Mindset vs Skillset: What Really Makes a Great Tech Leader

When I was managing two squads of mobile and web developers, I thought the key to high performance was skills.

Hire the best people.
Level up their technical expertise.
Fine-tune delivery practices.

Skills mattered but something was missing.

I eventually realised that mindset was the real driver of success. The way my team thought about problems, collaboration, and growth shaped outcomes far more than any technical certification or framework.

And the same goes for leaders.

When a tech manager’s mindset is off, even the most skilled team will struggle.

Skillset Is What You Do. Mindset Is How You See.

Skillset = the tools and techniques you bring to the job.
Examples: running effective retros, handling incident response, optimising CI/CD pipelines.
Mindset = the beliefs, assumptions, and stories you hold about yourself, your team, and the work.
Examples: whether mistakes are treated as opportunities to learn or failures to punish.

The two work hand-in-hand, but mindset is foundational.

Without the right mindset, skillset improvements don’t stick.

A Real Example from My Management Journey

When I stepped into a new EM role, I inherited a team with solid technical skills. On paper, they were brilliant. But here’s what I found:

Pull requests were approved without real discussion.
Retrospectives were flat — no one shared issues openly.
Innovation had stalled.

I spent weeks trying to “fix” this with process changes: new workflows, refined Jira boards, different sprint cadences. Nothing shifted.

Then I realised: it wasn’t a skills gap.

It was a mindset gap.

The team didn’t feel safe to speak up. They’d been conditioned to play it safe and hide mistakes because previous leaders had punished failure.

Only when I focused on mindset first - modelling vulnerability, rewarding honesty, and inviting challenge — did those processes start to work.
The skillset had been there all along. It just needed the right environment to thrive.

Why Leaders Fall into the Skillset Trap

Many tech managers I coach make the same initial mistake I did: they try to solve leadership problems by adding more tools.

“If I just learn OKRs…”
“If I just get better at stakeholder management…”
“If I just implement this new framework…”

If the underlying mindset stays the same, these skills are like putting fresh paint on a cracked wall.

The cracks - fear, mistrust, fixed thinking - will eventually show through.

How to Start Shifting Your Mindset

Here are three ways to begin building a leadership mindset that empowers both you and your team:

Check your default story.
When something goes wrong, notice what story you tell yourself first.
- “They messed up because they don’t care” → fixed, blame-led story
- “This is a learning opportunity for all of us” → growth, learning-led story
Model curiosity, not certainty.
As a manager, saying “I don’t know yet - let’s figure it out together” creates space for others to think creatively and contribute.
Reward behaviours, not just results.
Celebrate when a team member takes a risk or shares a hard truth, even if the immediate outcome isn’t perfect.

Mindset drives skillset. Think of mindset like the operating system and skillset like the apps. If the OS is outdated, even the best apps will crash.

Final Thoughts

Mindset isn’t about plastering positivity over problems. It’s about choosing to see potential - in yourself, your team, and the challenges you face.

When you shift your mindset, you don’t just grow as a leader. You create an environment where your team feels safe, engaged, and ready to innovate.

Next Step

If you’re a tech manager who’s been relying on tools and frameworks but still feels stuck, you might not have a skill problem — you might have a mindset challenge.

Book a free 15 minute discovery chat.