The hardest moment in my leadership journey wasn't a difficult conversation or a project failure.
It was realising I was no longer the best engineer on my team.
I'd hired well. Trained well. And suddenly the people around me were coming up with better solutions than I could.
My first instinct was to fight it. To find reasons why my approach was still better. To pull rank when I disagreed with their decisions.
But that's ego talking, not leadership.
The real shift came when I stopped asking "how do I stay the smartest person here?" and started asking "how do I make myself redundant?"
Now I look forward to being wrong. When someone on my team has a better idea than me, it means I've done my job.
Your role as a lead isn't to have the best answers. It's to build a team that doesn't need you to.