Leadership in tech isn’t just for managers or team leads. You don’t need a fancy title to make an impact or be someone others look up to. Whether you’re early in your dev career or have a few years under your belt, there are ways to lead right where you are.

Start doing today to build strong leadership skills—just by showing up differently in your current role.

1. Own What You Can Control

Start with your own code, your pull requests, your tasks—but don’t stop there. Look at the team’s pain points too. Is there a dev process that keeps breaking? A lack of documentation slowing everyone down? Step in and fix it, or at least raise it with a solution in mind.

It might feel awkward at first—like, “Who am I to suggest this?” But this is how leadership often starts in tech: noticing something broken and trying to make it better.

Think of it as being helpful, not bossy.

2. Ask More Questions—The Right Ones

Good developers are curious. Great developers ask questions that help the whole team think differently. Instead of just focusing on “what should I build?” try asking things like:

“Why are we building it this way?”

“What problem are we actually trying to solve?”

“Could this affect performance later?”

“Is this the simplest way to do it?”

These kinds of questions show you care about the bigger picture, not just shipping your own code. That mindset gets noticed—and it helps others raise their game too.

3. Be the Steady One When Things Break

Stuff goes wrong. Deployments fail. Production bugs happen. Tempers flare. When that moment comes, your reaction matters.

Try being the person who doesn’t panic. Stay calm, ask clear questions, and focus on getting to a solution. You don’t need to have all the answers—you just need to help create space for the team to fix things without spiraling.

  • Being a calm presence during chaos is one of the clearest signals of leadership.

And honestly, teams remember that more than technical brilliance.

4. Give People Credit (And Honest Feedback)

If someone on the team helps you out, teaches you something, or does solid work—say it. You don’t need to make a big deal out of it, just a quick “Hey, thanks for jumping in there. That helped a lot.” goes a long way.

Same with feedback. If something’s not working—say so, but kindly. Focus on the problem, not the person. “Hey, I noticed that when we do X, it slows down the review process. Can we try Y?” That shows you're invested in the work, not in pointing fingers.

5. Ask for Feedback Too

This one’s tough, but it’s huge. If you’re trying to grow as a leader, ask people how you’re doing—especially your teammates. Keep it simple:

“I’m trying to get better at supporting the team. Anything I could do differently?”

You might get some great insight. Or not. But just asking shows that you're open, and that makes people more willing to trust you.

6. Think Beyond the Ticket

It’s easy to get stuck in your Jira board or your current sprint.

  • What’s the user really trying to do here?
  • Could this feature cause tech debt down the line?
  • Are we solving the right problem?

Start connecting your day-to-day work to the bigger picture.

That’s the shift that turns a solid dev into a future lead.

You don’t need to wait for someone to “make you” a leader. You can start practicing leadership now—in small, consistent ways. Show up, stay curious, support your teammates, think bigger, and take responsibility where you can.

It’s not about being perfect. It’s about making progress, one step at a time.

You might be surprised how far that takes you.

Original article