Tech Leadership, In So Many Words … #9 Mindset

That journey into the CTO role will often require a fundamental transition from the core technical capabilities you’ve worked on throughout your career to date, to the leadership skills necessary to have an impact at the c-suite level.

And leadership should be viewed differently to management.

Peter Drucker was quoted as saying that “management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

One of the fundamental changes required is a shift in mindset as you move from being one of the team to leading the team.

Delegation is one example of a shift in mindset that can be challenging especially during the early days of your leadership career.

You might feel that you can do the job as well if not better than those around you but you also know that letting go is the only way to build and scale a team.

You have to let go or the team will become demotivated and you will become exhausted.

You need to put your team ahead of you and learn to trust them.
You need to focus on the value add your CEO wants you to deliver.
And the value add won’t come from you hanging onto the code.

A change of mindset is challenging for many of us but it’s one of the pivotal changes necessary when moving up into senior technology roles.

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