As a senior HR leader in a complex firm, you know that retaining and evolving talented tech leaders has moved to the top of everyone’s list.
The work and workplace has moved (a lot) in 2021, and it will continue to evolve in 2022. Most of that shift has been driven by the need to deploy powerful digital strategies to unlock talent in the face of shifts in client expectations and the extraordinary demand for products and services.
This external shift is leading to a need to rapidly evolve internal teams to envision, design and deploy new internal organizational structures for people, processes and technologies. That last one is key – digitizing work in alignment with the client’s needs is Job Number One.
Said another way, the new competitive battlefield is how fast we can evolve not just our products and services, but how quickly we can align ourselves internally to be successful in this new paradigm.
Firms are asking for the clarity that senior technical architects bring to the table to be expressed not only in products and services, but also to the workings of the firm itself.
Technology leaders find themselves called on to lead the collaborative solutions team that is charged with moving from ideas to results.
Getting these results to the P&L requires pushing Ops, HR and Strategy teams to take a unique approach.
The Powerful Push to Evolve is Exposing Gaps
I’m getting an increasing number of calls to come alongside technical leaders who are being asked to ascend to new levels of influence. Many times these leaders are super successful in their lane, leading tech teams with skill and foresight. These leaders’ thoughtful approach to the challenges of the business and the related impacts seems to be natural when extended to the firm at large.
Here’s the thing – the work these leaders have completed to lead their team to functional excellence does not easily scale to full-on organizational influence.
Nearly every instinct that has made these technical leaders successful on their path to functional excellence begins to turn sideways as they are applied to the vertical and lateral leadership outside their core domain.
Sending them off to a week of high-end executive development workshops may fill their tool box, but it rarely provides fresh results in the needed skills gain that the team is looking for back in the workplace.
It’s Going to Take a Fresh Approach
Executive development is really challenging right now. We are working out the “how” and the “why” in real time. When paradigms are breaking, it’s very important to not press ahead with legacy systems and processes, but instead take a moment to re-establish a solid foundation.
The journey to install collaborative leadership skills with successful technical leaders starts with a fresh assessment, and then builds on their foundational strengths, while enabling them to see clearly how a full team can help them achieve the firm’s larger goals.
The first step is to understand that some of those skills that created success in their functional role will take them backwards in their new role of cross-functional influence. This inevitably calls for richer diagnosis and stronger support in being able to see and apply new tools that provide new clarity and forward momentum.
As a leader in talent development, you can be a huge part of helping your firm meet this challenge head on. You can provide resources that bring fresh insight and lead to better solutions – rather than off-the-shelf approach that promises results, but instead provides certificates of achievement.
Building on learning models from a variety of contexts, forward thinkers are stepping away from “check the box” models to more tailored approaches built on frameworks that allow leaders to take the right action through side-by-side teaching and coaching. Stepping through the phases of knowledge, mindset, skills and habits, we move from the overwhelmed and distracted world of daily leadership, helping them to quickly pattern match and choose the right next step.
By building a clear picture of the current context, we are able to release technical leaders’ best skills and help them to not only lead, but teach their groups in a way that multiplies their effort and provides ongoing returns for the firm.
How I Can Help
I have had the privilege to come alongside dozens of tech executives and growth teams as a right-hand strategic advisor. If you’d like to explore how you or your firm would benefit from an investment to move from strong ideas to helping leaders deliver strong results, please reach out via 847-651-1014 or use this link to set up a short call.
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