I know firsthand that the characteristics of a great engineer - problem-solving skills, a deep understanding of technology, and a results-driven mindset - are the exact same things that any executive, in any industry, must have in order to succeed.

Your superpowers don't change, they scale

There's a buried insight here that most people miss when they climb the ladder: the skills that made you good at your actual job don't disappear once you're in charge—they become even more critical. A great engineer doesn't suddenly need to forget how to debug a system; they just need to debug larger, messier human ones instead.

The real tension is that we often treat leadership like a completely different sport. We promote people for being exceptional at their craft, then act surprised when they struggle because they're now playing a game with different rules. But Paliwal is pointing at something true: the core moves are the same. You're still breaking complex problems into manageable pieces. You're still asking what the data actually shows rather than what you hope it shows. You're still thinking about whether something works or doesn't, and fixing it when it doesn't.

Where it gets interesting is recognizing that this applies far beyond engineering. A chef running a restaurant, a teacher leading a school, a nurse managing a unit—they all need the same relentless clarity about what's broken and what actually fixes it. The mistake isn't taking your problem-solving brain to a leadership role. It's assuming you need to suddenly become someone else.