Your leadership skills may fall flat in the tech world. Here's how to change that.
Executives: have you ever considered making a lateral move into tech? Of course you have. Who hasn’t? Let’s face it. Tech is the new movie industry. With celebrity CEOs to multi-billion dollar valuations, the entire world is captivated by the geek-chic glitz and glamour of the world of growth hacking and Google acquisitions.
Of course we want to work in tech.
We hear tech, and the fantasy begins. We think of companies that snub the status quo and want to change the world; an industry bursting at the seams with the brightest and most innovative minds. Oh, and we mustn’t forget the overnight multi-millionaires made possible from IPOs. Tech is sexy. Seductive. But you know what? It’s also a little strange. Understanding that strangeness and how to deal with it will stack the odds of success in your favor.
Behind the curtain lies a culture unlike any other, one created by a laser-focus on newness, history-making innovation, meteoric rises—and all the fame and fortune that goes along with them. Managers often have minimal—or meaningless—authority, while engineers are revered. Staff members’ career paths move with such speed and unpredictability that no one’s quite sure who’s going to be the boss and who’s going to be the subordinate next time, so it’s not a good idea to make waves, just in case.
If you think that, as an executive, you can take the management skills you learned in the mortgage or financial services industry and successfully parlay them in tech, well, let’s just say that thinking might produce a fatal error.
According to an article in Harvard Business Review, there are four major challenges on Planet Tech. In this disrupt or be disrupted world, your best chances for success come from knowing the antidotes and workarounds for each.
Read Harvard Business Review’s article “Leaders Need Different Skills to Thrive in Tech” by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield. It’s a good one.
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