#22: How to Become a Strong Tech Leader

Welcome to "Unleash Your Leadership." In this episode, I delve into the dynamic world of tech leadership. Discover the qualities that define strong leaders in the ever-evolving tech industry as I draw inspiration from luminaries like Satya Nadella, Sheryl Sandberg, and more.

Join me to explore the essence of tech leadership beyond technical skills. From fostering innovation to effective communication, we'll uncover actionable tips for your leadership journey. Embrace shifts in modern leadership paradigms and learn how to manage remote teams and drive innovation.

Whether you're an aspiring leader or a seasoned professional, this episode will equip you with insights to thrive in the tech world. Tune in and chart your course to becoming an exceptional tech leader.

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Transcript

  📍   Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of unleash your leadership. Thank you for joining me today.

What's happening in the tech world. There's a lot going on. A lot of changes coming by. There's a lot of excitement that's happening, especially around the generative AI AI world. We are seeing. New startups spin up new companies coming up. People. Pivoting to  catch the wave of AI. A lot of the  downturn that we were seeing.

A few months ago in the tech world seems to be. Have bottomed out. Or . Seems like ,   📍 it's  going back up. I wanted to talk to you about. This tech world is  an interesting place to be.  Technology. And the intersection of the people that work in technology is a very, very interesting subject to me.

I wanted to share that because. Being a leader. In the tech world is different than some of the other types of companies or domains. Or in a business world. So to say,

 In order to be a strong leader in the tech world. There is a different muscle and a skillset that one needs to employ.

I wanted to talk to you about how to be a  strong leader in the tech world.

The evolving technological landscape. The role of leadership is  becoming more crucial. The tech industry continues to shape our world.  There are lots of leaders in people oriented role and they must possess the skills and qualities necessary to navigate and inspire this dynamic environment.

Let's explore that in this conversation. What does it mean to be a leader and how to be a strong leader in the tech industry? What are the qualities required for success? What. Is the current state of technical leadership. What are some of the ways to become a successful tech leader?

There are lots of great tech leaders out there that I will share as well. There are a lot of great tech leaders out there that we can learn from and gain insights from their approach and learn from their successes as well as setbacks.

First, what is leadership in tech look like? Or tech leadership, what is it?

Any leader who  has roles and responsibilities of individuals and is guiding teams and organizations in the tech sector. And primarily working with technical teams. Is a Tech leader? For example, it can be an engineering manager or director. It can be a security leader. It can be a technical program manager. It can be somebody in the product space as well.

There are a lot of different titles. However, the important thing to note here is that these leaders are responsible for making strategic decision driving the innovation of their teams. Managing programs and teams, and  cultivating a positive and productive work culture. Of course, it is all in service of getting through the, to the business outcomes.

They are  balancing their deep technical expertise. With their strong leadership skills to inspire and motivate their teams. That's the key where you  want to leverage your technical expertise. However, in order to become a  strong leader in tech, Those tech skills are not enough for any of the different tech roles. There are a lot of.

Leadership skills, people skills, soft skills, as you may want to call it. That are required. To be able to make a difference.

If you think of a great tech leader, somebody who has  come in and turn things around. And has a strong tech background. I can think of is Satya Nadella the CEO of Microsoft. There's this essence of this strong leadership. He took over Microsoft at a time when the company was facing significant challenges.

And  transformed it. Into a leading cloud computing provider, but also with all of. His investments in the AI world.  Taking charge. And moving forward. His leadership style. Does you. Emphasize a lot of inclusivity and growth mindset.  What is it that not just I, or the team can do, but what is it that the company can do to continue to grow, not sit on the laurels because as we know a lot of companies.

Do do not survive if they don't adapt and shift. With his leadership, it has  driven a culture of innovation and continuous learning at Microsoft. If you talk to people at Microsoft today, they are .  Happy with the turnaround that the company has seen and it's become  the cool places to work again, which I know a few years back it wasn't.

So, what does it  mean to be a leader in the tech industry? Right. Being a leader, like I said, goes beyond the technical expertise. It  requires a deep understanding of this ever-changing technology landscape. The ability to adapt to new trends and advancements, just like how Satya Nadella

I did. And having a vision that will guide the team towards success.  I tend to need a  needs to have a holistic perspective. Considering not only the technical programs or projects. But also the impact to the business object is the customer's needs and employee group so think about when you are  looking at it from all angles.

That's what tech leadership. is about it is not one dimensional and not entirely focused on the technical know-how or expertise.

I want to emphasize the fact be it a tech leader in any type of a title. Is that you want to be able to go beyond the technical know-how? That is of course the foundation of who you are. And where you are. In order to then get to the next level and  become a strong leader. Is to look at all different dimensions, learn more about the business, understand the culture, understand the people, and understand your customer.

Somebody who comes in mind for the strong leadership skills is Sheryl Sandberg. The who is the former chief operating officer at Facebook or Meta. She  played a key and, crucial role in scaling Facebook's business, operations and revenue while championing diversity and empowerment for women.  She may not have necessarily come from a.

Deep technical engineering  background. However, she understood the importance of combining the technical expertise and understanding the technical landscape. With a focus on. Business diversity inclusion. And driving innovation so that it creates a positive impact.

Facebook's culture is. is  known. And very inclusive.

From personal experience, I can say that it was one of the best places that I worked in because there were so many different opportunities. There were. Ways to grow. There were ways to learn. People were  open. And inclusive.  The sense of belonging  goes up when you build a culture like that.

Especially in a core tech company like Facebook.

What are the qualities that make a leader in the tech space?  Strong. What are you looking for?

Firstly a tech leader, like most leaders has to be a visionary. They should be able to possess a clear vision and then be able to articulate that to, to their teams, to the people. And inspire others to work towards a shared goal.

Tech leaders are also anticipating what are the future needs that embracing innovation and  guiding their teams to then align with those efforts and in service of the overall organizational strategy.

Now again, if you have a lot of technical expertise, But lack the vision or if you have the vision, but lack a way to articulate it. Then that is something that tech leaders  need to develop. I  encourage you to think about how you continue to express your ideas and bring forth your vision, to  inspire and influence the people you're leading.

We all know about Elon Musk. He is  the visionary behind Tesla and SpaceX. And of course, you know, there are more things happening now, but even , if you look at the things in the past, he  exemplifies the importance of having a bold vision. And going forward with it. His vision for creating a sustainable transportation space exploration.

Energy storage. Those are all things that have made him who is, and also the companies and the products. A lot of tech folks are  Revere him. He has the ability to inspire and lead the teams towards achieving these audacious goals. And  showcasing the power. What visionary leadership can do in the tech world.

Another visionary that we all love. Is Steve jobs. There's something that he knew would be important. That's what we know with apple and its products. We love them. Now everybody is, you know, They're an apple fan. And. A lot of it has to do with the vision of Steve jobs. His understanding of customers and what they might need in the future.

Right. When the iPhone or the iPod came out, nobody was  looking for a  something small to put it in that pocket to carry music on the way there was, yes, there was the Walkman. There was the CD portable CD players. I don't know if y'all know, those or not.

They were not  trying to customers were not thinking I need an iPod. I need an iPhone. They were happy with what they had. But here's the thing. His vision. To  making information available at your fingertips. Made such a big difference. It is almost a turning point. In the tech history.

He'll always be known, and revered

secondly, tech leaders need to have adaptability. Like I mentioned, A lot has been changing. This is a fast paced world of technology today. We have AI, not sure what's going to come tomorrow. Tech leaders need to embrace this change. They need to be open to new ideas. They need to think about encouraging experimentation and learning within their teams. 

This means that not all bets will pan out. It will result in mistakes and failures. However, It is still important. That the teams are given the opportunity. To be able to experiment and play with what's coming up. Because that's how innovation comes up. How many companies have you seen that have not been able to innovate? 

Because they were either. Not understanding where the technical landscape is moving. Or. They were too focused on the winds they had already had. 

One example that comes to mind, is the company Evernote.  Great product when it came out. People were  using it. A lot of customer growth. And company growth as well. However, there's so much competition that's happening. Things are evolving all the time. People want. The information available across multiple devices at any time, anywhere. 

In some ways that company was not able to grow their product out of the basic note taking product that it was maybe there was something else. Right.  If you think about Google as an example, it's one of the companies that has continued to innovate. It has continued to expand and diversify the products that it is putting out there in the world. 

That is what innovation is about. If you think about the leaders at Google, that is something that they have demonstrated. Their exceptional about ability and adaptability. Sundar Pichai is, is a well known leader, the CEO of Google, and  through his tenure at Google, he has successfully led the company through various transformations. There's been so much right. There was the early world of Chrome. Then  after search, of course, then there was mobile. Then there was cloud. 

Or  workspace like Google workspace. There is  AI now. He has  been instrumenting instrumental in dry diversifying Google's product portfolio. His ability to adapt, allows him to navigate this ever evolving tech landscape. And position Google for future growth. 

The third thing I wanted to talk to you about is effective communication. Now, of course, like I mentioned, being a visionary is great. Having the adaptability is great. But having strong communication skills is essential for a tech leader because you want to be able to articulate complex concepts. 

To all types of audiences, not just technical audiences, you're going to have to explain it to non-technical audiences, your finance folks who. Who understand the language of dollars, right. Numbers. It might be sales again, numbers, marketing, you know, customers. There is so many different people in this tech landscape. 

Even though their core skillsets are all important functions, marketing sales, finance. Operations. You want to be able to articulate as a tech leader, as somebody who is heading a big tech company. What what is it that we are doing? How does it translate to what you're looking at? How does it translate to higher sales numbers? How does it translate to customer needs that you can use in marketing? How does it translate to higher revenue? 

They need to be able to build those relationships across technical and non-technical teams. They need to be able to provide a clear direction. They should be able to convey this technical information. 

They should be able to connect all this technical information in a way that is easily understood. 

Somebody who's known to do that is Susan Wojcicki who was the former CEO of YouTube. She  emphasize the importance of effective communication in her leadership approach. With a background in technology and marketing was this skill of successfully at communicating YouTube's value proposition to a global audience. 

And  build strong relationship with content creators. We all know and love Youtube there's so much great material out there.  Her ability to able to communicate these complex ideas in a relatable manner has been  instrumental for YouTube's growth and success over the years. 

Fourth. Empathy.  All leaders in people oriented roles must have empathy towards their teams and organizations, customers. To  be able to build that trust and credibility.  Understanding every individual's needs, challenges and aspirations allows them to support these teams better to foster collaboration. 

That eventually leads to a positive work environment and a stronger innovation. 

On the same lines, the empathy also allows you to understand what is the customer going through? What do they need? One of the key initiatives or something that was  done well at Facebook was having this customer empathy bear. Where every team, especially in the Ads space  was. Making sure they are using the products just so they understand the customers. We all know we all dogfood it's called dogfooding we all dog food. 

A lot of the products. Essentially we test out the products like customer ourselves, so that we understand the pain points of the customer. That's creating empathy. If leaders can be empathetic and demonstrate that it also enables others on their teams to do the same. 

Tim cook who's the CEO of apple currently is  known to have that empathetic leadership style. He  prioritizes the employee wellbeing, diversity inclusion. If you think about it, apple is the only company right now that has not  done mass layoffs. In this tech space in. And some of these big tech, the only company, which means they prioritized how apple was operating. 

Even during the hiring boom of 20 20, 21 22.  And then making sure that they are still. Investing in employee wellbeing. Because a company like apple didn't necessarily go overboard with hiding, they were careful, which means that there was a lot of thoughtful leadership in there. It resulted in not having to do layoffs. Then that focus also helped because now. 

People who are coming in, have more trust in the company. We all love the products, but having trust in your leaders in the company is important as well. Driving that culture of collaboration and innovation. Continues to make sure that apple is coming out with groundbreaking products and sustained success. 

Finally tech leaders need to  think strategic. Strategic thinking, analyzing problems,  identifying these opportunities and  making informed decisions. When we think more strategically, again, it goes into vision and adaptability. But understanding how different pieces contribute to a decision. 

Or what might happen in the future? This  helps too. Balance. What are the short-term goals and what is the long-term vision? How do we make sure that the implication of the choices we are making. Decision-making is ,  an important thing because. The higher up a tech leader is the bigger decision they have to make. I mean, that means the impact of the decision is bigger. 

When you put a lot of thought and strategic thinking into it, it results in good decisions that have a positive impact around you. 

Somebody who has  shown a lot of strategic thinking is Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia. 

Definitely played a pivotal role in positioning the company as a leader in AI and graphics processing. Nvidia was known for something. It was known for one thing, which was a lot of graphic processing units or GPU's. And.  The leadership of the CEO has  been characterized with a focus on innovation, strategic partnerships, and driving NVIDIA's growth. 

And it's core business. But with a eye on AI. If you think about it with all of the excitement around AI and everybody jumping into it, there is more and more need for fast processors. NVIDIAwe also moved into the space of autonomous. Systems as well and  expanding it to these various industries like gaming data centers, autonomous vehicles, it has  made sure that it continues to evolve. 

And stay strong. In this ever-changing technological landscape. A lot of that is to do with the leadership at the company. 

Then if we think about the current state of the tech industry and the current state of leadership in the tech world, What are we seeing? We are seeing a lot of shift in different leadership styles. Traditional hierarchical.  

The traditional hierarchical structures are  being replaced by more collaborative and agile approaches. Leaders,embracing a lot of diversity, fostering inclusion. They're  trying to empower their team. To be able to reach full potential. Of course remote work is becoming more prevalent, which means tech leaders must adapt and are adapting in managing and monitoring remote teams. 

Motivating remote teams. 

Lots is changing and this is not just changing in the tech world itself, even in some of the non-tech companies or more traditional companies. There are shifts happening. Because everybody realizes the power of a strong leadership. And how we keep up with modern times and modern leadership needs. 

Of course, you know, there, there are a lot of leaders who  have shown a lot of adaptability. Somebody like the CEO of Airbnb has  one, revolutionized the hospitality in hospitality industry. But also his vision for creating a global community. Of travelers, of host through this innovative platform and  disrupting traditional accommodations. 

But also his emphasis on the users, the user experience community. And his workplace, which. A lot of folks are free to work from anywhere. In the world.  That approach. To remote workplace. It's something that he's adopting and being very. Malleable around it. Now of course, different leaders choose different options for whatever needs. But the key is what is the flexibility that a leader can provide. 

Creating a win-win situation. Creating good business outcomes but also making sure that the people who help drive those business outcomes.  . 

Are being motivated and have their wellbeing thought about. 

I wanted to share a few tips on becoming a successful tech leader. Now, of course, everything I just said, all of those are tips as well. And, and, and. Ways that you can continue to hone your leadership skills. However these tips are more like, what can you do now? One, continue to learn. Stay updated on the latest technology advancements industry trends. 

Invest in yourself development. It can be through attending conferences. It can be through taking on technology and leadership courses. It can just be opportunities to connect with others and meet with people and  seek growth. A lot of leadership abilities do not come naturally to people or they  need to be honed and find tuned. 

Investing in your own self development. Will  help you to grow  help you to understand what is it that makes you the best version of yourself and how to leverage your strengths. So not just build new skills, but also leverage your existing skills. Your leverage your existing strengths and your innate powers to propel yourself forward. 

Foster innovation and encourage a culture of innovation. And creativity in your teams. Like I said, create a space for experimentation. Reward new ideas, motivate people and provide them the resources for doing this exploration on emerging technologies. Build relationships through your networking within the tech industry, but also outside. That is going to be  invaluable for you. Connect with your peers, mentors, industry experts, and exchange knowledge and experiences. What worked for you? What didn't work for you? What are you investing in? 

Develop your team management skills and people management skills. Mind you, I didn't talk about managers, or management yet. I was, I'm more focused on leaders because again, The leaders are, who drive innovation, who fostered growth. Management is a way or the how of leadership. Especially where your teams are concerned. 

Investing in enhancing your own people management skills. And then helping your team and helping them build out their leadership skills. Improving your own team management skills again.  Puts you in charge of what kind of leaders you create. What's the next generation of leaders that you are motivating. 

I understand the strengths and weaknesses of your teams, your organization provide constructive feedback, have an open growth mindset. And empower your team to take on more ownership. Because as a leader, you need to be able to scale. And the more leaders you build within your team, The easier it is for you to move on. 

To other things that require your attention. Make sure you're also investing in growing and building out leaders on in your organization, in your team. Empower them, give them, give them that ownership of a challenging problem. And they will take it on help them, you know, guide them, but let them do it and let them make mistakes, because that is  important for them. 

To also learn about themselves. If you have more trusted leaders on your team, your job is going to be so much easier. 

Finally. Embrace failure. A lot of this. Change that's happening is continuing to, you know, going through innovation and failure is a part of innovation.  It is going to happen sometime or another. Being able to take that risks is important. In order to cultivate that risk taking mentality in your team. 

Your team needs to know that it is okay to fail. You want the team to learn from those failures? Foster that safe environment. Individuals can share what they're learning. They can push themselves, they can challenge themselves. They are also. More comfortable pointing out what can happen, what can go, right? What can go wrong and expressing their views on it. 

Certainly becoming a strong leader in the tech world requires this unique blend of technical expertise, leadership skills, adaptability, and so on.  Look at the experiences, the achievements of all of these notable tech leaders. That I talked about and more. That can just help you gain valuable insights. 

I hope you embrace the challenges and opportunities that this tech world is presenting at the moment and also in the future and embark on this journey of continuous growth and development as a tech leader. Thank you for tuning in. I will see you in another episode.