> I disagree with this. I think there are a lot of people who don't like being a leader for lots of reasons...
Note that you are talking about different things from OP.
OP was talking about managing, you are talking about leading. These are two very distinct skills. Sometimes you can find both in the same person, but these people are few and far between, since each of these roles is already a full time job.
Everything I've experienced in my professional life has taught me this: managers who can't lead can't manage, and leaders who can't manage cannot lead. Never once have I worked for a manager who didn't see themselves as a leader, and never once have I met someone who called themselves a leader who wasn't management.
People who are stellar managers, have extremely high empathy and EQ, understand their engineers, prop them up, help their career, guide them toward both professional and personal growth. They also did not have a single ounce of leadership or charisma in them, very low technical chops, no vision, and not interested in providing team leadership.
I've also met stellar leaders, visionaries, who inspired, entranced teams with every single word that came out of their mouth. They provided short and long term directions, technical and product guidance, motivation. And they were absolutely terrible human managers. Could not place themselves in other people's shoes. Didn't really care about managing the career or growth of people on their teams. Were only focused on matters that did not involve any human feelings.
These kinds of people both have their places and they complement each other wonderfully.
And sometimes, you find these two very distinct, polar opposite qualities, in one single person. But like I said, this is much more the exception than the rule.
And of course, the reality is that most people lie on a spectrum between these two extremes.
A leader can lead initiatives just via building relationship and having expertise without role power or any reports.