Leadership mastery: how to integrate technology skills with people skills
“The real danger is not that computers start thinking like men, but that men start thinking like computers.”
Sydney J. Harris
Mastery of leadership in the digital age requires an integration of skills. Whether your dominant skill is technological aptitude or your dominant skill is dealing with people, the future requires all of us to integrate our skills to achieve leadership proficiency in the digital age.
If you’re a tech-savvy leader, you’re likely to be smart, capable, analytical, process-oriented, fast, and focused. These skills are highly valued in the workplace and now is the time to integrate technology skills with people management skills to improve overall leadership effectiveness and move your team and organization forward. The skills needed to be a masterful leader in these digital times include being tech-savvy AND being evolutionary.
In the past, people skills development has often been dismissed as too ‘sensitive’ or unimportant and in the last decade a higher value has been placed on technology skills. Since the global economic challenges of 2008, progressive organizations have seen the gap and have been investing in training and developing their leaders to now include highly developed leadership skills related to the ‘people’ side of the business. A talented and skilled workforce is an asset that companies now understand the value of and as such they now know they must have great leaders who inspire and develop internal talent or their good talent will leave and go elsewhere.
A few years ago I had a consulting contract with a high-tech company that was experiencing challenges retaining its Gen Y employees. Upon investigation it was discovered that Baby Boomer leaders were not adapting to the attitudes and styles of Gen Y’s job. At that company the Baby Boomer leaders had a superior attitude and demanded that all employees conform, the old style of ‘my way’. or the road’. As you can imagine, this didn’t go down very well with Gen Y employees and quite a few highly-skilled employees were leaving en masse.
As technology leaders get younger and younger, the challenges have shifted to having the leadership knowledge and understanding of human behavior to keep the team happy, functioning, and creating superior results.
The leaders of the Baby Boomers had a superior attitude and demanded that all employees adjust. As you can imagine, this was not well received by Gen Y employees and a good portion of them were leaving en masse.
There is a need in today’s modern workplace and in the workplace of the future for leaders who are adaptable, astute and able to mobilize people to perform at their highest levels, manage remote teams and teams. flexible working arrangements and be technologically savvy leaders. that they are more than good leaders; leaders who have mastery of leadership.
With so much focus on the technological aspects of the job, many leaders have either lost sight of good leadership tactics for change or have never been exposed to them.
In this chapter we want to see the difference between a technology-savvy leader and a people-savvy leader.
Let’s take a look at the table below to see examples of some of the main differences:
Expert technology leader
Analytical
Fast pace
computer centric
data centric
focused on the output
Impatient with people’s problems.
Communicate in technological language
Less aware of the emotions of others.
task focused
Focused Results
People-savvy leader
Sociable
open and curious
People Centered
Focused on what data does for people
It deals with people’s problems with understanding.
Very aware of the emotional states of others.
team-focused
As you read through the lists for each description of the tech-savvy leader and the people-savvy leader, you may have found yourself judging some of the items on the lists. Or you may have thought that you have a high level of each of the skills listed.
For example, I have a client who is an extremely people-focused CEO, however, she lacks the tech savvy, so she is people-savvy but not as strong with tech. As her consultant, I am working with her to develop both areas so that she can be more effective as a leader. When I refer to technological knowledge, I mean to have technological awareness and function, not to become a technological expert!
Leaders seeking to achieve dominance and who are more technologically savvy choose to spend the time needed to develop their personal skills in addition to the time spent continually developing their technological knowledge and awareness.
I was recently presenting for a major multinational tech group in Orlando Florida and when I present I give out my cell phone number so my audience can text me while I speak and ask me questions. This really works well because the questions are anonymous (unless they want to identify themselves) and I can answer them while reviewing the content of my presentation. One of the questions I was asked while talking about the need for technology professionals to improve the leadership side of their interpersonal skills was, “How do I get my team members to stop playing politics and focus on the worked?”
I texted the leader to ask if it was okay to openly post the question and address it as a benefit to the group. He said yes, so I answered a question: “Do you have regular team update meetings, either in person or on Skype?” the leader replied, ‘no,’ and then I asked, “do you openly share what’s going on with your team so they have the latest information firsthand?” and he replied, “no.”
People don’t leave their jobs, they leave their leaders, a harsh reality that you have probably experienced yourself as an employee and as a leader.
The reason I wanted this discussed with the whole group is because in this scenario the leader was solely focused on his tech savvy skills and he wasn’t employing any people savvy skills at all and there were many others similar to him in the audience. The person who texted the question had the courage to self-identify to the group and we discussed how he can get his team to stop politicking and focus on work. The ideas that came to him were:
#1- Organize a team meeting (virtual or in person) on a regular basis (weekly if possible) to discuss what the goals are for the next week, who is doing what and the latest news from your boss and the company.
#2 – Identify one or two people who are the ‘influencers’ of the politics and invite them over for coffee or lunch to talk about the company or set up a Skype one on one if they are remote workers, their satisfaction with their job and what they need to help them focus on getting the job done. Having the support of influencers is a great advantage.
When the audience member was given these ideas, he said out loud, “Gee, this managing people thing is a lot of work!” And therein lies the real challenge for most leaders!
Too many leaders get caught up in deadlines, technology upgrades, business outcomes and forget that to achieve any of these things successfully, you have to trust your people. People are not machines, they are human, emotional and need to be treated as valuable members of your team.
People don’t leave their jobs, they leave their leaders, a harsh reality you’ve probably experienced as both an employee and a leader.
As a leader, you need to ask yourself if you are willing to help people succeed, grow people, and ultimately focus the time and energy to be a great leader. As the workplace continues to accelerate and change, it is now more important to focus on both the technology and people sides of the business and this means knowing who you are as a leader and adapting to the realities of managing people.