Often You Don't Want It, but You Become a Leader—By Omission

08 Feb 2025 #career

One day, you’re the only team member and the next, you’re a leader, without asking for it.

Been there and done that.

Back in one of my first jobs, at some point, I was the only one in the mobile team.

We were building the prototype of a mobile app with Xamarin. I don’t know if that’s still a thing. When there was too much work for me, two team members joined from other teams. They were learning Xamarin and getting up to speed with the business domain.

And the next day, I started to be responsible for their work. Management asked me, not them, when they were behind schedule. I thought my job was only answering their questions and offering help. Nope!

I wasn’t a leader and I didn’t want to be one. But that day, I became their leader by omission.

And recently, it has happened to me again.

But this time, I was on the other side of the table. I joined a small agency and got assigned to a project with only one team member. He was a lone wolf, working on his own corner with zero dependencies and shared work. The challenge came when we needed to sync our work and keep an eye on dependencies between our tasks. He was so used to working alone, and I was expecting more collaboration.

When you’re the most senior member or the only team member, as soon as new pairs of hands come, you become the point of contact, the go-to person for questions and problems. Upper management starts to ask you about the new team members. You don’t ask for it, but you become a leader. A leader by omission. And remember as a leader, you’re not the best coder anymore.