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Strong disagree. Doing all the work is not leading by example. Leading by Example would be handling the first emergency with a more junior engineer following along, or doing a write up of how you handled it and then asking someone else to handle next time.

Not leading by example would be expecting your reports to deal with shit that you don't know how to and getting annoyed when they can't.

8 comments

Yeah, the article misunderstands the nature of active personalities versus passive personalities. People aren't necessarily weak, slow, or incompetent because they lack your same level of initiative and inertia. People need to be directed properly. People are wired differently and strong leaders respond to this by dictating communications in a way best received by the individual.

The opposite of leading by example is leading by hypocrisy, which is less than exceptional.

Leading by example sets a performance standard. In addition to leading by example never assign work you aren't willing to do yourself. Strong leaders are occasionally willing to get their hands dirty. It keeps the complaints low about how hard life is since the leader is willing to do the grunt work if the team member isn't and therefore doesn't need that team member.

Strong disagree with your disagree. What the article is getting at is that, setting an example is completely insufficient for leading a team in the right direction. As someone who's been there, I know how obvious it can feel to you that you are communicating by demonstration. You feel so strongly about it that you can't really comprehend that others aren't picking up on that (hint: unless your team is exceptionally empathetic AND has an absolutely great relationship with you, they're not).

The point of this article, as I see it, is that sometimes you need to say what you feel like goes without saying. That's a lesson that not everybody needs. But those who do need it, need it phrased in exactly this way. Just because this article doesn't vibe with you personally doesn't mean it won't deliver a TON of value to someone who's struggling with this situation.

Strong this!!! I've done what the article suggests not to do and it failed miserably. I was put in a tech lead role and had little coaching on how to lead, so I mostly cargo culted based on what I thought other leads did and missed the point.

So glad that the top comment on this thread is people disagreeing with this post! Leading by example is fundamental to success in any capacity.

We cannot expect people we are attempting to lead/coach to do a task if we do not demonstrate that we know how to do it. It's like having a personal trainer who is a couch potato, it simply makes no sense!

I really hope that other "tech leads" are not following this example! Put in the hours you expect others to work. Document your work the way expect others to. Write tested, maintainable & performant code as you wish others to. This is all leading by example!

"It's like having a personal trainer who is a couch potato, it simply makes no sense!"

This may be true but obviously, in sport more generally, there are many instances of great older coaches who couldn't do half of what their players can do, and in some instances were never as good as their players even when they were young.

You are actually in agreement with the author.

But the author chose a click-baity controversial-sounding title to actually make the argument for a much less controversial point: don't do all the work yourself thinking you are "leading by example".

No, sadly I don't agree with the author's opening statement that they are:

  "dispelling a common leadership myth: that you should lead by example.”

The article does nothing to "dispel" a myth. If anything I agree that the title of the post is incorrect and "clickbaity" when in reality it should have been "leading by example is not enough".

Setting expectations is obviously important, but the article does nothing explain how this was done. For example do they use OKRs at Dropbox? Overall I'm disappointed that so many people have "waved" (liked) the post on Medium and feel like it deserves a counter-article to set the record straight.

I think you and the other top post folks are disagreeing with the title of the article, not the actual content of the article itself.

The author agrees with you in that you should actually do the work (you're a tech lead not a PM or purely management) but also actually tell your team what is expected and enforce it, not just assume they'll see what you're doing and copy it.

Leading by Example, as you describe it, sounds a lot like Andy Grove's concept of Task Relevant Maturity [0], described in his book High Output Management [1], which seems popular with the tech crowd.

[0] https://getlighthouse.com/blog/management-concept/ [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/324750.High_Output_Manag...

What you're referencing is more leadership through training and mentorship. What he was doing sounded more like him just doing more of the work solo and hoping/expecting people would respond.

There's a really critical difference between handling something with a junior riding shotgun / doing a write up vs just doing the work yourself. He didn't touch on this, but you don't propagate any knowledge just doing it yourself, and I think that's one of the problems with his version of "leadership by example".

Even worse: when you keep doing it yourself rather than delegating, you signal to your team that you don't trust them to do the job.

Lead by example in character.

Bingo. The author was always setting an example. He was simply setting the wrong example initially.

Yep.

Actually the most important example is to own up to one’s mistakes and shortcomings.

And choosing subordinates who are better than you.