The Three Pillars of Leadership Through Influence
As engineers advance into Staff+ roles, we often find ourselves in positions where our success depends less on individual technical contributions and more on our ability to lead through influence. Unlike traditional management positions with direct reports, these roles require a different kind of leadership—one that inspires action without formal authority.
After years in various technical leadership positions, I've found that successful leadership through influence rests on three essential pillars: domain expertise, interpersonal skills, and the capacity to act. When any one of these pillars is missing, your ability to effect change dramatically diminishes.
Domain Expertise: The Foundation of Technical Leadership
Domain expertise forms the bedrock of any technical leadership role. This encompasses:
- Deep knowledge of the technical domain you operate in
- The ability to communicate that knowledge effectively to different audiences
- Credibility built through demonstrated expertise
Without strong domain expertise, you'll struggle to respond to immediate challenges or anticipate future needs. Perhaps more importantly, you'll lack the respect of your peers, which is essential for progressing forward in a role that depends on influence rather than authority.
In a previous role, I entered with respect earned from past projects, but quickly found myself out of my technical depth. I lacked the domain expertise needed to contribute effectively in this new context. After months of struggling, I had to approach my management and admit I wasn't the right fit. This was a humbling experience, but it led to finding a position where my existing expertise could be better leveraged.
The lesson? Even the strongest leaders cannot lead effectively outside their domain of expertise. Know your strengths, be honest about your limitations, and position yourself where your knowledge can truly add value.
Interpersonal Skills: The Bridge to Effective Influence
Technical knowledge alone isn't enough. To lead through influence, you must excel at:
- Building genuine connections with team members, peers, and leadership
- Communicating at multiple levels—from deeply technical discussions with engineers to high-level overviews for executives
- Listening actively and empathizing with different perspectives
Early in my career, I focused almost exclusively on technical prowess, naively believing that technical excellence alone would drive progress. I was the brilliant (debatable) asshole. This one-dimensional approach led to a complete breakdown in communication with the teams I worked with and created considerable friction. The situation became so dysfunctional that I ultimately left the position.
This experience prompted deep reflection. I realized that I needed to develop my emotional intelligence and communication skills to lead effectively. Through therapy, working with an executive coach, and self-reflection, I learned that empathy, patience, and clear communication are just as important as technical knowledge, perhaps even more so when leading through influence rather than authority.
Capacity to Act: The Power to Effect Change
The final pillar is perhaps the most overlooked yet critically important: the capacity to act. This means:
- Being empowered by leadership to implement your ideas
- Having leadership "loan" you their authority to drive initiatives
- Working with teams that have the time to pursue collective goals beyond immediate firefighting
I've joined multiple teams that were underwater when I arrived. They were constantly putting out fires with no capacity for strategic improvements. In these situations, I had the domain expertise and the interpersonal skills to outline a compelling vision, but the teams lacked the bandwidth to act on it. This created a frustrating stalemate where everyone recognized the problems and solutions, but no one could address them.
Before meaningful progress can occur, teams need breathing room. This often means addressing immediate problems like technical debt, ineffective development practices, or process bottlenecks that consume all available energy.
Finding the Sweet Spot
At SolarWinds, I finally found the sweet spot where all three pillars align. This experience has convinced me that effective leadership through influence requires all three elements working in concert:
- The domain expertise to know what needs to be done
- The interpersonal skills to communicate that vision and bring others along
- The capacity—yours and your team's—to actually implement the changes
When any one pillar is missing, your influence diminishes. However, when all three are present, you can drive meaningful change even without formal authority.
For those in Staff+ engineering roles or aspiring to them, I encourage you to assess your strengths and weaknesses across these three pillars honestly. Where do you excel? Where might you need development? And most importantly, do you know if your current environment can act on your expertise and vision?
Effective leadership through influence isn't about having all the answers or being the most technically brilliant person in the room. It's about creating the conditions where collective expertise can flourish and drive meaningful progress. When you align domain expertise, interpersonal skills, and capacity to act, you unlock the true potential of technical leadership.