RELEVANT with JOSEF LANGERMAN - ACTING CTO - By Angela Shearer

Josef Langerman - Acting Group Chief Technology Officer

  As acting CTO with 1,000 people currently reporting into his structure, developing people and building networks is the primary focus for Josef. He says that his thoughts are often consumed with how to achieve Enterprise Business Agility in the organisation and the South African Industry at large.

 As a kid, Josef wanted to become an astronomer or philosopher, but he soon realised there was no money in it and pursued a different career path instead. 

 Regardless of what piques his interest at any given time, he says that he doesn’t stop learning. In fact, he recently discovered that a book club is actually a wine club.

  Josef is impressed by people selflessly serving others and one of the philosophies that he lives by is Amor Fati, which means, Embrace your fate. “Everything that happens to us, shapes us. Use what happens as a learning opportunity!”

 On the flip side, he is disappointed with people who just apply theory without taking context into account, but, that said, there is nothing he finds unforgivable.

 Josef believes that an organisation should encourage shared values by connecting its values to a bigger purpose. Two things that he feels he has not done enough of, is share his vision and celebrate the victories and successes. He says he is committed to working on this. 

  To support his focus on people development, he says, “We run guilds and coaching circles to help with personal and business evolution. As the world changes, so does the dynamic of how we do our work. People find themselves working in diverse teams, with diverse skills, where they must take direction from a variety of stakeholders.  We’re expected to use creative thinking, team problem solving, self-management and self-direction to manage our delivery and careers. This requires a shift in our belief systems and our overall approach to work and life. By using various coaching mechanisms, we enable the mental, emotional, intellectual and technical transformation that’s needed to generate a successful shift. We also give people access to practical learning and continually look for creative ways to support growth for the organization and the people who work with us.”

 Learning new skills is important, but it’s not the only thing that matters. Josef says, “When faced with equally qualified candidates, my final decision is always guided by the best attitude. A “can do” attitude wins hands down every time. I have seen more done by people who are motivated than by those that are only ‘clever.’ The level of education is not important, it’s ones learning agility that really counts.”

 He believes that the best way to upskill oneself is to work on projects. He says, “You probably have to understand the subject a bit, but then you have to apply it. Through the application, you learn the most. When it comes to professional growth and leadership, it’s important to develop a variety of attributes. Every age and every situation requires something different. Caesar was different to Augustus. Just as Bill Gates’ leadership style was different to Steve Balmer.”

 During the development of his own career, Josef was largely influenced by a one of his managers, Graham Bennet.

 “Graham was my first manager at South African Airways. He started off as an Airline Mechanic and worked his way up to become CIO of SAA. From him, I learned about hard work, humility and the power of being a genuinely good person.”

  As new generations enter the workforce and as new competitors emerge from unexpected sectors, the corporate climate inevitably goes through a global shift. Josef believes that the biggest transformation challenge facing leaders today is letting go of a command and control mind-set. One of the mistakes he sees other leaders making is that they are often too transactional, he says, “Building relationships is vital at a senior level.” 

 Another trait that he has seen derail leaders’ careers is being too detail orientated. Being very detail orientated is incredibly important early in your career. Subject Matter Expertise is what gets you promoted, but later in your career, when you start to manage diverse teams, you can’t be the expert anymore. Many leaders fall into the trap of trying to be the SME on everything and they end up neglecting a really important part of their job, which is building relationships.” 

 Josef keeps himself relevant as a leader by talking to people and seeing how they work. This is then augmented with reading. Advice that he would give to someone busy building their career is to not take the learnings from your previous role into the new one. He says, “If you really want to perform, you need to learn a new skill set and it’s normally very different to your previous one.”

 Not really being inspired by money, Josef gets his drive from the ability to affect change. He says, “It’s no fun for me just to keep the lights on. I have to make a tangible difference.”

 Just like the wolf, he can thrive in a pack, but also deeply values solitude. He calls himself a geek-nerd in high school and says that if he were a crayon he would probably be the orange one, “I am not by nature, a very energetic person. Orange will therefore be an aspirational colour.” 

  When asked about something that he is proud of, Josef says, “I’m not very sporty, but I once did a 3km dam swim without training. I almost died. The most challenging thing I did was go mountain climbing in the Drakensberg and got lost. A colossal thunderstorm added insult to injury. That was no fun at all.”

 In his free time, Josef is busy with a programming project that does Monte Carlo Analysis on investment. Just for something completely different, he also knows how to read ancient Greek.

    When asked to quote a meme, he said, “This too shall pass” – noting that this applies to both good and bad situations.”