Increasing future leadership options
Three small steps for increasing your future leadership options in the technology space.
1. Maintain breadth of knowledge.
You don’t need to deeply understand everything (you can’t possibly, anyway) but do deeply understand new things in your specific field or niche.
Broadly understand new things in the general tech space. Action: read Hacker News daily (https://news.ycombinator.com). Deep dive topics you find interesting.
2. Learn about crypto.
Crypto today is the Internet in the 80’s: most people are at the “Why would we need such a thing?” stage.
The fundamentals of this tech will completely change how we work in the very near future. Get ahead now. Action: familiarize yourself with the basics. Sign up for Coinbase (ref: https://www.coinbase.com/join/THLFPN) and learn how to buy and store ETH. Learn what a DAO is.
3. Engage with the front line.
I’ve seen plenty of managers try to distance themselves from their team members in a misguided effort to retain authority. You’re cutting yourself off from first-hand knowledge.
Building up strong relationships with the people you manage can lead to future opportunities. (I’ve been told by many people I’ve previously managed that they wish I was still their leader at their new jobs.)
Action: have an (informal, unscheduled!) chat with team members today. Find out what they’re most interested in at the moment outside of work.
If you’d like to learn bite-size leadership skills like these, you’ll love being able to read my new book first. Sign up for The Tech Leader Docs for early access: TechLeaderDocs.com.