The CTO Scrooge

Let’s exploit the fact that this weekly article goes out on Christmas for a light read. Did you allow yourself to become a grumpy tech leader? Without planning it, you’ve ended up in a position where you’re actually not really having fun? Let’s quickly see how it happens to many good people.

One of the first questions I ask leaders when we start a coaching engagement is whether they’re having fun. Yes, work is work, but life’s also too short to waste it doing something you hate just because you convinced yourself you had to do something.

Did you lose the spark?

Ghost of CTO Past

Do you remember how things were earlier? Many tech leaders started because they really enjoyed doing things themselves. Then they moved up, but maintained a connection with the product and the impact of their work. They always knew what the team was up to and could help everyone.

Do you recall how excited you were in those early days? Finishing a workday with the clear understanding of what you helped achieve? Your impact was tangible and immediate. The signal-to-noise ratio of your day, if you will, was high.

Those were the days, am I right?

Ghost of CTO Present

Contrast that with what’s happening today. How do you feel at the end of a typical day? If you’re like many CTOs who’ve gone adrift, you suddenly realize that your calendar is a smorgasbord of meetings, most of which you resent.

Your team needs you, but the need is a nagging one. You don’t feel good about your involvement, just exhausted. You rush from one meeting to the next. Many leaders are essentially running on momentum. They never set out to get to where they currently are, but like the frog in the pot, they realize too late that they drifted.

Ghost of CTO Yet to Come

What will happen if you continue on this trajectory? The tough choice is that you probably see many leaders around you who act the same, and so you know that it doesn’t guarantee failure. You can continue suffering all your way to success. That’s the reason you see so many embittered executives who no longer enjoy what they’re doing.

The best-case scenario, in my opinion, is burning out. At least that means you’ll change course eventually. Worse, you’ll just continue on this path for years, sucking everything good out of your career. You might succeed, but at the cost of wasting your life away.

The good news? It doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s how you can change course and find your way back:

Happy holidays!