I wonder how much empathy plays into it? I’ve trended towards teach lead roles and not that I feel my code is necessarily special, I think it’s clean enough and concise at times - occasionally some ASCII art slips in of course…

But what I have noticed across multiple companies is that I offer feedback for reviews that is thorough when it counts - I may pick apart a huge PR with lots of notes and suggestions, and that’s because the change has the potential to impact large systems. I also explain why, and I ask questions of the engineer to make sure I know why they did a thing because maybe I missed something.

I also talk to managers, product, and design, and do a lot of listening. Often times people are working towards a goal, or working against some barrier to getting their goals met, and being able to listen and understand them lends to a lot of credibility. And when you do a lot of that listening, you inherently gain a good amount of understanding of the systems - both technical and human.

When the time comes for someone to say “we should have a new lead on X”, the people that listen and engage tend to rise to that position naturally.

I think accountability and empathy go hand in hand to some degree - by owning something, you’re also saying “I understand how my work might impact other things, other people, and I want to reassure you that I have your back”.