Success in tech depends on people and stacks in equal measure. You can have the best tech in the world, but if your culture is built on fear or silos, you will stall. One in three tech professionals changed jobs in the past two years, and nearly three-quarters of organisations say attracting and keeping tech talent is a worry according to the ISACA Tech Workplace and Culture Survey 2025.
At our Tech Leaders Forum in Edinburgh, we sat down with leaders from across the sector to talk about what it actually takes to lead a firm through growth and change.
We focused on the human dynamics that decide whether a business succeeds or survives. To build a firm that delivers consistently, you have to navigate scale and acquisition by leading with clarity and a genuine understanding of your people.
TL;DR
Why vulnerability is a leadership asset
In senior roles, there is a lot of pressure to project total certainty. But pretending you have every answer is a bottleneck. When a leader admits they are finding a transition or challenge tough, it gives everyone else permission to be honest too.
“Sometimes, leadership means admitting you don’t know and seeking guidance”
-Cameron Lepper, Head of Platform Engineering, Tribal
Cameron Lepper, Head of Platform Engineering at Tribal, said, “Sometimes, leadership means admitting you don’t know and seeking guidance.” He shared how reaching out to a trusted peer helped resolve a complex issue. In high-growth organisations, this openness helps teams surface risks early. It cuts the cost of failure and keeps the business agile.
How to build a culture of openness:
Leading through the uncertainty of transformation
Scale is a stress test for any leadership team. Periods of change, like an acquisition, are full of noise and very little clarity. A recent industry survey found about 22 per cent of engineering leaders and developers report critical levels of burnout, reflecting how structural pressures affect wellbeing.
As Emma Nicol, COO at CreateFuture, put it, “Being aligned as a leadership team is key to weathering uncertainty.” That alignment doesn’t come from pretending everything is under control. It comes from leaders being open about what’s unclear, focusing on what they can influence and creating space for honest conversations. You need a unified front. If the team knows their goals are protected and the leadership is aligned, they can stay focused on the work.
Tactics for leadership alignment:
Why empathy is a commercial necessity
Empathy is often dismissed as a soft skill, but it has a direct impact on your talent costs. In a market where your best people are always being scouted, they stay because they feel understood.
Haley Glass, Head of Sector at Telefónica Tech, made that clear. “When you show genuine care for your team, you unlock their full potential,” she explained. In a competitive market for senior engineers, understanding what motivates individuals is how you retain top talent.
But empathy without boundaries doesn’t work either. Andrew Smith, Chief Digital Officer at Nucleus Financial, emphasised the need for structure. “Modern work blurs the lines between the professional and the personal, but it’s crucial to create those barriers. Ultimately, these are work colleagues, not friends,” he said. In hybrid and remote environments, where the risk of burnout is real, that clarity protects both performance and wellbeing.
“When you show genuine care for your team, you unlock their full potential."
-Haley Glass, Head of Sector, Telefónica Tech
The panel also shared practical ways to model healthy behaviour. Haley described her decision to fully disconnect during a family holiday. “Not only was it a reset for me, but it showed my team that it’s okay to step away,” she said. Leading with empathy means setting the standard yourself.
Practical steps for balancing empathy and performance:
Leading with purpose
Empathy and adaptability kept coming up throughout the evening. Not as abstract ideas, but as practical tools. The leaders in the room were clear that technical expertise alone isn’t enough. If you want teams to perform consistently, you have to understand what drives them and create a culture where they can do their best work.
As Haley Glass put it, “Leadership isn’t just about guiding your team today — it’s about preparing them for the future.” That future is uncertain. Markets shift. Teams grow. Structures change. The role of a leader is to create the stability that allows people to navigate that change with confidence.
From vulnerability and alignment to boundaries and wellbeing, the message was simple: resilient teams are built deliberately. They don’t happen by accident.
You can explore more insights from our previous Tech Leaders Forum events in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
FAQs
How does vulnerability improve output?
When leaders admit they do not have all the answers, it removes the fear of failure within teams. This leads to more honest reporting of bugs, faster identification of bottlenecks, and a greater willingness to experiment without the fear of retribution.
What is the best way to maintain boundaries in a remote team?
Set explicit expectations around communication hours. Leaders should model this behaviour by not sending non-urgent messages outside of core hours and using "delay send" for emails to avoid hitting team inboxes during their downtime.
How can leadership teams stay aligned during an acquisition?
Focus on frequent, transparent communication between department heads. Ensure the vision for the new entity is shared and that any conflicting priorities are resolved at the leadership level before they reach the execution teams.
Why is empathy considered a technical leadership metric?
Empathy allows leaders to understand the "load" their team is carrying. By adjusting the roadmap based on team health and individual capacity, leaders can maintain a consistent shipping velocity and avoid the high costs of developer burnout and turnover.