When I officially became a team lead, I thought leadership meant having all the answers, making all the decisions, and fixing every problem myself.
Spoiler: it doesn’t 😅
What actually shaped me into a better leader were the mistakes I made — the moments that forced me to slow down, reflect, and change how I work with people.
Here are six lessons that came from real missteps:
🧠 1. Trying to do everything myself
When I started leading, I thought being a “good lead” meant handling everything — planning, testing, reporting, even small fixes.
I believed my team’s success depended on my effort.
But all I did was burn myself out and slow everyone down.
✅ Lesson: Delegation is not a weakness — it’s trust.
Your team grows when they own decisions. You grow when you let them.
💬 2. Avoiding difficult conversations
There were moments when I saw issues — misalignment, low performance, missed expectations — but I stayed silent to “keep the good mood” because I haaaate complaining about the people and making them feel incorrect. But...
That silence cost more than any awkward talk ever would.
✅ Lesson: Honest feedback is care, not conflict.
Tough conversations build clarity and respect — avoiding them builds frustration.
📊 3. Measuring output, not impact
At one point, I was obsessed with numbers:
How many test cases? How many bugs? How many tickets closed?
But quantity isn’t about the quality.
✅ Lesson: A leader should measure impact, not just output.
Did our work make the product better? Did it help users? Did it reduce risk?
Those are the questions that matter.
👑 4. Thinking leadership is about titles
When I got my first “lead” title, I felt pressure to act the part — to always be the one deciding, speaking, guiding.
It took time to realize that leadership isn’t something you get promoted into.
✅ Lesson: Leadership is about influence, not position.
Anyone can lead from any seat if they inspire trust and take responsibility.
🎯 5. Overcommunicating tasks, undercommunicating vision
Early on, I talked a lot about tasks — what to do, when to do it, how to do it.
But I rarely talked about why it mattered.
✅ Lesson: Teams don’t get motivated by to-do lists — they get motivated by purpose.
When people understand the “why,” they’ll figure out the “how.”
🎉 6. Forgetting to celebrate small wins
We were always chasing the next milestone, the next release, the next sprint.
But we rarely paused to appreciate what we’d already achieved.
✅ Lesson: Celebration builds culture.
Recognizing small wins reminds the team (and yourself) that progress matters — even if it’s not perfect.
🤘 Final Thoughts
Being a leader isn’t about avoiding mistakes.
It’s about learning faster than you repeat them.
Every wrong decision, every awkward feedback session, every misjudged moment — they’re all part of your growth story.
Leadership isn’t perfection.
It’s progress, reflection, and a lot of humility.
💭 What mistake taught you the most as a leader?
Drop it in the comments and let’s learn from each other.
Top comments (6)
Hi! Great post, thanks for publishing… You're right, leadership involves learning from mistakes and embracing progress over perfection. Reflecting on experiences fosters growth and humility.
I've made a lot of mistakes too, and learned from, and anyway, that's how you learn best.
Thanks so much, Pascal! 🙏 Totally agree, reflection is really the key part. Mistakes are just data points if we take time to analyze them. Love how you put it — “that’s how you learn best.” Couldn’t agree more!
Love this!
The lessons feel so real especially the part about measuring impact over output and delegating properly. Leadership is definitely more about influence, reflection, and humility than titles or doing it all yourself. Thanks for sharing these insights reminded me to celebrate the small wins with my team today!
Thank you! ❤️ I’m so glad it resonated! I love that you celebrated wins with your team — that’s exactly what builds connection and motivation. What did you highlight? I’ve learned that those small wins often matter even more than big milestones.
This was a great post... Loved how you shared your mistakes and what they taught you.
Look when you’re in the middle of the battle, you can’t swing everyone’s sword for them.
A leader’s real job is to prepare the team before the fight to teach, guide, and build instincts.
Like a parent teaching their child good values, once they’ve learned, you can trust they’ll make the right move even when you’re not there...
Thanks a lot for sharing that perspective! 🙏
I truly believe one of the strongest things any leader (or parent) can do is show that everyone makes mistakes — and that’s okay. What really matters is how you respond to them: do you accept, reflect, and learn?
Once I changed my mindset about mistakes, I stopped being afraid of making them — because now I know how to handle and grow from them))