I don’t know—but I’ll find someone who might.
“I don’t know—but I’ll find someone who might.”
For more than ten years, I sent weekly emails to my teams. Looking through nearly 400 of them, I found that sentence in an email from 2017.
It may be one of the clearest descriptions of what technical leadership means to me.
Technical leadership is not a title you are promoted into. It is something you grow into by helping others solve problems, connecting expertise, and earning trust—often long before anyone gives you formal authority.
Earlier in my career, much of my confidence came from understanding technology and solving difficult problems. Over time, I realised that leadership was not about knowing every answer. It was about finding the right people and bringing their knowledge to a problem.
That meant finding people who genuinely understood their field—not simply the terminology and acronyms. Real expertise often became apparent in someone’s ability to explain a complex subject clearly, recognise uncertainty, and understand how their advice affected the wider system.
That did not mean passing the problem to someone else. I remained responsible for asking the right questions, weighing the advice, and helping turn it into a solution.
Finding those people came from making connections, taking a genuine interest in what others did, and respecting the knowledge and experience they brought.
The strongest relationships were not transactional. They developed because help, knowledge, credit, candour and respect flowed in both directions. People knew they could call on me when they needed help, advice, or a connection.
Experience has not taught me all the answers.
I like to think it has taught me how to recognise genuine expertise, bring the right people together, and build relationships in which people want to help one another.