As a technology leader you probably came to the job through your passion for coding, robotics, machine learning, physics, or just building things and seeing them work. That dedication and expertise led you to a leadership role.

And now you run a team, department, or even an entire organization.  

For most of your education and career you likely focused on honing your technological prowess.

But, because you were doing that, you may not have had time to become equally as expert in leading, managing, influencing and negotiating.

Yet, your role demands you do all of that and more. 

Of course, you’ve been improving at those dimensions of your work.

But the role of a technical leader is often viewed somewhat differently from other leadership roles. You may not be called upon for strategic input (although you have strong opinions about the strategy). Or, when the CEO or Head of Marketing requests your feedback, you’re not ready with an answer at that very moment. You'd rather consider and prepare before offering your thoughts.

And then, there's the issue of confidence.

The rest of the leadership team seem to be overflowing with it. But you sometimes wonder whether you even belong in such a senior role (no one else wonders this about you). 

It’s so different from the work you have done throughout most of your career. Even though everyone considers you to be an expert technologically, they may not consider your strategic insight to be as valuable; and honestly, maybe you’re not sure it is.

Deep down, you feel like a bit of an imposter when it comes to strategic thinking and executive leadership. It’s so much more natural to act as a subject matter expert rather than an actual driver of the organization. 

You recognize the gap between where you are and where you are committed to being.

You’re eager to bridge that gap, but you're not sure how. 

Plus, the practical issue of running a tech team is also daunting.

Building a strong, cohesive and unified team is critical. But even before the pandemic, your own team was likely remote, had people from foreign countries, languages, time zones, and even different employment statuses–some contractors, some employees, some part-timers. Different countries, languages, time zones, hemispheres, employers, culture! 

Each dimension of difference adds complexity to building a strong and cohesive team. 

Delivering –even over-delivering– on the organization's goals is your North Star.

But those often change and morph as different stakeholders exert their own influence.

Whether the sales team’s insisting on a new function to close a deal, an ever more ambitious product roadmap, investors who want the product scaled instantly, or the CEO who simply can’t understand why AWS costs are through the roof.

It's a lot! 

Your own wellbeing is also on the line.

The demands of a fast-paced start-up environment make it impossible to work fewer hours.

You want to regain control of your schedule, guard some more time for your fitness, family and hobbies.

But it seems impossible.

Yet you know that other tech leaders have found a way.

You want what they have!

 You have always valued and invested time in learning and growing. And while in the past it was a commitment to stay at the technological forefront that drove you, now it also includes being at the forefront as a leader, manager and strategic thinker.

But what are you supposed to do?

Go back to school for an MBA?

When? There aren’t enough hours in the day for that.