Dev Leader Podcast Leadership Principles for Software Engineers: Interview With Adrian Stanek
Jun 1, 2025
Adrian Stanek, a seasoned leadership coach and founder with a rich background as a CTO, shares valuable insights on leadership principles applicable to all software engineers. He discusses the importance of relationship-building over management, fostering psychological safety, and the significance of trust in teams. Adrian also emphasizes the need for communicating the 'why' behind tasks to enhance engagement, illustrating his points with engaging analogies from role-playing games. His perspective challenges traditional views, making leadership relatable for every tech role.
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Early Coding and Entrepreneurial Journey
- Adrian Stanek started coding at age eight with a C64 and always loved building tools to help others.
- He evolved into an entrepreneur and CTO, balancing media and IT skills while still coding today.
Leadership Beyond Management
- Leadership is about the human relationship and trust between leader and followers.
- Unlike management, leadership cannot be established by playbooks but by personal credibility and connection.
Build and Maintain Credibility
- Build credibility by consistently delivering on commitments and understanding your team's work.
- You cannot lead effectively without being credible and showing discipline in your actions.