Tech Leader Chats: How to lead through the AI transformation in engineering

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About the talk

In today’s fast-changing, AI-driven world, leadership is about more than delivering results—it’s about inspiring people, adapting with agility, and leading with purpose.

In this interactive session, Supriya Joshi (previously the CTO at ReadyTech, ex-Catch, and ex-REA Group) shared the lessons she’s learned from leading teams across multiple organizations through times of uncertainty and transformation.

The session explored the key differences between managing and leading, how to adapt your leadership style to fit different situations, and tested strategies that you can use to steer teams successfully through uncertainty. Supriya also introduced everyone to the concept of mindful leadership—a practice that’s helped her balance personal well-being with building engaged, high-performing teams.

Our key takeaways from Supriya's talk are as follows:

What differentiates management from leadership

Even though the words are used interchangeably, there's a tangible difference between the roles that you need to be very clear on if you want your team to be working optimally. Managers are operational thinkers, who are given problem-focused, objective goals to solve for. On the other hand, leaders focus on strategic thinking - their work isn't just operational, it's about building a vision for the future. This involves laying fundamental principles of conduct down for team members with the goal of long-term influence. As a leader, those principles should be adaptable, prioritize alignment with your team members, and help you lay the groundwork to influence your vision for how your team fits into the wider organization.

Traditional leadership isn't the only form available to us

Traditional ideas of leadership are often patriarchal, equated to authority, and associated with titles or positions. Whether it's presidents, CEOs, or managers, the root of the traditional conception of leadership is that authority is something given to you. This authority comes with expectations, and an automatic assignation of being a 'leader'. Conversely, what mindful leadership looks like is an enduring sense of curiosity instead of an entitlement to authority. Mindful leadership is a process of influence between individuals within a group, working towards a valued outcome that they all have in mind. It's not just about one person's title or position - it's about the actions that people have to take in order to cause change, and being the person in the hot seat who can bring others on the journey with you to make things happen.

How to lead confidently through periods of transformation

When your team, or even the wider organization, is going through a period of upheaval, being a good leader is more than creating consistency. It's not about creating a one-size-fits-all template for problem-solving; it's about adaptably responding to different situations in different ways. When dealing with transformation, leaders should prioritize the following:

Transparency in communication - this looks like hearing, reflecting, and taking account of all the different perspectives on a team in a balanced way
Authenticity in behavior - this looks like standing your ground and being clear about your perspective, instead of changing it along the way to suit the expectations of higher-ups or the people around you
Acknowledging emotions - instead of trying to think purely logically, engage with empathy when discussing difficult situations with your team and show your emotions during those tough conversations