You’re interested in Thought Leadership. How can you develop your technology skills?

You may have been a star coder during your developer days but it's possible that a lot of knowledge was forgotten and became obsolete with time. Do a very honest assessment of your current skill sets, make new learning goals, let go of past laurels and get started on the path to learn / re-learn. Also remember - your goal may not be to re-acquire the same lost knowledge. The goals should be relevant to the current world order and fit into your life goals at the same time.

In words of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Carl Wieman, Active learning will expedite the skill enhancement fast. Listening to lectures is not an effective way to gain and retain knowledge, practicing it, teaching it, explaining it, will help to gather the skills for longer runs!

Theory and practice, theory and practice. Of course it all starts with an unflinching look at where you fall short. Not everyone needs to be an expert technologist across the board. However I do think the intersection of biz and technology is where all the productive sparks fly, and it helps to make a commitment to some fluency on both sides. Once you prioritize what tech areas you need to be literate in, the training/knowledge is the easier part - but you want an ongoing rhythm of theory and hands-on.

To develop technology skills for thought leadership, focus on continuous learning and networking. Embrace online courses, attend tech conferences, and engage with communities on platforms like LinkedIn or GitHub. Stay updated with the latest trends by following industry leaders and participating in relevant discussions. Apply what you learn through projects or writing to solidify knowledge and demonstrate expertise. From a personal angle, remember that every expert was once a beginner. Your unique perspective and dedication to learning can make a significant impact in the tech community.

Firstly literature needs to be reviewed in detail for particular technology. Then various steps/milestones to be identified for developing technology.

To be able to be a Thought leader in a sector or functional domain, one needs to understand the basics (operational and financial parameters) of the sector / domain. It can only come from actual work experience coupled with continuous learning. However, most importantly, you need to know the art of message dissemination, the way you wanted to deliver. Hence, a superb level of thought process and the ability to articulate well is the key.

In my experience, you can provide your value add thought leadership only if you are willing to learn it first. You need to be a life long learner and seeker to be able to provide your guidance to your teams or followers. Few of the things I recommend: 1. Experiment and share your real time experiences. 2. Engage in online communities and discussions 3. Mentor, create online educational content like blogs or medium articles that could be shared. 4. Share failures and lessons learned.

Learning: anything is a process of simplifying it to its core and relating context elegantly. Sharing : Communicating learning is to transfer that simplicity gained to create a aha moment in the receiver and making it a shared learning. Doing: Just like the magician practices a 1000 times before enamoring an audience on stage with grace .. learning is to creating new value for the world.

Doing good deeds and sharing knowledge or helping others with what you can. Retribution comes naturally, but do it for others and not for yourself.

The only way to learn tech skills is by having spent many years in delivery. Credibility is the result of having tangible experience and learnings.

This was the motto for the 4-H program and I was blessed to learn a great deal (and still learning) about leadership. There are a lot of factors involved in being a good leader and when you do learn by doing, what you have learned can be passed on to the next generation.

It is a great asset to have peers as well as leadership that are willing to share constructive criticism. When you are are doing something wrong and no one sees it or if they see it but do nothing you will continue on that path and therefore not progress. It is a great asset to have the constructive feedback.

If you want to develop your technology skills, there is really just one right way—get hands-on in that technology until you understand the nuts and bolts of the underlying technical domain and can build solutions for real-life problems. I don't believe there can be any meaningful "thought leadership" in any area, let alone technology, without attaining adequate depth and first-hand field experience in that area, which simply can't come from just reading a few articles or attending a couple of webinars!

In my view, thought leadership is neither a title or something you assign to yourself. Having many years of experience is one of several things needed before anyone will look at you as a thought leader. Start by being authentic, gain experiences, be an independent thinker, and share your learnings.