You don’t need to know a single thing about data science, or microservices, or encryption, to lead an effective technical team that uses those tools; you just need to know how to create soup from a stone!
I hear all the time from CTOs and CEOs alike that they are mystified by some part of their technology. That’s normal, but it should be no bar to effective leadership. In a well-worn folk tale, hungry travellers start with a stone in a pot of boiling water, then ask others to add “a bit of flavour”: first a carrot, then an onion, then many other ingredients go in, and the result is a delicious soup. You can do the same by, say, starting a blank wiki page for onboarding new engineers, and requiring everyone, including new joiners, to add relevant steps to it as they use it. Or ask the developer leading a key project to give you frequent “back briefings”, explaining his or her near-term plans in non-technical terms and ensuring they match your goals and keep progress highly visible. Counterintuitively, you manage better when you shift work to your expert employees and act as the fulcrum of accountability.
This first appeared in my weekly Squirrel Squadron email, which goes out every Monday, and was originally posted on 7th June 2022. To get my provocative thoughts and tips direct to your inbox first, sign up here: https://squirrelsquadron.com/