Working on my CTO Assessment (more on that below), I’ve been talking with many tech leaders. Having them go through it, many mention skills where they have large gaps, that they say are critical, yet haven’t really worked on. What do you expect to happen?
You must know by now that problems aren’t likely to spontaneously resolve themselves. And if, like a good leader, you’re actively working on getting your team to improve, your situation will only become worse. Because as they progress, you’ll be weighing them down like a rock. Don’t.
Quick Observation
Even for successful leaders, people who are experienced and know how to coach their people, there’s sometimes this dissonance. Just because they’re aware of an issue doesn’t mean they’ll make progress on it. Getting an insight once will not guarantee change. And their best of intentions don’t automatically translate into execution.
They expect their organizations to evolve while they themselves remain static.
The Cost of Your Stagnation
Many of the leaders I work with are great when it comes to having high expectations for their teams. They know how to formulate plans for the organization and drive towards them. They do performance reviews, and some even criticize their Peter Pans. But they completely miss out on what it means when they fail to work on themselves.
First of all, if you do a good job and your organization grows, you just might realize it has outgrown you. And, unfortunately, that realization is often first made by the CEO. The strong directors reporting to you also get frustrated when they feel like they maxed out the learning you can provide.
Instead, if it goes unnoticed, it usually leads to teams plateauing with you being their cap. You will be dragging them down. Your personal limits will become the organization’s constraints. Very rarely do we see a team outgrow its leader.
Why This Happens
Frankly, it doesn’t happen because leaders don’t care or think they’re perfect. Usually, when I inquire about this, it’s because they prioritize everything else as being more urgent. It’s selflessness that ends up boomeranging to hit them because by trying to focus on their team, they end up leaving it lacking.
There’s also a lack of structure here. Whereas people in tech organizations can get proper coaching from their engineering managers (e.g., by implementing the impact coaching framework), tech executives often report to a CEO who doesn’t have the bandwidth to devote to their growth. Everyone else gets one-on-ones for growth, except for the VPE running it all.
What Personal Growth Looks Like
First things first, this surely is a lot easier with a coach (ahem, my contact details are here). But you can make progress on your own with the proper setup.
Shift from passive awareness to active development. Being equipped with areas you need to improve at, choose a quarterly theme and intertwine it with your regular cadence (e.g., review it in your personal weekly reviews. You do have reviews, right?).
Quick note: If you’re not sure about those areas, I’m working on a free tech executive assessment as we speak and am interviewing leaders to gather more data points. If you’re interested in a free 15-minute assessment session, reach out.
Armed with your strategic growth theme, break it down into actionable steps and changes. Review those regularly and ensure that you make steady progress.
Come up with personal progress indicators to help you maintain motivation and ensure you’re not getting lost. Once a quarter is done and the indicators show you’ve made progress, pat yourself on the back and do some thinking to find the next quarter’s theme. Keep stacking up those personal upgrades, and you’ll be amazed by your progress in no time.