Good Leadership Is Obvious in Theory - Rare in Practice

Everyone knows that good leadership is important. But knowing something is important doesn't mean we actually do it well.

Leadership is talked about everywhere - books, podcasts, conferences - yet when it comes to everyday practice, especially one-to-one leadership, many leaders fall short. Not always because they don't care, but because they underestimate the responsibility that comes with their influence.

One simple comment from my own leader changed my entire approach to leadership: "Prepare yourself before a one-to-one. Not just your notes, but yourself."

Preparation is not optional. If you lead people, preparation is not a "nice to have". It is your responsibility.

Your team members depend on you for:

• their professional development
• their career progression
• their sense of contribution and purpose
• often, their psychological safety

At the very minimum, you should know:

• what they are currently working on
• what milestones they have reached
• what problems they raised last time
• whether those problems were solved
• where the conversation should continue

If you don't prepare, it becomes frustrating for the other person. It silently communicates: "Your growth is not important enough for my time." And very often they feel not important at all at company, as they maybe cannot fit also into the team. And it cause a lot of frustration, sometimes change a job, sometimes change a specialization.

I know that leaders often manage five, eight, sometimes even ten people. That makes preparation harder- and also more necessary. Notes, continuity, and intention matter.

Preparing Your Mind and Body Matters Too

But the advice that truly changed my leadership was about something else. Preparation is not only intellectual. It is also physical and mental.

Before a one-to-one:

• step away from your computer 10 minutes earlier
• go to the bathroom
• get water / coffee or yerba
• stretch
• mentally close the previous duties

Why?

Because if you don't, your body will interrupt your mind.

After 20 minutes of your one-to-one, something in the middle of listening to the biggest problem you start thinking:

• I need to drink.
• I should wrap this up.
• I'm already late.

And the other person feels it.

When you remove those distractions, you can fully give that time to the person in front of you. That's when real conversations happen. That's when difficult topics are safe. That's when leadership actually works.

Leadership Is a Privilege, Not a Title

And as a leader, you hold a rare privilege: you influence not only someone's career, but their life.

When someone:

• develops professionally
• feels safe at work
• contributes meaningfully
• gets promoted
• earns enough
• gains confidence

That impact doesn't stop at the office.

It affects their family, their private life, their ability to rest, to take time off, to feel proud of themselves. Leadership is never "just professional".

Every person has potential

Not only the "stars". Not only those who had great leaders before. Not only those who came confident and loud.

Everyone can grow. Everyone can contribute. You just need to find the area of interest, or outstanding skills.

Talent Is Not Always Where You Expect It

One of the most meaningful examples from my experience was a woman who entered IT after the age of 30. She was also a mother and later had a second child.

She was capable, motivated, and good at backend development and understanding business value. But that wasn't her strongest talent.

Her real strength was sustainability topic.

She was deeply interested in it, educated herself in her free time, and cared about the topic long before it became popular. When we gave her space, she created a sustainability chapter in the company, educated others, prepared data, and influenced real change.

What started as a personal interest became organizational value.

That only happened because we talked - about motivation, interests, and purpose. We though about plan and realized it. So when she go for maternity leave with a second child - she was still motivated to learn, she felt safe with her pension (my duty was to do everything for her to get her promoted before the leave) and she didn't have to start from the begining after she came back. That is what me me proud for. That I did enough to get it happen.

When a Junior Is Senior in the Right Dimension

Another lesson came from a junior backend developer — a real junior. Someone rebranding himself later in life, learning everything from scratch: Scrum, processes, collaboration.

Technically, he was junior level. Solid, but early in his journey. But his product understanding was exceptional.

He grasped very quickly:

• why features existed
• what problem they solved
• how business logic connected
• what truly mattered to the client

The project itself was chaotic - people joined and left weekly, context was constantly lost. And yet, this junior became my right hand in product discussions.

I could send him to client meetings. I trusted him to explain value. He acted almost like a business analyst. He wasn't senior in code - but he was senior in understanding.

That made him promotable and important in the team. He can learn later all tricks in .Net, design patterns, but his value was that he reduced chaos, communicate all requirements well and enabled others for working on a correct things.

Good leaders don't promote people only based on technical checklists. They build growth around strengths - and show juniors the possibilities they might not even know exist.

The Best Leaders Measure Success in People

I once saw a presentation from a leader who managed other managers.

Most leaders presented numbers:

• money they saved
• clients acquired
• projects delivered
• smart solutions from their projects
• automated work

Even if their didn't really do anything in that...

But his presentation was different.

His biggest successes were:

• how many people he promoted
• how many careers he helped change
• how much training budget he secured

Every success was about people. And that stayed with me. Even more, because I have a pleasure to meet him in person and his team. And I see the transformation in them

Unfortunately, I've also seen leaders who take team achievements and present them as their own. I deeply dislike this approach.

If someone from my team had the idea, the execution, or made something extraordinary happen, I say their name. I make their contribution visible.

Even when something was my initiative, I still say:

This was our team's success.

Because I am the leader of that team.

Credit is not a limited resource. When you lift people up, you don't disappear — you multiply.

If leaders repeatedly take credit, people stop trying. Then they leave. And that is not bad luck. That is leadership failure.

This Is Not About You

Leadership is not about ego. Not about status. Not about personal glory.

It is about: Serving your people. Working for them, not through them. Creating space for others to grow.

If that doesn't feel right to you, that's okay - but then don't take this role. ;)

Because one day, you might experience what it means to have a truly good leader. A mentor. Someone who believes in you.

And then you'll understand how much difference one person can make.

A good leader doesn't just change your career. They change how you see yourself. And that changes everything.

I wish you all, at least one good leader in your life.