A strong tech lead role is less about being the smartest person in the room and more about creating a room where sharp decisions are routine.
I try to keep one principle constant: ambiguity is expensive. The team moves faster when priorities, tradeoffs, and quality bars are explicit.
In practice, that means writing short architecture notes, forcing tradeoff discussions early, and preserving maker time by reducing meeting churn.
High trust teams do not need heavy control. They need clear constraints, honest feedback loops, and fast, visible outcomes.