What advice would you give engineers who are unsure whether they should pursue leadership roles?

Kunal has good points. A starting point might be to try managing a small project with some team members who are peers. It will teach you how to influence others when you have no power

Leading is more about persuasive skills than direct control

There are many engineers who were pushed into a leadership role, or who wanted the role but misunderstood what it entailed; those people are no longer in those roles because they realized they prefer to be individual contributors (ICs). They lacked an understanding of what it means to manage people. You're no longer just writing code and teaching other people about it. As a leader, you're in charge of people's careers, their growth and, therefore, their livelihood. It takes a very mature person to understand how much influence you have in a leadership role and how important that role is for someone’s career.

Before you take on a leadership position, you need to ask yourself if that is what you truly want to do. Taking on that responsibility takes passion because it's not all glory and it's not easy. There are tough times and you need to have difficult emotional conversations. On the flip side, you have all the benefits of being able to influence someone's career, grow their skills and keep them happy. My advice is to do some research, shadow where you can and look for training. It's a bit risky, but you should try it if you get the opportunity. If you are skeptical about whether you will like leading or not, ask for a short-term contract to give yourself a trial period.