I love the conversations that arise as a result of posts like this. The following comment within the conversation is a brilliant summary of how a technical person may develop their skills to be more prepared for a business leadership position: https://lnkd.in/eq9NEebF I particularly like the response here because it's more informative than the standard "do less technical work" response that is given. Thanks, Adelina Chalmers. #leadership #personaldevelopment
Advises Engineering Leadership (CTO | VP | Head of Engineering) on how to build tech strategy, accelerate delivery and demonstrate bottom line impact. The Executive Mindset CTO Newsletter
Most companies get this wrong when hiring a CTO: They hire highly technical, perhaps even world leading experts in their narrow field of technology, instead of hiring as CTO a business strategist with broader technical expertise in that industry. I'll explain: The CTO sets the direction for the technical strategy to achieve the business strategy. If you hire a CTO that's a world leader in X technology, they're likely hyper focused on that, but have no strategic view of how this technology can serve the business. A strategic CTO can always hire subject matter experts (and give them fancy titles like Chief Science Officer or Chief Nanoparticles Engineer, or Chief Robotics Engineer) and harness their exceptional technical talent for the company's technology strategy. Instead, companies hire a highly technical CTO and then are disappointed when this technical expert is not strategic. This technical expert became an expert because they focused their life's work on this technology. They didn't focus their life's work on business tech strategy in your industry. You need a CTO who understands business first, and technology second. Otherwise, you'll find yourself spending incredible amounts of money on doing engineering work (as well as pet projects) which are not strategic, and therefore are not focused on bringing real value to the business. Challenge me if you think I'm mistaken. I'm absolutely open for debate! What kind of CTO should companies be recruiting? #cto #ceo #recruitment #reengineeringleadership
Bhaveet Shah a CTO that loses their technical chops, is not a CTO. You have to have both
Inspiring big ideas in little people.
7moIndeed, and it is a balance that has to be maintained between the two. I've met people who have struggled with this balance. At the highly technical extreme, they struggle to let go, causing the team to avoid taking ownership. At the other end, not engaging with the work being done, and largely leaving the team to figure everything out, including the business. Given time with a place/space, you can work out both the technical and business enough to attempt doing this balance. It can be done quickly, but this seems to come with increased risk taking. (And then back to business.... Is it comfortable with those risks?)