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Articles and resources
Artificial Intelligence for Leaders: Why Tech Leaders Need Judgment, Not Just AI Skills
AI has made many technology professionals feel they need to learn tools, prompts, and automation workflows fast. But for current and aspiring tech leaders, tactical AI skills are not enough. This article explains why artificial intelligence for leaders is really about judgment, strategy, business value, risk, governance, and the leadership capability to guide organizations through AI-driven change.
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Chief Technology Officer in the AI Era: Role, Responsibilities, Skills, and Leadership Priorities
Explore the modern Chief Technology Officer role, responsibilities, skills, AI leadership priorities, and practical ways to build readiness in the AI era.
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T-Shape Dissonance - Primary Cause of Friction in Change Management
The cause of friction in change management is often overlooked, but when put in perspective, the solution reveals itself.
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Managing Neurodiverse Teams: A Practical Guide for Senior Technology Leaders
Neuroinclusive leadership is not about special treatment. It is about designing work so that different minds can do their best work. Here is a practical guide for CTOs and senior technology leaders managing neurodiverse teams.
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Why Digital Transformations Fail: 6 Leader Mistakes + a 90-Day Reset
Redefine digital transformation as value-system redesign. Then use the Transformation Equation+90-day reset to restore outcomes, adoption, and momentum.
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Draw the Definition of Done: A 5-Layer Playbook for Tech Leaders
Is your Definition of Done just a checklist? Discover a 5-layer visual playbook, 20-minute DoD ritual and one-page canvas to help tech leaders ship with less risk and rework.
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Overcoming Parkinson’s Law in Technology Leadership: Speed Through Constraints
Parkinson’s Law causes work to expand to fill time, scope, and capacity. This guide shows tech leaders how to design visible constraints such as Decision Dates, PR size caps, WIP limits, and FinOps guardrails, and measure impact with DORA metrics. Grounded in real case studies (Google, Basecamp, Dropbox), it includes…
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How to Be an Effective CTO
Based on the MBA lecture, this article unpacks practical strategies and key traits of an effective CTO through 7 evidence-backed principles.
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Combating the Peter Principle in Technology Leadership
Discover practical tactics to combat the Peter Principle in technology leadership—prevent execution drift, retain top engineers, and optimise cloud strategy.
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Tech Leadership In So Many Words…#32: Analytical
Andrew Weaver's take on the necessity of the analytical leadership mind - in so many words. This is the 32nd term he explained in the ISMW series.
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Build Your Personal Board of Advisors
Stop searching for a unicorn mentor. Build a five-person board of advisors—even on a shoestring budget—and see why our Digital MBA bakes this network in from day one.
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Tech Leaders' Guide to Building Resilient Remote Engineering Teams
A step-by-step guide to building resilient remote engineering teams equipped to thrive across time zones and communication barriers.
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Tech Leadership In So Many Words…#31: Innovative
Andrew Weaver's tech leadership minute; this time about being an innovative tech leader - in so many words.
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Tech Leadership in So Many Words...#30 - Decisive
In the fluid and constantly changing world of tech, decisiveness is crucial, particularly in agile teams that often operate with a flat hierarchy and are expected to be autonomous. However, this structure can sometimes lead to a scenario where "too many chefs and not enough cooks" impede swift decision-making. Being…
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Tech Leadership in So Many Words...#29: Adaptive
Adaptability in tech leadership is the ability to change one's approach and strategy to meet new challenges and environments effectively. It is a trait that allows leaders not just to respond to changes but to thrive amid them. Bruce Lee's famous philosophy, " Be like water ", perfectly encapsulates this idea. Water…
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Addressing Pivotal Challenges in Organisational Working Practices
Recently, we surveyed technology leaders and engineers to explore the key difficulties organisations face regarding contemporary work arrangements. The study presented participants with a list of potential challenges and recorded the frequency with which each was identified. As you can see, sustaining creativity and…
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Maintaining Data Integrity in Challenging Environments
This article provides alternative solutions for five biggest data management challenges start-up and scale-up CTO face in worst case scenarios.
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How to Create a Robust and Flexible Decision-Making Framework
Decision-making framework template for managing two conflicting departments dependent on each other's productivity.
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How to Improve Developer Productivity - Guide for Tech Leaders
Rebecca Murphey, the Field CTO at Swarm, delved into improving developer productivity in a recent CTO Shadowing session we hosted.
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Ethical Hacking and Cybersecurity - Expert's Perspective
This article is based on a CTO Shadowing session with Bryan Seely, an ethical hacker and cybersecurity expert. Bryan is a former marine who, by his own admission, wiretapped the US Secret Service and FBI. Later, he worked with John McAfee and Mark Cuban and founded the Black Hat Conference in Riyadh in 2021.…
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CTO's Role in Cybersecurity: Complete Guide
This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the responsibilities of a CTO in ensuring their organisation's cybersecurity.
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Tech Leadership in So Many Words...#28: Resilient
Resilience in technology leadership encapsulates more than enduring tough times; it's about thriving amidst the many challenges and rapidly evolving scenarios that you'll face. Successful tech leaders understand and sometimes anticipate the obstacles that will be placed in their path but can adapt their strategies…
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Year In a Worklife of a Scale-up Chief Technology Officer
Recently, we had Emily Castles, CTO at a scaling start-up, Boundless, joining us for her fourth CTO Shadowing session. She reflected on their journey over the past year and, by doing that, provided an exclusive look into the challenges of a scale-up Chief Technology Officer who has to recover from severe financial…
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Your First 90 Days in a CTO Role
Jason Noble, our CTO, explaines 7 focus areas during the first 90 days in a CTO role by using real-life examples to describe different situations.
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Tech Leadership in So Many Words... #27 - Inspirational
Andrew explains how to transform a challenge into an opportunity - in the fewest words possible, of course.
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CTO Priorities in Start-ups and Fast-Growing Businesses: Exploring New Frontiers
We explain CTO priorities in start-ups and fast-growing businesses and how to boost productivity with innovative solutions.
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Conflict Management in the Workplace
This article provides core reasons for conflicts in tech industry workplaces and actionable solutions for successful conflict management
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Designing Remuneration Packages Best Practices
The summary of the lecture in our Digital MBA for Technology Leaders explaining the best practices in designing remuneration packages
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Onboarding Developers - Guide for Technology Leaders
This articles explains the process of onboarding developers and provides an onboarding checklist for technology leaders.
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Tech Leadership in So Many Words... #26 - Agile
What is Agile and what does it mean for technology leaders, explained in the fewest words by our CEO, Andrew Weaver.
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Self-Leadership is Key - MBA Lecture Summary
This Technology Leadership MBA lecture summary, explains what self-leadership is, why you need it and how to develop it.
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Role of Perception in Leadership and How to Change It
How often have you asked yourself, “How could my partner, colleague, or employee have misread my intended communication so badly?” This MBA lecture summary provides the answers, strategies, and suggestions for changing other people’s perceptions of you as a leader and person. We all live in a constant duality between…
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How to Set Up and Run a Productive Meeting
Meetings can easily become an onerous element of any leader. When they're scheduled back-to-back, they a) consume more time than you thought they would and b) don’t solve a thing. With this article, we want to ensure that, if a meeting is needed, you have the exact tools to make it productive, engaging and, finally,…
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Tech Leadership In So Many Words…#25: Collaborative
The essence of collaboration in tech leadership revolves around creating a culture where a common mission, openness, complementary strengths, and collective problem-solving are the pillars. Each team member, with a clear understanding of the overarching goals, contributes uniquely towards achieving breakthroughs.
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Responsibilities, Strategies and Necessary Skills of an Effective Technical Leader
A technical leader bridges the gap between technical teams and business objectives. Unlike general managers, they possess strong technical expertise and can therefore guide engineers and developers. In contrast to tech specialists, however, they have strong leadership and communication skills. The role comes with the…
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Enhancing Collaboration with a Principal Engineer at TechGlobal
An Engineering Manager (EM) at TechGlobal Ltd seeks advice on improving the working relationship with a Principal Engineer (PE) who, despite having extensive experience and a strong principled approach, poses challenges in team interactions and project progress.
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Why and How to Switch to Design Thinking Leadership Model
This article explores the critical role design thinking plays in modern technology leadership and offers steps to switch to it
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Tech Leadership in So Many Words…#24 - Vision
Visionary leaders possess an innate ability to predict trends, envision revolutionary products, or foresee shifts in consumer behaviour long before they become apparent to others.
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Beyond Technical Expertise: Mastering the Art of Tech Leadership
Strong tech leadership provides a compelling vision and roadmap, improving team focus and motivation. Combined with a culture of trust and open communication, it creates a high level of psychological safety for the team. In turn, such a team is more open to risk-taking, innovation and honest discussion of challenges.…
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The Metric Mirage at AgileX Solutions
AgileX Solutions, a leading Software as a Service (SaaS) company encounters a significant challenge when its non-technical Chief Executive Officer (CEO) mandates the use of quantitative metrics to gauge the engineering team’s performance. This requirement starkly contrasts with the perspective of the Head of Engineering (HoE), who advocates for a more nuanced, holistic evaluation approach….
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Tech Leadership in So Many Words...#23 - Influence
We summarise the duality of influence and what wielding influence as a leader means from the perspective of responsibility.
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CEO-CTO Chasm at InnovativeTech
This case study spotlights the need for harmonising business drive and technical stability, managing technical debt, fostering team resilience and responding effectively to crises. It invites readers to contribute ideas for better CEO-CTO alignment and ends as a parable warning of the dangers of strategic misalignment in tech companies.
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Tech Leadership in So Many Words #22 - Mentoring
A minute-guide on how tech leaders can foster a Mentoring culture to accelerate personal, professional and company's growth
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Balancing Team Support and Executive Pressure
Mia, an Engineering Manager, has led her team through several successful product launches, earning praise for their creativity and dedication. However, a challenge from senior management casts a shadow over these achievements. The team’s hard work is starting to take its toll, not due to Mia’s leadership but from the VP of Engineering’s intense pressure…
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Aligning the Sense of Urgency Among Diverse Tech Teams
In a rapidly growing technology company, the engineering, product and platform teams exhibit significantly different senses of urgency regarding project delivery and innovation. This misalignment leads to delays, frustration, inefficient workflows and, ultimately, loss of a competitive edge. Our Global CTO Community offers actionable advice.
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Senior Engineer Struggling to Meet Expectations
The CTO of a start-up is facing a challenge with a Senior Engineer who, despite a promising start and strong technical skills, is delivering work far slower than expected. This situation has arisen after replacing a previous bad hire and deciding how to “delicately” proceed. Our Community offers advice.
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What’s All the Fuss About Tech Debt?
91% of global tech leaders identified tech debt as a 'major concern'. So in this article, we take a deep dive into tech debt with contributions from five senior technology leaders across the CTO Academy community. They will provide their perspective on the problem and potential mitigation strategies towards the…
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Addressing Leadership Challenges in Cross-Departmental Collaboration
An organisation has embarked on a new journey, setting cross-departmental objectives that necessitate seamless collaboration among the subteam leaders from different departments. A team lead, Anisha and her PM counterpart, Gabriella, are at the forefront of this challenge. But they are in conflict with each other.
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Field CTO Job Description w/ Salary Breakdown & Career Prospects
In this post, we explain a Field CTO role, how it differs from a traditional CTO role, what are the job prospects and the average salary.
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Navigating the Leadership Labyrinth – A New Head of Engineering’s Journey
Three months ago, Justin embarked on a pivotal journey as the new Head of Engineering at a startup, following the departure of the previous CTO. Commanding a team of eight, encompassing software developers and testers, Justin’s experience as a former team leader had primed him for this role. Yet, the path to leadership is often…
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Managing Developers: Preventing Over-Reliance and Blackmailing
When a business becomes over-reliant on one or two key developers and they become aware of it. It leads to a form of ‘developer blackmail’ that makes managing developers extremely difficult.
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IT Manager: Role, Responsibilities, Skills and Average Salary
Learn everything about the IT Manager role, job description and responsibilities and see a case study of managing a new project from scratch.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words - #21 Knowledge
For the modern CTO, knowledge generally comes wrapped in three forms … Technical This is often about building a T-shaped skill set, with a general awareness of different technologies, alongside a deep understanding of at least one. This helps you to sharpen your BS antenna about what does and doesn’t “feel” right.…
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Mental Health in the Workplace - A Tech Leaders Perspective
Five seasoned technology leaders answer a series of questions about their experiences managing mental health issues of their employees.
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What's the Value of a CTO?
We talked to a number of high-profile CTOs to understand the value of a CTO in funding processes. Their perspectives provide the true answer.
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The AI Debate - How Is It For You?
We dive deep into the heating debate on pros and cons of AI, tackling all the dangers and challenges it brings to CTOs in near future.
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CTO Job Description with Responsibilities, Qualifications and Salary Breakdown
In this post, we explain a CTO job description, key responsibilities and qualifications of start-up, fast-growth, enterprise and Group CTOs.
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CTO KPIs with Templates and Tracking Procedures - Explained by a Seasoned Chief Technology Officer
In this post, Jason Noble, Academy’s Chief Technology Officer, explains the design of highly relevant CTO KPIs and shows how to use them.
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What is the optimum size for a tech team?
Here we talk about tech teams, price's law and what should be the optimum size for a tech team.
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Tech Leadership in So Many Words...#20 Confidence
Tech Leadership in So Many Words...#20. Andrew deciphers "Confidence" in so many words and reveals the essence of it in business and life.
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Building an Effective Chief Technology Office on Different Business Scales
Detailed insight into the organisational structure of a Chief Technology Office with roles, responsibilities, hierarchies and best practices.
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CTO Responsibilities in Start-Ups and Fast-Growth Businesses
In this article, we are explaining the practical side of CTO responsibilities in start-ups and fast-growth companies.
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Interim CTO: Responsibilities, Onboarding and Power Transfer Process
This post explains the Interim CTO responsibilities, the onboarding process, tenure length and the transfer of powers to a permanent CTO.
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Practical Solutions to Common Challenges of a Remote CTO Position
In this article, we are a) examining the most critical challenges of the Remote CTO role and, more importantly, b) providing practical solutions.
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Tech Leadership in so Many Words…#18 Team
How to most effectively transform a disparate group of individuals into a high-performance team capable of achieving that common goal?
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IT Director: The Role, the Reality, and a Readiness System to Earn It
IT Director guide + 10-minute readiness scorecard. Learn the 9 signals hiring managers use and a practical 30–60–90 plan to close gaps fast.
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What is a Deputy CTO and How to Become One
Learn what is a Deputy CTO, what the path to becoming one looks like and how to best prepare for a job interview.
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Tech Leadership in so Many Words...#17 Perfection
“Perfect is the enemy of good” - Voltaire I am not and never have been a perfectionist, something of a mixed blessing in the past. Some start-up projects went out too soon, were half-baked from the start and met with the underwhelming results they deserved. Whilst other projects went out too soon, but hit the ground…
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What Makes a Good CTO: Essential Qualities for Technology Leaders
In this blog post, you will learn what makes a good CTO from the perspective of experienced and successful technology leaders and their CEOs.
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Part-Time CTO in Today's Business Landscape: Role & Expectations
A part-time CTO is a technology expert who works on a part-time or consulting basis for a company. The aim is to develop and implement the company's technology strategy and oversee all aspects of its technology operations and product development.
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Role of a Chief Technology Officer in Different Business Sizes
In this post, we are explaining the role and responsibilities of a chief technology officer considering the size of the organisation.
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Tech Leadership In So Many Words ... #16 Health
Keep an eye on your health by learning the art of marginal gains
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Tech Leadership In So Many Words... #15 Humility
We look into a tech leadership skill - humility, to quickly demonstrate its importance from the perspective of experience and practice
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What is the Future of Leadership in the Technology Sector?
Unprecedented advances and transformative trends are reshaping leadership in technology sector. As the rapid pace of technological innovation continues, the tech industry faces unique challenges and opportunities. The intersection of artificial intelligence, automation and data-driven insights demands visionaries who…
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Tech Leadership In So Many Words ... #14 Motivation
When you’re a leader, motivation is a two-sided coin. One side is Personal Motivation and what’s driving you. The other is Team Motivation and what’s driving them.
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What is a Fractional CTO and How Do You Become One?
A Fractional CTO is a chief technology officer who provides on-demand services to a company or organization. In other words, it is a freelance contract that implies working for a fraction of the time and cost and just on the part of the project as opposed to full- or part-time CTO positions.
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Tech Leadership In So Many Words ... #13 Change
If there's one constant in our lives, it’s change. So we look at three key areas of change you will have to negotiate in your journey as a technology leader
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Tech Leadership In So Many Words ... #12 Politics
Managing corporate politics is never easy for technology leaders but in some organisations can be a fact of life. We look at where you should focus your energy in dealing with this issue.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words … #11 Strategy
Shaping strategy is a key role for any Chief Technology Officer and so it's crucial for you to create the environment that gives you the space and time to become an effective strategist for your organization.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words … #10 Delegation
Delegation is one of the hardest skills for technology leaders to master.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words ... #9 Mindset
Moving into technology leadership roles requires a fundamental change of mindset from being one of the team, to leading the team.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words ... #8 Vulnerability
Leadership vulnerability it allows team members to feel more comfortable being open and honest with their own concerns, and that will only enhance the team dynamic and their commitment to you and to the project.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words ... #7 Responsibility
A leader is someone who draws others by his or her voice, actions, or choices.You have responsibilities and power as a leader that impact directly on people’s lives
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The Unwritten Laws of Engineering
The unwritten laws of engineering was written in 1944 but remains relevant to tech leaders in 2021
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words ... #6 Ideas
The leader’s job isn’t to have all the ideas. It’s to make sure all the ideas are heard and that the best one wins.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words ... #5 Trust
We have all worked in places where the team doesn’t trust the leader. Where the leader doesn’t trust the team. It rarely ends well.
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Effective Tech Leaders, Anticipate The Need
What if you could anticipate every problem, issue or obstacle in life before they occurred? Effective tech leaders are able to anticipate more than most.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words ... #4 Empathy
What empathy is and should be ... is understanding an employee’s struggles, appreciating a person’s point of view and engaging in a healthy debate that builds to a better solution.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words ... #3 Perception
To become a successful leader you need to acknowledge and understand how perception affects your relationship with other people and from that, your ability to lead.
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Deep Listening and Adopting a Zulu Principle
To be an effective leader you need to acquire the skill of deep listening. Here is a Zulu principle that might help.
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Improving the Cybersecurity of your Company: The Complete Guide
There is no doubt that cybersecurity in companies is more important than ever. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts cybercrime will cost the world in excess of $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words … #2 Self
Being a CTO is much easier (or at least less challenging) when working on something you love rather than a motivation driven by less intrinsic factors, pressures or rewards.
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Tech Leadership, In So Many Words... #1 Curiosity
What makes the difference in leaders? Curiosity stands out amongst a leading quality ...
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10 Steps for CTO`s to Improve Their Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking skills are vital in leadership role. One needs to be able to reason, understand and solve problems.
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7 Steps to Become an Effective CTO
Start your journey to becoming a CTO with these 7 steps that will help you become a highly effective technology leader
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5 Ways An Organisation Can Fail Its Digital Transformation
We live in a dynamic era one in which a new trend today can become a way of life tomorrow. Those who don’t adapt to these changes are at risk of falling significantly behind. It can be worse for organisations because those who don't adapt are at risk of perishing.
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Time To Let It Go ...
One of the most important tech leadership skills is the ability to delegate. You need to trust your team and give them the autonomy that drives innovation. It's time for you to let it go ...
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No-One Ever Told Me .... It Gets Lonely At The Top
What is your expectation of an effective leader? Confident. Knowledgeable. Charismatic. Good Orator. Natural Leader. Inspiring. Expert. But in addition, how about lonely and/or isolated?
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Forget Tech Change, It's Culture Change That Matters Now
Managing change has always been at the core of a technology leader's job description but whereas 10-15 years ago the focus was on tech change, today it’s more likely to be people and culture change that a tech leader has to deal with.
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Build Yourself A Personal Firewall
It’s not only computer systems that need a firewall but anyone in a tech leadership position needs to build one for themselves.
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Are you a Thermostat or a Thermometer?
An article exploring the difference between thermostats and thermometers and how it applies to leadership and the teams we lead
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