The CTO Changemaker - Yes That’s You!

You are here because you want to grow as a leader.?

And maybe you have a team that you need to grow too.?

Are you technically expert at what you do but you want more, and you know that It’s not enough just to be good at what you do????

You now need to create the superpowers of communication, impact and influence in order to maximise your outcomes as a leader.?

You need to be able to talk business, not just tech.

You need to be able to communicate at all levels and be a positive influence in the business.?

You need to be able to bring your team on board and create outstanding performance.?

You need to be able to think strategically, not just down in the weeds of the expertise you have.?

And we already know that what got you here won’t get you there.?

All those years honing your technical expertise made you what you are now.? But it won’t take you to the next level.?

You need to take on new approaches, new techniques and understanding about your team, about you, and about how you fit into the organisation as a whole.?

The Growing Leaders in Business Newsletter focuses on these tools and techniques in a practical and informal way, so you can digest and implement bite sized pieces to upgrade your skills.?

The three essential areas for high performing leaders to master are to create confidence, collaboration and commitment in your teams, peers and investors, and to be able to engage, enable and excite them into coming with you on your journey.??

Each week we focus on different aspects to help you to create these superpowers.

This week we're looking at The CTO Changemaker.

Making changes is hard, isn’t it?

It’s bad enough if it’s a personal change like deciding not to have sugar in your team anymore.?

At first it seems outrageous - I mean, how can you tea ever be enjoyable again? It’’s something to be endured not enjoyed.?Many times you forget and automatically put in the first spoon.?Sometimes you might tip it away and start again but the temptation is to just drink it.?

The problem with that is, it is all too easy to slip back permanently into old habits.?BUT.?If you persist, the change you have made goes from - “my tea tastes disgusting”, to “it’s OK, I can deal with it”, and eventually - perhaps sooner than you think - to “oh my god, tea tastes foul with sugar in - how did I ever drink it like that?”.

And here’s the thing.?All change is like that.?Either things are tried, don;t work out and things go back to how they were.?Or they change and very soon people can’t even remember what they used to do or why.

Now, here’s the scary bit.

As the CTO - your primary role is that of change maker.?

We all know that IT changes at an ever increasing pace.?And your job as the CTO of your company is to keep your company at least abreast of changes, but preferably AHEAD of them.?

To compete in an ever more competitive world, you need to anticipate the changes, and how they will impact your company and your industry and get ahead of them, so that your business can thrive and not just survive.

But we just said - no-one likes change, do they??So how do you do that??How do you take a whole bunch of people (one is hard enough) who fundamentally don’t want to change anything in their lives, and make them not only accept the change, but preferably champion it.

You see you need change champions, or else that insidious - well I will just do it the old way this one time, becomes the norm and then the change fails.

If you are new into your role this might seem an even more intimidating task.?But it can be done successfully, with some simple tactics, and more importantly your own mindset.?

Your belief that you ARE the Changemaker and that the changes you are proposing are going to make life easier and more rewarding for everyone, is the essential element in this scenario.

Do you remember when WAP phones first launched in the late 90’s, and how they flopped? No-one could get their heads round what they could actually do (and in many cases the tech didn’t actually deliver despite the hype).?But mostly, people didn’t understand why you would want your phone to be more than just a phone.

It flopped - big style.?You see there was a missing piece.?Education.?

Not enough was done to show the people why they needed this tech and what the tech would do for them. There wasn’t enough buy in and so when the tech failed to live up to the hype, the whole thing just died.

When it was relaunched in 2003/2004 there was more take up, the market was ready.??

So it is vital, when introducing changes, that you understand the concerns and the desires of all your stakeholders and can communicate the benefits to each group effectively.

But what if you don’t have a lot of time for education? And what if you have never had to ‘sell’ a big change before?

Never fear! We can help. We cover this very important subject on our 12-week program - The Impact Accelerator.

Julie.?

Julie "Chief Impact Engineer" Hutchison

Email: [email protected]

P.S.?Whenever you are ready...here are 4 ways I can help you increase your impact as a leader:

1. Join The "Quiet Leaders Lab? Facebook Group and?connect with other leaders who want to grow

It's our Facebook community where those that are The Quiet Leaders can learn and share how to increase their impact, influence and outcomes –?Click here

2. Grab a free copy of my leadership impact report: The Team Performance Engine?

It’s the Road Map to your journey to increasing your impact as a leader -?Click here

3. Join our Leaders Launchpad??Mastermind Group Programme

This Mastermind is a selected group of like-minded leaders,?in an online community, focused on growing your results.??With training, group coaching calls, guest speakers and more, supporting?and challenging you to design?and implement real team performance in your business.

Send me a message or email [email protected] with "IMPLEMENT" in the subject line and we can discuss how you can join us

4. Work with me and my team privately

If you or your team just need a little more one to one attention to make change happen in your business... just message and put "PRIVATE"?in the subject line... tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!