompts to deepen your understanding of your leadership effectiveness.