Category: Technology Leadership

In April 2020, in the midst of this global lockdown of ours, we decided to reach out to our network of global tech leaders and to conduct a series of interviews

Giving constructive feedback to the people you manage is often one of the more uncomfortable tasks you face as a tech leader and yet it’s one of the most important leadership skills to get right.

“You like potato and I like potahto, You like tomato and I like tomahto Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto, Let’s call the whole thing off” – Ira / George Gershwin When CTO Academy started in 2018 we were in classic lean start up mode. We thought we had a good idea but were not sure what the…

Alongside the established heavyweight acronyms of LOL, GWS and GSOH arrives the definitive acronym of our time. Prior to Covid-19, WFH occupied a niche space in the acronym world … World Federation of Healing Wartime Flying Hours Wages For Housework Weep For Humanity (which might be pushing hard for top dog WFH status) … but…

“May you live in interesting times” is an English expression claimed to be a translation of a traditional Chinese Curse. It tends to emerge under cover of english irony because most of us will probably agree, we’d rather be living in more uninteresting times. But as leaders and managers of people and organisations, it’s our…

Are tech leaders responsible for taking care of operational planning or is it their job to get involved in strategic planning? How do you define a tech leader’s roles and responsibilities?

“as a new CTO I struggled with the jump from dev to management, especially at a time of growth and change at my company. It wasn’t always clear what that change needed to look like” These comments from one of our mentees is not untypical of the challenges faced, particularly by newly appointed CTOs and…

“Coaching isn’t therapy – it’s product development with you as the product” I started my career as many of us did, messing around at home with a PC, Mac or phone (my youth pre-dates the smartphone!) trying to understand how the operating systems worked and whether they could be tweaked. I experimented with the technologies of…

Moving into a new company or new role with an established team can be a challenge. Amplify that challenge if you’re taking over from a popular predecessor. How do you start building trust and managing the star performer(s)? You’re inheriting a team, potentially hand picked and who’ve long since been through the forming, storming, norming,…