Good technical leadership requires mastering workplace politics - building relationships, framing proposals for stakeholders, and influencing decisions rather than hoping merit alone wins.
Technical leaders often dismiss politics as dirty and irrelevant, assuming that good ideas will rise on merit alone. The article flips that view: politics isn't the problem, bad politics is. Ignoring the invisible network of relationships and influence simply hands victories to those who play the game.
When a technical decision goes wrong-an over-engineered architecture, a bad vendor, or a killed project-it's rarely because the decision-makers were stupid. It's because the people with the right information and the skill to influence weren't in the room. Those who understand how to build coalitions, speak the language of non-technical stakeholders, and manage up get their ideas heard, even if the ideas aren't the best on paper.
The piece offers concrete habits: nurture relationships before you need them, frame proposals in terms of what executives care about (shipping speed, revenue, risk), keep managers informed with early flags and solutions, create win-win scenarios that help other teams while advancing your goals, and stay visible by sharing wins and documenting decisions. Each tactic is a form of politics that directly improves outcomes.
Leaders who refuse to engage let bad politics win by default, resulting in poor technical choices, stalled projects, and talent loss. The article argues that effective technical leadership is about strategic relationship-building and influence-what many call stakeholder management or alignment-so you can steer decisions toward better technical outcomes.
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