From Engineer to Visionary: How One Leader Transformed His Leadership Style

“I feel like I’m managing a factory, not leading a team.”

That was the first thing Arjun said to me when we sat down for our coaching session. As VP of Engineering at a high-growth tech unicorn, he was brilliant, disciplined, and data-driven—everything you’d expect from a top-tier engineering leader.

But something wasn’t working.

His team was disengaged. His best engineers were leaving. Innovation was slowing down.

“I don’t get it,” he admitted. “We hit our sprint goals. Our dev cycles are tight. Productivity metrics are solid. But something feels off.”

I’ve seen this before—in sports, business, and even politics. It’s the classic transactional leadership trap.

What Is Transactional Leadership?

Transactional leadership is a management style focused on structure, performance metrics, and efficiency. It’s about setting clear expectations, rewarding success, and correcting failure.

Strengths: It drives execution, creates predictability, and maintains accountability.

Weaknesses: It can feel rigid, suppress creativity, and disengage employees who seek purpose and ownership.

Famous transactional leaders include Jack Welch (GE), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and Henry Ford.

It wasn’t wrong—it was just incomplete.

The Breaking Point

It wasn’t until one of his top engineers resigned that the problem really hit home.

“I asked him why,” Arjun told me. “He just said, ‘I don’t feel like I’m building anything meaningful anymore. I’m just closing tickets.’”

That hurt.

Arjun wasn’t just losing talent—he was losing the soul of his team. The culture had become task-driven, not mission-driven.

The Shift: A New Leadership Playbook

We dug in.

“Arjun,” I said, “You’re managing engineers like a factory floor. But great leaders don’t just enforce execution—they inspire teams to solve problems.”

I told him about Satya Nadella’s transformation at Microsoft, Ed Catmull’s leadership at Pixar, and even how championship sports teams operate.

The best teams? They blend transactional and transformational leadership.

What Is Transformational Leadership?

Transformational leadership is about inspiration, vision, and empowerment. It moves beyond tasks and metrics to create cultures of innovation and long-term commitment.

Strengths: It drives engagement, fosters problem-solving, and builds loyalty.

Weaknesses: It requires emotional intelligence, trust, and long-term thinking—which some leaders struggle to develop.

Famous transformational leaders include Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), and Elon Musk (Tesla/SpaceX).

That was Arjun’s next step.

Rewiring Leadership: From Manager to Visionary

Over the next few months, Arjun started changing his approach.

✔ Vision Over Tasks: Instead of just reviewing sprint velocity, he tied engineering work to company impact.
✔ Empowerment Over Control: He created ownership pods, where engineers proposed solutions instead of just executing tasks.
✔ Culture Over Compliance: He recognized and developed people—not just their output.
✔ Coaching Over Correcting: Instead of only pointing out mistakes, he mentored engineers on decision-making and long-term career growth.

The result?

Arjun was still data-driven and structured. But now, he was also a visionary.

Lessons from Satya Nadella and Pixar’s Ed Catmull

Arjun’s evolution mirrors what happened at Microsoft under Satya Nadella.

Before Nadella became CEO, Microsoft had a rigid, process-heavy culture. Developers worked in silos, innovation had stalled, and internal competition was killing morale. Nadella shifted Microsoft from a transactional leadership model to a transformational one—focusing on growth mindset, empowerment, and innovation. The result? Microsoft became one of the most valuable companies in the world.

A similar shift happened at Pixar under Ed Catmull. Early on, Pixar’s leadership team realized that managing creative teams strictly through structure and efficiency would kill innovation. Instead, they built a culture where feedback was open, risks were encouraged, and people had ownership over their creative work. That’s what made Pixar’s storytelling legendary.

Arjun didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. He just had to apply these same principles to his team.

The Leadership Balance Model

If you want to build a team that both executes efficiently and innovates boldly, you need to balance both leadership styles.

✔ Transactional Leadership: Drive performance with structure.
✔ Transformational Leadership: Inspire growth with vision.
✔ Balance Both: Lead a team that delivers and innovates.

What This Means for You

If you’re leading a team—whether in tech, business, or sports—ask yourself:

Great leadership isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about impact.

As Jeff Weiner, former LinkedIn CEO, once said:
“Inspiration is the most important part of our strategy.”

Leaders like Arjun don’t just hit KPIs. They build cultures that win.

Which kind of leader are you?

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Adam Kreek is on a mission to positively impact organizational cultures and leaders who make things happen.

Kreek is an Executive Business Coach who lives in Victoria, BC, near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Seattle, Washington, USA, in the Pacific Northwest. He works with clients globally, often travelling to California in the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, Georgia, Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. He is an Olympic Gold Medalist, a storied adventurer and a father.

He authored the bestselling business book, The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen. 

Discover our thoughts on Values here.

Want to increase your leadership achievement? Learn more about Kreek’s coaching here.

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