The one thing that is guaranteed to get you fired from your CTO or Exec Tech Leader role
Recently I was talking to an amazing CEO of a number of businesses.
I asked him what he thought was the most important thing that his CTOs needed to work on.
And he went on to say that this is the one thing that a CTO would get fired for.
You might not think that it would be this, although I have to agree with him.
And that is – Communication & people skills.
We both agreed that the issue is not the technical skill.
It is not the ability to write great code, but it is the ability to step up as a leader with the people skills to be able to inspire others, to gain credibility and to communicate in a way that the rest of the business can understand.
Often the CTO is great at speaking about technical stuff, but when it comes to explaining it to another audience, then they struggle, get down in the weeds and confuse, or worse, bore everyone.
This means that they are not influential, they are not focusing on the right level at the right time, won’t be strategic enough and can’t bring people with them.
Which means that projects don’t get signed off, they don’t get completed, they don’t get implemented, or if they do, they aren’t quite right and not what the customer ordered.
It might mean conflict or misunderstanding that leads to a poorly performing team or warring departments. And, even if you have amazing tech skills, no one will care if the team are not on it.
I get it, you might prefer a line of code to making a presentation, but as a CTO you have got to be able to talk business, and business is about people doing something together for the same cause.
Because if you don’t, the business suffers.
And if the business suffers, you are going to get fired!
So, what can you do to create some superpowers in areas other than your technical prowess?
Here’s just 3 of the many things that we teach on our 12-week Impact Accelerator™ that will get you off to a great start.
- Understand your audience
- Stop trying to teach people about technology
- Chunk up to the point of agreement and understanding
Let me explain:
Understand your audience
An appreciation of who’s in the room is critical if you are to pitch your idea and have people buy in. When you understand your audience, you will know what’s important to them and what’s not.
You will recognise what they need in order to make a decision, and what they don’t need to know. You will see what is going to motivate them or not.
Failing to do this will mean that you present your information in “your way”, which may be helpful to some but totally off for others. Our ability to adapt our communication style is a key superpower for leaders.
Stop trying to teach people everything you know about your subject
When you go into great detail and try to get across all the information that you think is interesting, useful (to you) and exciting in a project, you may feel like it’s right to give everything you have to give.
However, it may not be the case. If you are trying to get buy in, at any level, the reality is that you are probably giving too much information.
You may well be trying to teach them about your subject instead of helping them to understand the key concepts.
Believe me, they don’t care about all of that. They want to know what’s important for them and the business, not the whole shebang!
Chunk up to the point of agreement
So, instead of giving them all you got, think about a higher “chunk”, something they can get the concept of, without having to digest to the nth degree.
If you can give between 3-5 concept points that they can agree with, then what comes beneath is a no-brainer for them.
They don’t need to know more if they get it at concept level. And those 3-5 points are easily digestible for them too.
So you look and sound great, they don’t think you bored the pants of them and you get a yes for that project.
So take a look at your communication and ask yourself if you are indulging yourself with your knowledge when you should be aiming for concept clarity.
If this has resonated with you and you would like to know more, then we teach this and more useful and practical tools in our Impact Accelerator Programme™
Message me to find out about how you can join us on the programme to develop your superpowers.
Also, if you'd like to watch the live I did this week about this same topic, click here
Julie.
Julie "Chief Impact Engineer" Hutchison
P.S. Whenever you are ready...here are 4 ways I can help you increase your impact as a leader:
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