The CTO as Coach: Why Mentoring Is Multiplication, Not Maintenance
There’s a quiet truth I’ve come to sit with: the more senior you become in tech, the less your value comes from what you build—and the more it comes from who you build up.
I remember a project where I was brought in to lead a modernization effort for a federal client. Early on, I found myself caught in a familiar trap: firefighting architecture decisions, reviewing every PR, answering every technical question.
The team was competent, but hesitant. I was “helping.”
But after three weeks of backstopping every move, I looked around and realized I was the bottleneck. And worse—my team didn’t feel like it was theirs.
So I pulled back. I started asking more questions than giving answers. I invited engineers to present their own tradeoff analysis. I delegated decisions with trust, not fear. And slowly, the momentum shifted. Ownership increased. So did velocity.
We got better not because I was everywhere—but because I wasn’t.
CTO as Coach: A Strategic Pattern
This isn’t unique to me. The shift from doer to enabler shows up in every mature CTO I’ve met. You move from shipping features to shaping people. From fixing bugs to building trust.
And it's not easy. Especially for those of us who came up writing code every day. Coding feels tangible. Mentoring feels… ambiguous.
But the leverage is undeniable. A good mentor multiplies what a team can do—even when they step out of the room.
Practices I Try (Imperfectly)
Here’s what I try to practice:
- Mentor your leads, not just your juniors. Teach the mentors, not just the mentees.
- Step back before you’re needed. Give your team room to try, stumble, and figure it out.
- Make space for reflection. Start 1:1s not with “updates,” but with “what are you learning?”
- Share decision rights, not just tasks. Let them own the why, not just the what.
None of this is magic. But over time, it builds a team that thinks critically, owns outcomes, and grows without burning out.
It’s tempting to think of mentorship as a nice-to-have. Something you do when there’s time. But in leadership, mentorship is the work.
It’s how we stop being the hero and start building heroes.
As one LinkedIn commenter put it:
“The best CTOs don’t lead by knowing everything. They lead by helping others learn everything they need.”
Let’s sit with that for a second.
Need help building a mentorship-minded team or coaching your leads? That’s the kind of challenge we live for at coexius.
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