At Manchester Tech Festival’s Leadership Day, Counter’s Technical Director, James Heggs, ran a packed workshop called “Compassionate Clarity: Leading Tech Teams Without Losing Your Mind (or Your People)”.
The room was full of engineering directors, heads of tech and CTOs – all grappling with what it really means to lead well in an environment that’s fast-moving, high-pressure, and people-first.
James introduced his mantra of compassionate clarity – a leadership mindset that blends empathy with directness. Think radical candour but…. Compassion without clarity can leave teams lost; clarity without compassion can leave them burnt out. The art is in holding both.
To put the concept into practice, the room split into two groups and worked through two real-world leadership scenarios.
Scenario 1: Escaping the “Feature Factory”
The setup:
You’ve got a roadmap that’s longer than the time available – and a growing pile of technical debt that desperately needs attention.
The questions:
What are your next actions? How do you influence stakeholders? What are your next actions?
What the groups discussed
Both groups quickly landed on one thing: you can’t lead through chaos without first creating shared understanding.
That means:
- Getting clear on the problem and the constraints – delivery targets, resources, priorities, timelines.
- Breaking things down into tangible trade-offs, not vague goals.
- Mapping stakeholders to those trade-offs: who’s affected by what, and where decisions actually get made.
As one group put it: “Talk of trade-offs is important. To establish trade-offs, you need relationships.”
From there, the discussion moved to influence – how leaders can steer decisions without resorting to command-and-control.
Influencing through evidence, options, and shared ownership
- Use data as a lever. Historical velocity, cost per sprint, or the opportunity cost of ignoring tech debt – data helps stakeholders see impact beyond opinion.
- Present options, not ultimatums. As one group noted, saying “no” shuts the conversation down. But saying “we can do A, B, or C – here’s what each means” opens it up and gives everyone agency.
- Speak the same language. Framing tech debt in financial terms (“like normal debt – it has interest and a repayment plan”) helps senior leaders grasp its urgency, or indeed, lack of urgency. Maybe it can wait, maybe we can afford to look at that full repayment next year, rather than now.
When to bail
Every leader hits a point where influence runs out. For some, that’s when “nobody compromises.” For others, it’s when the agreed approach stops being respected.
As one participant put it: “If I know it’s going to fail, I have to walk. I can’t be complicit.”
The takeaway? Compassionate clarity doesn’t mean staying endlessly patient. It means being clear – with others and yourself – about where your boundaries lie.
Scenario 2: When compassion meets clarity in difficult conversations
The second scenario explored one of the hardest parts of leadership – under performance and subsequent removal from the team.
This prompted a thoughtful conversation that spanned the HR process, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness.
The fundamentals
Before anything else, good leadership means doing things by the book:
- Following a formal, documented process.
- Setting clear, measurable expectations (SMART goals).
- Accommodating any special requirements and being mindful of protected characteristics.
- Involving HR early – it’s their expertise. Crucially, not shying away from responsibility but utilising HR as an awareness and advising board.
The human side
But clarity on paper isn’t enough. What one person thinks is clear might not land that way. Leaders need to check understanding, invite reflection, and keep feedback two-way.
And once a decision is made:
- Be respectful and transparent (within appropriate boundaries) with the rest of the team.
- Anticipate emotional ripple effects.
- And crucially – look after yourself too.
One comment summed it up beautifully:
“If your battery is low that day, don’t do it. Wait until you can do it properly, with the compassion and clarity the situation deserves.”
Tech Leadership fundamentals
Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about holding the tension between care and candour, especially when the stakes are high.
As James reminded the room, compassionate clarity is a practice, not a personality trait. It’s built in the moments we ask hard questions, make trade-offs visible, and communicate with honesty – even when it’s uncomfortable.
Wanting to be liked can make that harder. It’s a natural instinct, but one rooted in self-protection rather than service. True compassionate clarity means caring deeply enough to tell people the hard truths – not because it’s easy, but because it’s what they need to hear.
“It’s not about being liked, it’s about being trusted,” James said. “It’s the difference between being nice and being kind. Clarity is an act of care. When you give people the truth with empathy, you help them grow – that’s real leadership.”
