Why generalists make great tech leaders

Was Steve Jobs the best at writing code for the 1984 Macintosh?

No. It was his vision, leadership, team building, demanding excellence, and inspiring the team that revolutionized personal computing.

When I take on a strategic tech leadership position, I don’t come there to be the best at writing backend code or designing software architecture.

In fact, realizing I’m the most skilled in these areas shows that my team needs to develop significantly to reach high performance.

As the tech lead, I focus on business goals, aligning the tech strategy around them.

It’s much easier when I have people on the team who are better at the hands-on tasks than I am.

You don’t need the best engineer to be a tech lead. Instead, you need to be able to see the big picture, think strategically, and translate business requirements.

My job is to find the right goal; my team’s job is to find the right solution. If I’ve done a good job with them, I only need to paint the right targets.

P.S. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be technical— you need to hold your own. But being a generalist in this case is a plus.

P.P.S. What qualities do you think are the most important for tech leadership? How important are technical skills?

Yours,

Taj