The Anatomy of a Great Tech Leader
The world famous Abbey Road studios in London provided the stage for the latest HotTopics roundtable event for global technology leaders last month.
The panel discussion, on The anatomy of a great tech leader, saw InX Director Natalie Whittlesey joined by tech leaders Sarah Needham (Unique-U Coaching), Phil Brunkard (Forrester Research), Giles Lindsay (Satago Limited) and Miao Song (GLP) to discuss the skills, approach and mindset that make a great tech leader today. We look at the key takeaways from a fascinating discussion.
Connection
With its niche, technical focus and specific lexicon, there was a time when technology was siloed and tech teams were locked away from the rest of the organisation like a guilty secret. It’s now embedded in every part of the business and tech professionals need the softer skills to talk to users in a way they understand. In short, they need to be able to connect with people. We have the tech – now we need tech leaders who can enable people to be the best version of themselves, enabling tech in the process.
Today’s leaders need to create an environment for diverse teams, leveraging the skills in the company to allow everyone to contribute. Natalie said: “It’s important to collaborate and immerse yourself in other parts of the business. You need the ability to understand, engage, facilitate, say yes and, when you say no, to do so for valid reasons – while giving alternatives and solutions.”
The true tech leader is able to shape conversations with the leadership team, which often requires selling skills and the ability to be bold and visionary. But connection also requires humility. “It’s important to have a low ego,” said Nat. “Since the pandemic, we’ve realised that we want to spend our lives doing great things and when asking us for a tech leader, boards are saying ‘make sure they’re a nice person, not someone with a big ego bossing people about.’”
Commerciality
The role of the tech leader has changed almost beyond recognition. The senior tech professional of today is not just expected to be an expert in their field, but a more rounded leader. In order for that to happen, tech leaders need to be curious and open to experimenting with new ideas. By showing the value of tech to the board through collaboration, they can build confidence in their team and its ability to deliver.
“Commerciality is really big,” said Nat. “Tech leaders have gone from back office to being much more about reaching new markets, bringing out new products, getting revenue through tech. They need to be 50% business leader and 50% tech leader. You’ve got to have a high EQ, to be able to talk to customers. At the same time, you need a breadth of tech knowledge.”
You can even argue that the customer relationship itself – the ability to help your business reach new markets and audiences – is now more important than the CRM or enhancement. “Many people say they’re not doing tech anymore,” said Nat, “they’re orchestrating everyone else doing the tech while they understand the direction of the business. It’s difficult to go from being in the tech to thinking strategically.”
Gone are the days when tech teams didn’t talk to the rest of the business to understand how it was utilising software. Today tech is the heartbeat of every modern organisation, and this is reflected in the style of the tech leader. Where they were once of a command and control mindset, their more exoteric role in the business means they’re now immersed in its culture and in a unique position to understand wider business processes.
Staying relevant
Tech projects used to take a notoriously long time. Now, thanks to tech acceleration and agile engineering, new tech and features are introduced on a weekly basis. In a world of constant change, you need to constantly change too. If you don’t grow, you will be outdated. That’s why tech leaders need to quickly learn about new tech and solutions and ensure the whole organisation understands the role of tech.
To do that, they need the curiosity to learn and the understanding that they don’t need to be right. They need the willingness to be wrong and ask questions. It’s important to create a space where people can be challenged, because that’s where innovation happens.
But how do you stay relevant as a tech leader when things are changing so quickly? “Tech leaders are really relevant to organisations now as tech is fundamental to every business,” said Natalie. “Listening to the team’s ideas is an important part of keeping in touch with what’s going on in the tech world. It’s a balancing act between wanting to pile up the new innovations but needing investment from the board. You will only keep being relevant if you try and stay ahead or if you’re a fast follower.”
Encouraging autonomy
The fact that they’re building products for people to use means that tech, engineering and digital teams are closer to the customer than most people in the business. That’s why tech leaders need to give them autonomy and authority, empowering them to try things out, fail and learn. By cultivating a culture of innovation, they can empower the whole organisation to innovate effectively.
At the same time, a fundamental part of the tech leader’s role today is coaching and mentoring. A new member of the team will welcome the trust of their leader and hopefully revel in having the autonomy to create something fantastic, but they might find it daunting, too. They need to know that their leader’s behind them every step of the way and will view any failure as a learning experience. Having that freedom to fail, get up and try again, is so important.
Storytelling
With technology advancing like never before, business leaders want to know how innovations like ChatGPT, AI and machine learning can be useful for their business. But implementing these innovations into your environment can be complicated. As a tech leader, educate the board about why your business might not be ready for them. Be one step ahead.
But that doesn’t mean you should reject all their requests for new technology out of hand. A lot of the time, a leader will have heard about a particular technology and want to know more about it. Share case study examples of the technology in practice and show the journey you’ll need to go on to get there. In a joined up business, this kind of storytelling is pivotal to showing everyone how to sell your solutions to customers.
Conclusion
With their mix of human connectivity, commerciality, business relevance, leadership and storytelling, we’re increasingly seeing the senior tech leader on the board, where they can educate the rest of the C-suite on the value of tech and display a level of business acumen that they haven’t necessarily been associated with in the past.
And things will continue to change. Children are now born into tech and new innovations are arriving all the time. As our relationship with technology continues to evolve, the tech leader 20 years in the future is likely to be very different to the tech leader of today. Events like these are crucial in helping us understand what the makeup of this tech leader will be.
HotTopics is a global C-suite executive company bringing together world leading organisations, inspirational industry experts and aspiring business leaders to create meaningful connections, share industry insight and set the agenda for business on the global stage. Find out more about HotTopics here.
If you’re looking for a leader for your technology team or you’re a tech leader looking for your next opportunity, please contact our Technology, Digital and Transformation team.