Into the unknown: Anxieties of a Technology Leader

There is a common saying that has been echoed by many CEOs that “it is lonely at the top”. In an interview in 2016, five years after taking over as CEO from Steve Jobs, Tim Cook clarified that the problems that leaders face is not loneliness, but isolation.

Technology leaders experience this isolation in their roles as they go about their daily work.  All of them are extremely successful and got to this position because they were better than others, but do they still feel anxieties that they are isolated in their roles? 

There are common anxieties that I have witnessed working with technology leaders in my career both in technology companies and now as an executive and leadership coach. Many solutions and advises have been given to overcome these, however since technology itself changes rapidly, these anxieties get amplified, and the feeling continues to stay.

Into the unknown: Anxieties of a technology leader

A technology leader constantly faces these five anxieties or challenges. The first is dealing with increasing individual and team performance. Technology moves at such a rapid pace that it is difficult to keep up with evolving new concepts.

The second is with doing more with less – either with resources (people and budgets) or time to meet the company goals.

Most technology organizations have developed specializations over the years and the leader experiences the third anxiety of leveraging with other organizations as specializations are all over.

Often, either the organization, the investors or the board has a new vision, and the leader now needs to deal with a fourth anxiety of how to synchronize one’s execution with a new vision.

Finally, the technology world has grown global and technology teams take the job to where the talent is. This now means managing and leading global workforce, the fifth anxiety. 

“Into the unknown” is a popular song from Disney’s movie – Frozen 2. The following lines from the song resonate with all these anxieties and challenges that a tech leader faces as they climb the corporate ladder.

Every day’s a little harder
As I feel my power grow
Don’t you know there’s part of me
That longs to go

Getting Successful outcomes

I first came across the term thinking partner in a book by Marcia Reynolds. This was an ‘aha’ moment for me. Somewhere in my mid-career, I was fortunate to have an executive coach who was my thinking partner when similar anxieties and challenges started. 

A technology leader is the one who understands their organization and its behaviors the best. A ‘trusted advisor, executive coach and thinking partner’ works with the successful CEO – leader to make them even more successful. In his book, Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s #1 leadership coach talks about 20 habits that hold leaders back. 

A thinking partner helps engage in a productive dialog in a safe environment to remove anxieties and discuss these habits. The executive coach provides a confidential environment for thoughts and ideas and helps examine them. The trusted advisor discusses prizes (pros) for doing or not doing something, and punishment (cons) for doing or not doing something. This approach leads to successful outcomes.

The author Bikram Gupta Sarma is a Principal at IBTA GLOBAL. He pivoted from being a Technology Leader to an Advisor, Thinking partner and Executive Coach. He has over three and a half decades of experience, from building startups to mid-sized businesses to working in a large Fortune 100 company. He has held executive leadership positions in software engineering, product management and engineering operations working with customers across multiple disciplines. Bikram drove and managed platform and systems engineering at Oracle as Vice President for multiple products. He also worked in a General Management role of Global Operations leading teams in 6 countries across multiple business units. 

Recently, as technology continues to evolve, Bikram helped create cloud based systems and transform business models from traditional software licensing to recurring revenue subscriptions. He also managed engineering teams developing for embedded, Internet of Things (IoT) and Data Integration solutions.