Dear Peter: why'd they make me a manager?

Dear Peter,

I'm a senior developer who recently got promoted to team lead, but I'm struggling with imposter syndrome. My team includes people who have been at the company longer than me, and some have specialties I don't fully understand. I find myself working late trying to "catch up" on knowledge I feel I should already have. How do I lead effectively when I don't feel qualified?

Sincerely,
Faking It Till I Make It

Dear Faking It Till I Make It,

That feeling when your promotion comes with a side order of existential dread? Yeah, that's imposter syndrome's signature dish, and it's being served up hot.

First off, congratulations on the promotion! Despite what that nagging voice in your head is telling you, someone with actual decision-making power looked at you and thought, "This person should be leading others." They didn't make that choice by accident or because they ran out of other options—or to torture you (..unless?).

The secret about leadership that nobody tells you

Here's something that would have saved me countless late nights when I first started managing: technical mastery and leadership effectiveness are two completely different skill sets.

When I was a hiring manager at companies from logistics to fintech, I noticed something consistent: the best leaders weren't necessarily the people who knew every technical detail. They were the ones who could:

1. Create an environment where their team felt safe asking questions
2. Know when to say "I don't know, but let's figure it out"
3. Recognize and leverage the unique strengths of each team member
4. Shield their team from organizational nonsense
5. Get everyone aligned on priorities and trade-offs

That's why your company promoted you – not because they expect you to be an expert in every specialty represented on your team, but because they believe you can create the conditions for all those specialists to do their best work.

Those late nights aren't helping (sorry)

I hate to break it to you, but those late nights "catching up" might actually be counterproductive. For two reasons:

First, you can't outrun imposter syndrome with more knowledge. It's not a knowledge gap – it's a perspective gap. The goal posts will always move.

Second, an exhausted team lead makes worse decisions and has less emotional bandwidth for the human side of leadership – which is the part that matters most.

Practical steps for imposter-syndrome first aid

1. Keep a "wins" document: Every Friday, take five minutes to jot down what went well that week. Leadership wins, technical wins, moments of connection – anything positive. Honestly, do one every day so it doesn't just fly by you. This creates an evidence file against your imposter syndrome.
2. Find your leadership confidant: Ideally another team lead who can be a sounding board. When you can normalize the struggle, it becomes less isolating.
3. Schedule regular 1:1s with your directs: Ask them what they need from you to be successful. You'll be surprised how rarely the answer is "know everything I know."
4. Embrace the phrase "I'll find out": Using this instead of making something up or pretending to know builds more trust than you'd expect.
5. Identify your actual gaps: There might be areas where you genuinely need to build knowledge, but be strategic. What knowledge would help you make better decisions as a leader, versus what's just interesting to learn?

The counterintuitive truth

Your awareness of what you don't know is actually your strength, not your weakness. The most dangerous leaders are the ones who don't recognize their limitations.

Your team doesn't need you to be the ultimate technical authority. They need you to create clarity, remove obstacles, advocate for them, and help them grow. You can do all of that without being the most technically knowledgeable person in every room.

As JM, a manager I worked with, put it: "I realized my job wasn't to be the best at what my team does. My job was to be the best at enabling my team to do what they do."

Want to dig deeper into specific leadership strategies that play to your natural strengths? Book a session with me – the first one's free – and we can work on building your authentic leadership style instead of trying to be someone you're not.

Let's make work suck less,

Peter

P.S. That voice telling you that you don't deserve to be there? That's just your brain's outdated threat-detection system firing when it shouldn't. Thank it for trying to keep you safe, then gently remind it that it's calibrated for surviving in the wilderness, not thriving in a modern workplace.

P.P.S. I put all my best advice for new managers into a book! Wild, I know. Maybe it's for you, maybe not—grab the first chapter and a hiring worksheet free to find out.