Tech Credibility vs People Leadership: Finding the Unicorn That Doesn’t Exist
When I sit down with a client to take a brief for a tech leadership role, I often hear the same familiar line:
“I know we’re looking for a unicorn, but…”
It’s said with a smile, but beneath it lies a problem that slows down hiring, confuses candidates, and leaves teams without the leaders they need.
Because - as I hope we all know - unicorns don’t exist.
And when you build a role around one, you end up with something worse than an impossible brief: confusion.
Confusion inside the hiring team about what you really want. Confusion in the market about what the role actually is. And that lack of clarity kills confidence faster than almost anything else.
The Unicorn Trap
When clients talk about unicorns, they’re usually describing a candidate who can do several things, such as:
Command respect technically (still close to the code, credible with engineers).
Lead brilliantly (coach, scale, motivate, measure, and build culture).
Align seamlessly with stakeholders (commercial understanding and cross-functional appreciation).
In other words: someone who could do several full-time jobs at once.
Candidates who are outstanding in just one or two of these areas are rare enough. Candidates who excel at all three tend to have hooves, a horn, and a dashing, sparkly complexion.
When companies hold out for the mythical ‘perfect blend’, searches drag on, credibility in the market slips, and the business problem the hire was meant to solve goes unresolved.
The Key Question: In Tech Leadership, How Much ‘Tech’ is Enough?
In a search last year, for example, I heard two very different views from senior stakeholders about their Director of Engineering role:
One suggested the candidate might be expected to help solve problems at a code-level.
Another felt that wasn’t realistic, and that what really mattered was not being completely lost in technical discussions, and knowing when to refer to a Principal or Staff Engineer.
For companies of a certain size and structure, both of these views can make sense. But they describe two quite different roles. And without internal alignment, the market hears mixed messages, and candidates self-select out.
On one hand, you get the people-manager types who say, “Why would a leader need to be that close to the tech?”. On the other hand, you get technical purists who say, “I don’t want to spend all day in performance reviews - I want to stay close to the code.”
When those competing expectations aren’t reconciled internally, candidates pick up on it quickly. As one Engineering Manager I spoke with recently put it:
“Certainty matters. If there’s uncertainty in the requirement, it’s a confidence killer.”
When the brief feels vague, everyone loses faith: candidates in the job, and hiring teams in the search.
Why People Leadership Matters
Across all functions, the greater the leadership responsibility, the less value comes from hands-on technical ability. What creates real impact is the ability to:
Coach and retain talented individual contributors.
Build processes that scale.
Create career opportunities for others.
Bring clarity where there’s ambiguity.
Align functional priorities with business priorities.
Put simply: you don’t need your Head of Engineering to review code. You need them to create an environment in which dozens of engineers can write better code, faster, and in alignment with business goals.
Moving Beyond Unicorns
So how do you break the “we need a unicorn” cycle?
Prioritise ruthlessly. Agree internally on the 2–3 traits that really matter for success in the role. Everything else is secondary.
Define ‘tech credibility’ clearly. Does it mean understanding the SDLC? Being able to challenge a timeline? Or genuinely debugging a system? Think about what this person will do in a typical day/week. Don’t leave it vague.
Assess for people leadership with the same rigour as technical skills. Many failed hires are brilliant technically but poor at coaching, alignment, or culture.
Acknowledge trade-offs openly and make peace with them. At best, a candidate will be 70-80% of your idealised brief today. But with a growth mindset, and support, they’ll deliver >100% of the value down the line.
The Takeaway
Hiring tech leaders isn’t about hunting for unicorns. It’s about clarifying what really matters in a role.
Stand firm on a wish list of requirements, and prepare for tedious search and some unflattering PR with your candidate market.
Because if your spec feels muddled, confidence evaporates.
So the next time you’re about to say “we’re looking for a unicorn…”, stop right there. Instead ask:
“What problem do we really need this leader to solve, and which mix of technical credibility and people leadership will get us there?”
Clarity is what separates a confident hire from another six months chasing a mythical beast.