First, figure out what you want for yourself. Are you even interested in a leadership position? If not, all working at it is likely to do is make you miserabl

First, figure out what you want for yourself. Are you even interested in a leadership position? If not, all working at it is likely to do is make you miserable. In that case, you'll probably need to adjust your compensation target down a bit because as you become more senior in pay, there is often an expectation of some form of leadership traits to go along with it. Many companies won't financially reward technical excellence alone. If you're interested in a leadership role but just don't know how to go about it, you need to decide what kind of leadership role are you interested in. The technical aspects of the project? Leading a team? Moving into management? Something else? (people on the business side will almost always try to guide you to managing people since that's usually the most commonly accepted/rewarded career track... but it's not for everyone) Once you know that, then you can go about developing the needed skills.