5 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Your Technical Leaders

There is no doubt technology is growing in importance in every business – whether it is core to a company’s products, processes, its infrastructure or its customers. 

And to do technology well, you need to have the right people in place. 

But it doesn’t end there.

To keep those people (because let’s face it, they are hard to find) and ensure they are performing well, you need to invest in them, so they are learning and growing.

And when you are deciding how to invest in your technical teams, a good place to start is with the leader.

Here are 5 reasons why.

1. The Leader Has the Biggest Influence on the Team’s Performance

It’s the technical leader who drives the team’s culture and performance. What a leader does matters to employees. Their influence can impact whether their employees love their jobs or dread coming to work. As the saying goes, people don’t leave organizations, they leave their bosses.

Leaders who have top performing teams and individuals do things like inspire them to action, clearly communicate expectations, address conflict early, listen and care about their people, and empower them so they develop and grow.

No one is born a great leader – it takes time and effort. And investing in a technical leader will most certainly make a ripple effect difference in your company. You will see higher engagement, better performance and more efficiency which translates to higher retention, better products or services, and more met deadlines.

2. Breaking the Tyranny of the Urgent Leads to Results

I’ve never seen a company refuse to invest in leadership because of the cost. It is typically the time factor. The rapid pace of development cycles and time to market drives a crazy pace that often doesn’t leave time for development.

That busy cycle makes it difficult to grow leadership and break old habits - like failing to delegate because it seemingly takes too much time to train someone else to do the task.

In a study done by Jocelyn R. Davis and Tom Atkinson, they found high performing companies that “slowed down to speed up” significantly improved their top and bottom lines. They found companies that moved fast all the time didn’t foster collaboration and team alignment. The more successful companies had leaders who were “strategically fast” by taking time to do the right things rather than plowing ahead to meet objectives without taking time to learn, reflect and improve. This also applies to the development of a technical leader. Taking time to learn and grow leaderships skills and put them into action, leads to faster results in the long run.

3. Investing Early in Tech Leadership Accelerates Growth and Improvement

Let’s face it. At the current speed of growth in technology, the demand for technical leaders is greater than the supply. That makes it even more important to find your emerging tech leaders and invest in their development early.

I once had a seasoned leader say to me, “I wish I would have worked with you much earlier in my career. It would have made a big difference in how I led my people.”

The good news is that it’s never too late to invest in leadership as we all have room for improvement. However, it is especially important to focus on leadership development in the early stages to accelerate growth. Often that is when our tech leaders are most malleable. Learning key soft skills early helps avert bad habits and positively impacts others sooner rather than later. It’s not too different than the time value of money. Invest now and get the bigger bang for your buck long term.

4. Many Tech Leaders Admit People Skills Aren’t Their Strength

Those who go into the technical field do so because they love solving problems, they like to build things, or they have skills in math and science. Although there certainly are exceptions, generally engineers and developers don’t have as much interest in “soft skills” like communication, influencing, empathy and understanding what makes people tick. 

But being a good leader, technical or otherwise, requires great “soft skills.” So, investing in strengthening them is crucial. And doing it in a way that appeals to an engineering mind is most effective.

5. Investing in Tech Leaders Benefits Everyone

A critical part of my job when I ran an HR department was investing in the development of our leaders. Why? Because when you invest in your leaders, the entire company benefits. When we did that, we saw an increase in engagement company wide. 

Technical leaders don’t only impact their teams. They also impact their peers and the other teams they partner with or serve.  And in today’s world, technology teams touch nearly every aspect of a business.

When tech leaders are engaging their people, fostering collaboration, managing conflict, actively listening, communicating well and inspiring others with the big picture, everyone wins.

So, when deciding how to invest your time and money in your people to get the biggest return - invest in your technical leaders now. To learn how I can help your tech leaders accelerate their growth and development, click here to schedule a leadership strategy call with me.